yeah.....well....go ahead and try it and then tell me how much it costs you.
Which was my point.
Asserting rights, which was the basis of my complaint, cost me several times what the pistol was worth.
It is not free.
Which is why they continue to do it and get away with it, and have been for a couple hundred years now..
Sure, what you say is true and is a reason this thing has perpetuated. It takes more than one average Joe to fight this - it takes enough people in a state to have the state itself prohibit this and any other unconstitutional state or federal behavior.
Too many people seem too acquiescent about government just taking away their liberties, like there’s nothing that can be done. On an individual basis, no, the normal guy can’t do much about the unjust incident you describe. But if enough people in a given state said, “Enough already!”, change would come.
This also is another strong argument against drug laws, at least federal drug laws, which gives them way too much intrusive power and oh BTW, are unconstitutional. People in a given state could choose to repeal state drug laws or tailor them to minimize these kinds of abuses.