Letter to the editor on gun-control, automobile laws, and compulsory psychological screening

463 North Ridge Avenue
Lombard, Illinois 60148
December 14, 1969

Editor
Chicago Daily News
401 North Wabash
Chicago, Illinois

Dear Sir

As long as people are permitted to have any freedoms or responsibilities, then (unless people are turned into [crossed out] by some form of [crossed out] there will be some individuals who will harm others by abusing these [crossed out]. Consequently, if we want to have any [crossed out] we must recognize that we will have to pay a certain price for it in terms of security. There seems to be a persistent willingness on the part of society to sacrifice little bits of liberty In exchange for little bits of security. These little bite, each seemingly Insignificant in itself, add up and up, and the end result will be an extremely secure society in which we will have been robbed of all but the trivial freedoms--in which the individual will have no substantial capacity for good or evil.

The stricter gun-control laws recommended by the U.S. Commission on Violence are a case in point. I would not be very upset about these recommendations if I thought the thing would stop there. But in fact I am sure that it will pot stop there. Next, perhaps, will be a series of increasingly strict regulations, some of which have already been proposed, regarding the use of automobiles. The same applies to any mechanical device with any capacity to do physical bars. Eventually, because of the tragic psychological harm that an unfit parent can do his children, all couples will be subjected to compulsory psychological screening before becoming parents. Those who are not approved will have their children raised by the state. And so it will go.

The point is that if we want to keep any of our freedom we will have to accept certain evils—-even some genuinely tragic ones.

Sincerely yours,

Theodore J. Kaczynski