| From: | David Blank <XRacer8654@***.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | No need for Spell Permits was Re: Spell Permits? |
| Date: | Fri, 2 Oct 1998 20:46:08 EDT |
"Actually, even today you preform CPR and even if the person lives because of
your actions, they can sue you and take you to court if you aren't properly
certified and liscensed.
Being a Good Samaritan can suck. Nice li'l twist ta throw into yer games."
True, but many states have Good Samaritan Laws that protect an individual from
being sued if a reasonable person would have acted the same way. In fact some
States are passing laws that require you to provide aid and assistance.
Back on topic, I really don't think there is a need for spell permits. Look at
the size of the population. 1 percent magically active. Of that maybe 10% have
the ability and desire to become true magicians. The rest are adepts of one
form or another or don't even realize they have the talent. So one person in a
1000 has the ability to cast major mojo.
Most of these are quickly snapped up by the Corps, the military, government,
organized crime, or the police themselves. They don't need to commit crimes
because they are a valuable resource. If they are committing crimes, then
either they are long gone before the cops can show up or they have bodyguards
who's are told not to come back without their charge.
Even then using magic for an illegal activity is going to be hard to prove in
many cases. As was pointed out, few beat cops are going to be magically
active. They will call for magical backup if the needed and the backup could
testify that they witness a perp using magic. Of course if you are still
casting magic by the time the back up shows then you deserve what you get.
They will no doubt throw the book at such an individual. But once again that
is using magic to commit a crime not having the magic.
In some cases people manifest strange spell like abilities when they first
start to become magically active. Also using magic to defend yourself will be
very hard to get a conviction on. "Sorry officer, I don't know what happen. He
said he was going to rape me and then cut my throat and then he just self
combusted."
If can see requiring registration and/or certification has being very
possible. Certainly if someone showed that he could cast a fireball, then
Lonestar would track him. Such a person may be forced to register (like having
a concealed gun permit). However requiring a permit for someone having a
Makeover spell wouldn't fly. Maybe you could require them to have a permit if
they used it on someone else, but why bother? You could require them to have
be registered if they used healing magic on someone. Burning Bright showed a
hospital refusing to allow a non-certified mage to magically heal a patent,
but I got the feeling that was more for insurance purposes than anything.
Someone suggested that society might try to red tape magicians to death as a
form of control. You know, "You don't have your permits so you can't work on
this town. Maybe you should go work for some nice corp", but magicians are so
rare I can't see that flying. Everyone is going to want to be able to bring in
their own magicians and to hire any that are available. England does have some
very restrictive laws on magicians, but mostly for foreign magicians. Any
place that was really bad would soon experience magical brain drain.
The very idea of spell permits makes it sound as if any punk on the corner
street could be tossing off a fireball.
