I saw “Iron Man 2” recently, and I give it “two thumbs up” as a feel-good fantasy action adventure. Of course, you don’t go to a movie like that for realism. Lot’s of things in that movie were so unlikely that you had to “suspend disbelief” to enjoy the film. But sadly, the biggest disconnect with reality in the movie had little to do with the fantastical technology and a lot to do with the eroded condition of our freedoms.
In the film, Tony Stark went before a Senate Committee. A senator took the position that his Iron Man suit was a weapon too dangerous to be entrusted to individual citizens like Stark. The senator wanted him to turn over his Iron Man suit to the government.
“You can’t have it,” Stark told him. “It’s my personal property.”
The senator was not arguing that Stark had used the suit improperly. The senator was arguing that you could not have that much power out there unless it was in the hands of the government.
During the course of themovie, there was some fear that the government was going to try to take the suit from Stark. Instead, one of Stark’s friends, a military officer, stole a second Iron Man suit from Stark and took it to his general. In the movie, that ended the pressure from the government to take Stark’s original suit. They seemed content to let him have his as long as they got one, too.
When their efforts to use the technology go spectacularly wrong, Stark’s friend promises to return his suit to him. At film’s end, government concedes that it doesn’t always know best.
I found this to be the most unrealistic part of the movie.
In our current world, the views of the senator prevail.
Government does not trust us to even have a machine gun without their approval, muchless a suit with laser cannons in it.
Consider the case of Washington County resident Hollis Wayne Fincher. He was retired from the Navy and had a good record of service. In 60 years of living, he had no criminal record. A few years ago he made a machine gun and kept it within the state of Arkansas. It was not for sale. It was his personal property.
He wanted to test the constitutionality of the federal government’s restrictions on the ownership of machine guns. Since the federal government is allegedly bound by the 2nd Amendment from making laws against the possession of firearms, the Feds use their power to regulate interstate commerce as a backdoor justification for their restrictions on citizen ownership of firearms.
Fincher thought that he could win a case on constitutional grounds that the law would not apply to a machine gun made and kept in Arkansas.
He thought that where there was no interstate commerce involved, only the states couldregulate firearms, not the Feds.
That’s what he thought, but this was not a movie. This was real life with a government run by men who have long ago turned their backs on the views of the Founders. The judge in the case, Hendren, would not even permit Fincher to present his constitutional defense to the jury. The jury heard no defense, and therefore could only vote to convict. Fincher is rotting in jail to this day. He was guilty, guilty of thinking that the words of the Constitution still matter to today’s ruling class.
“Iron Man 2” was a nice feel-good movie. I wish we lived in an America where some parts of it were easier to believe.
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Mark Moore is the lead writer for an Internet blog on matters pertaining to Arkansas culture and government, Arkansas Watch, and on Tuesday nights is the host of an Internet-based radio program, Patriots on Watch. He can be reached through The Times at [email protected].
Opinion, Pages 4 on 06/09/2010