[cloudmountain]

I wonder why Gregory didn’t do a little research before he set out on his business.

[TigersEye]

Didn’t listen to the video did you?

[The_Reader_David]

I wonder why Gregory didn’t do a little research before he set out on his business.

I suspect he did. From the article:

"Norris did his best to make sure he was in compliance with laws and regulations regarding his hobby."

The problem is regulations have become so far-reaching and senseless that there are crimes hiding in the unknown unknowns -- the one's you don't know you don't know -- particularly if one is in business.

We need a blanket good-faith exception (like LEOs get for illegal searches) for citizens who have in good faith sought to comply with all relevant laws and through the onerous extent of the law and regulation now applicable, somehow failed, and it needs to be broad enough that it does not require hiring a lawyer to meet.

What was a reasonable maxim, when laws were few in number and by and large all instantiated generally accepted moral principles, that "ignorance of the law is no excuse," needs to be reversed so that ignorance of the law is an excuse, at least until the laws can be stuffed back into their proper bounds of being few in number and instantiating generally accepted moral principles -- an event, which I'm afraid is at least two revolutions away. (The first revolution will almost certainly be stolen by statists and will make things worse.)

[Steve_Seattle]

"I wonder why Gregory didn’t do a little research before he set out on his business."

His name is George, and If you'd watched the video you would have learned that he DID do research and DID attempt to comply with the pertinent laws. If you are sympathetic to sending a 67 year-old man to prison for seventeen months because of some obscure, unintended violation of import laws pertaining to orchids, you are on the wrong website. This was literally a backyard, business, not some vast enterprise generating millions of dollars of revenue.

[Marie]

I promise you, you’ve broken the law at least once this year and had no idea.

[dware]

I wonder why Gregory didn’t do a little research before he set out on his business.

Says here in this old document written by a buncha rich white guys that I have the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As it happens, growing and selling orchids as a hobby happens to make this guy happy. This should be all the research needed.