Editors note: I wrote this text weeks ago and had planned to post it on our homepage when we had a slow day but as we’ve kept a steady stream of fresh content on the site it remained on a Sticky on my desktop. However, with our being denied entry into Canada by the crossing guards of the Canada Border Services Agency, I thought it’d be worth sharing as it’s more timely.

I-91, VERMONT – Last Thursday as I sat in the passenger seat of a rented car being driven by my girl Allison Gibbs I thought about the arbitrariness of political boundaries. The reason was the Glock 27 I had on my person in an ankle holster as we drove from Keene, NH to Lancaster, NH for Porcfest.

In New Hampshire it legal to carry a firearm in the open without a permit, an act known as open carry. The same is true in Vermont and about a dozen other states (the best resource for info on this subject is OpenCarry.org) and when I find myself in one of those states I open carry, as a means of protection to myself and others around me but more importantly to communicate to others that we own ourselves and thus have the right to protect ourselves (when open carrying I’ve often asked “Are you a police officer?” to which I respond “No. Why do you ask?” which is often a great opening to a conversation about the fact that just because someone has a badge they don’t have more rights).

This concept may be new to some but it’s something I’ve done for a few years now, having lived in Virginia, another open carry state, prior to hitting the road with MHD (for more on this, check out the video “Cops, Cameras & Accountability in Arlington, VA” from earlier this year and the post “A Little Run-In with the Law” from a couple of years ago). For me and others I know that do open carry, we take seriously the responsibility that accompanies freedom and don’t rely on others, especially those who claim a monopoly on the use of force (i.e. the police), for protection. In fact, since we’ve been on the road it has only been those wearing badges that have violated my rights…

But firearms and self-defense is not the impetus for this post but rather the arbitrary nature of borders and therefore of governments. For example, I knew that I had the “right” to open carry in both NH and VT, yet that if we crossed another political boundary, such as into New York or Canada I would be acting “unlawful.” That if we traveled just a bit further north on I-91 into Canada I’d not only have the firearm stolen but I would almost certainly face stiff fines and be thrown in a cage.

Another example that underscores the arbitrariness of the man-made legislation associated with borders that nearly everyone is familiar with is speed limits. The fact that it may be “legal” for you to drive 70mph then cross an imaginary line and then all of a sudden you could be stopped and ticketed or even have your vehicle seized, for the same behavior is just that – arbitrary. Does it make sense that a group of people dressed in suits can decide what’s best for you? That their actions, even if they’re done “for your own good” almost without exception accomplish the exact opposite of their stated goal?

Ultimately it comes down to the difference between law and legislation. That is, natural law, which people across different cultures have agreed upon – that it’s wrong to initiate force – and man-made legislation. The former relies on reason and is commonly agreed upon while the latter is subjective and based on one-size-fits-all decisions made by bureaucrats and politicians. The former is understood by everyone while the latter requires years of intensive schooling, the development of an entire new vocabulary (legalese) and is not know to even those who create it.

And that’s the main reason I’m on the road with MHD – to communicate to people that they own themselves. That they are therefore free to act so long as they don’t initiate force or the threat of force against someone else. And, that more often than not, it is man-made legislation that cause many of the real harms and thus should be ignored, especially as much man-made legislation is immoral.