A ‘performance artist’ in New Hampshire is suing that state’s government because park rangers at Mount Monadnock are requiring him to get a $100 permit and a $2 million insurance policy in order to dress up as Sasquatch, scare hikers, then ask them questions on camera.  His argument is that the permit requirement is an infringement of his 1st Amendment rights, and he’s gotten the ACLU to agree and represent him.

I wish him luck, and I’d like to remind him that membership in the “Government Permit Required To Exercise Your Rights” club is cost free, and we have jackets and tee-shirts on the website.

Gun owners have dealt with this kind of thing for decades.  In most of the country, in order to exercise the “bear” part of “keep and bear”, you have to pay for a training course, a background check, and a license to do so.  In some parts of the country, you have to go through that to just exercise the “keep” part, which is even worse.  While things are getting better, a lot of the country is “may issue”, meaning that either someone who wants to carry a gun with them as they go through their day must prove to local authorities that they have a “need” to do so, or be politically connected to these authorities so that they can exercise their rights.

I guess now the government is telling this guy that he has to show a “need” to exercise his 1st Amendment rights.

So to the newest member of the “We get to exercise our rights when the government tells us we can” crowd, I say welcome.  We’re considering having a get together in one of the freer states sometime, where we will create art, make political speeches, walk around safely with our guns, hold tent revivals, and a bunch of other things the Bill of Rights tells the government to keep its nose out of, but are still regulated in some way.