The Ridiculous Nature of Statism

Statism leads to many ridiculous things. What other system would lead to the deployment of armed thugs and helicopters in response to a man carrying an umbrella:

A typical Tuesday morning for 42-year-old Michael Di Marzo quickly became a citywide multi-jurisdictional manhunt for him and what witnesses thought was a assault rifle in his hand.

Three schools were locked down and delayed as police scoured the area by ground and air, looking for a man described by a teenage tipster as wearing black clothes and a ski mask.

It wasn’t realized until hours later what was believed to be something along the lines of an AR-15 or AK-47 was more of a AU-15: a 15-inch compact “assault umbrella.”

The “ski mask” was a pulled-up black turtle neck sweater paired with a black watch cap.

I find this story to be an excellent example of statism. The state is currently acting like a rabid animal in its pursuit of gun owners. A simple report of a man carrying a rifle, without so much as an indication of violent behavior, lead to schools being locked down and armed thugs deployed to find and kidnap or murder the suspect. In effect a nonviolent situation was turned into a violent one without any evidence being presented.