Today a Drudge Report headline caught my eye: “DOJ raids Guitar Factory”. I followed the story, thinking I was going to read about a crackdown on some store-front operation near the Mexican border. Nope, not by a long shot. The first line of the WSJ article made my jaw drop, “Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday…” Gibson, really? They’re at the top of the heap of US guitar manufacturers. What in the world can this be about? I read on.
"The Fish and Wildlife Service alleges Gibson bought wood illegally harvested from protected forests." I knew guitar makers regularly used rosewood and ebony in manufacturing instruments. But heck, I didn’t even know ebony and rosewood grew in this country.
Rreading on. The Fed’s are talking about wood grown in Africa, South America and Asia. We’re spending tax dollars chasing down some pieces of wood to enforce a possible violation in another hemisphere? Geeze, these Fish and Wildlife guys must not have a lot on their plates.
Unfortunately, I continued to read and it got worse. According to the Feds’ present interpretation of law the burden isn’t only on a manufacturer like Gibson when importing. It’s on you and me too. OK, so what. I’m not an importer. No? Got a guitar? What’s the fingerboard made out of? There’s a good chance it’s ebony or rosewood. Again, so what?
Here’s what - if you take your guitar with you on a trip out of the country, when you return you will be required to sign paperwork certifying what you’re bringing back into the US. If you can’t document that your “endangered species” of wood (i.e. fretboard) was obtained from an approved source, or is grand-fathered in due to manufacture prior to regulations currently in force then you are a violator, the same as Gibson, and subject to fine and seizure.
You think government expansion is a good thing? That more services, more "protections", more regulations are good for us? Do you think as a people we are as free in 2011 as we were 10 years ago? 50 years ago? This Gibson thing is a small example, but perhaps an instructive one.
More government means less liberty. It really is that simple.
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