By Michael R. Shannon
Formerly Virginia was for lovers, but now it's the "limit one-per-month, per customer" Commonwealth for guns and teeth.
The limitation on gun purchases was designed to stop the flow of guns from Virginia to New York. This concept was shaky in practice because studies show most guns sold on the street sell for less than list price.
So what would be the advantage of paying retail for your Ruger? To make any money the price in New York would have to be more than list price in Virginia, which wipes out any competitive advantage based on price.
Was there a market niche of NYC gangsters who wanted a valid receipt with their roscoe, so they could get their money back if it misfired?
Purchase enforcement of the ban depends on electronic records. A prospective buyer's name is checked using a database and if he's been 31-days without a purchase and he's conviction-free it's approved.
Isn't it strange how liberals have complete trust in electronic background checks when it comes to buying deadly firearms, but computer databases are too unreliable and dangerous when it comes to checking a prospective employee's background to see if he is in the country illegally?
I'm not in the gun market, but I've had dental problems lately, so the one-tooth-per-month, per customer limit on teeth pulling came as news.
It seems VOICE (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement) bussed a group to Richmond demanding "Dental Care Now."
Government is becoming ever more intrusive into our daily lives, but is some fiendish bureaucrat preventing these good people from brushing their teeth?
But no, government is the solution to this problem caused by an unfortunate combination of some Virginian's lack of interest in performing even rudimentary dental hygiene and taxpayer resistance to paying more so the aforementioned group won't suffer the consequences of their failure to floss.
For those of you unfamiliar with VOICE, this is a standard-issue liberal "social justice" "faith-based" group that does not have time for anti-abortion work - but takes no prisoners when it comes to the war on tooth decay.
According to VOICE, our local free clinic limits patients to pulling one tooth per month and that is an outrage.
Demanding dental care is strange issue. A toothache is not like a bolt of lightening that strikes without warning; although at times it may feel like it. It takes years of lousy dental hygiene to ruin a tooth, much less the number of teeth that causes you to bump up against the extraction limit.
Maybe all the major health issues were taken, so VOICE was reduced to agitating for "Dental Care Now" and "Podiatry Tomorrow!"
My first thought was don't raise taxes and in return I'll make a monthly drive by the PTRC bus barn - where the homeless hang out - and throw a tube of toothpaste into the woods.
Of course that's just like me: a cruel, heartless, conservative meanie who says, "Let them gum their gruel."
But I keep coming back to the old dentist's joke. A teenager visits the dentist and gets the dental hygiene lecture. He is told in no uncertain terms he must start brushing AND flossing his teeth. He whines, "Do I have to floss ALL my teeth?" The dentist answers, "No. Just the ones you want to keep."
I think the basic problem here isn't tooth decay; it's the decay of personal responsibility. None of the legislators ask the obvious question: what have you been doing instead of brushing your teeth since 1999?
Questions like that offend liberals by "disrespecting" the choices and decisions that have created a gap-toothed wasteland in the mouths of those demanding relief.
I'm all for relieving pain, but at the same time I want to know how the individual plans to change his life so he can assume responsibility for treating his own teeth. Somehow that is never part of the equation.
Looking to government to take care of the most elemental of personal responsibilities only serves to infantilize the recipient and remove any sense of personal initiative.
Case in point is Angela one of VOICE's human anecdotes. She's a homeless person with so many infected teeth she's up against the one-per-month limit. Angela knows there's a clinic in Winchester where it's tooth extraction nirvana, but taking advantage of that freebie requires she make a 100-mile round trip. Somehow Angela's teeth don't hurt that bad.
On the other hand, Angela did allow herself to be hauled to Richmond for the rally and news conference, a mere 180-mile roundtrip, but somebody else was driving...
Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. Audiences agree he's a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at michael-shannon@comcast.net.
Michael R. Shannon
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