An open message to those who think it’s time to take the guns
Thursday, January 10th, 2013I am a woman of a certain age. I have silver hair. Wrinkles. I’m tired. I don’t like conflict. I have never been arrested nor committed an act of violence. I want to lead a peaceful life. I sincerely hope you get to live in peace, too.
I am also a gun owner. Some of the guns I own are ones you want to take away or limit my ability to possess or use. You want to do this despite the fact that I’ve never used them for any aggressive purpose — and don’t want to. You want to do it to other people I know, despite the fact that their guns are no threat to you or yours.
As a gunowner who hopes to live a long, peaceful, free life and be a valuable member of my community, I have this to say to you. I speak only for me.
But I am not alone.
—–
So you believe guns will go away after you’ve forbidden them? They will go away exactly as much as liquor did during the 1920s, as much as illegal drugs have. Welcome to Prohibition. And the drug war. And all the futile violence they spawned, times ten.
So you imagine your loved ones will be safer because you’ve made our loved ones subject to your whim? You are putting everyone at greater risk.
So you believe that only police and soldiers should have guns? So did millions of other people, who died at the hands of their paid “protectors.” Study the history of genocide.
So you’re a member of some elite class and you believe you and your privileged friends will always be protected by armed guards, police, or soldiers? Fine. Enjoy the history of the Praetorian Guard.
So you believe that regulations, transfer taxes, permissions, paperwork, and more power for the most abusive, inept, and racist federal agency can be used to squeeze the firearms out of honest hands even if there’s no outright ban? Then you don’t know millions of your fellow citizens. You don’t know us, but you aim to take from us.
So you believe that we should spend 10 years in prison — or 10 times 10 — merely for possessing objects that you fear and want to put under the National Firearms Act? Mere ownership. Of mere things. Tools. Or parts of tools, like magazines. You wish this hideous fate for us, your peaceable fellow citizens? Without knowing us, you despise us that much?
So you believe we are your enemy? We are that only if you declare war on us. Leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone. We and our firearms may even protect you from harm.
So you fear armed Americans so much that you’ll try to disarm us at any cost to us — the cost of our lives, the cost of our freedom? Okay, then. We’ll give you reason to fear.
So you believe that you can use executive power or backdoor chicanery to bypass restrictions on government authority? Fine. We’ll show you which force ultimately restricts government, once government has shaken off all other limits on its power.
So you believe we’ll turn our guns and our lives over to you just because you demand it? Molon labe. Come and take them.
So you believe that we — the ones you have already declared to be evil, violent, fanatical, ruthless, fringe-oid, and so very, very dangerous that we can’t be trusted around children — will meekly submit to your will? Molon labe.
So you think your police and soldiers will be willing to kick down our doors to get our unregistered, privately held, or banned guns and throw us into prison for decades merely for owning tools? You think your armed, violent agents will do this to us time and time and time again — in the false cause of preventing violence? You think hired guns will do this dirty work for you year after ruthless, fruitless, defiant year? Yes, given the mentality of hired guns, some will. Some. The chaos they create will ultimately be laid at your doorstep.
Molon labe. Come and take our guns — if you have the courage of your convictions.
January 10th, 2013
I’m with you, Claire!! I’ll say nothing more.
(BTW, Link to History of Genocide is not working).
January 10th, 2013
I am also with you 100%.
This is another link to the Genocide chart:
http://jpfo.org/pdf02/genocide-chart.pdf
January 10th, 2013
How many of their protectors already think like Sejanus?
January 10th, 2013
They take all the guns, most of which were registered thinking promises of not seizing would be kept. The less trusting had already removed themselves from society and gone underground or headed to states to live with like minded individuals.
Still, a nut case from a distinctive ethnic group decides to kill a large number of people from some other distinctive group. Illegal guns are used. Since they are banned and the lone gunman (again) died shortly after the atrociety, they can’t punish the gun owners, they are gone. So, the rulers go after the distinctive ethnic group the gunman was from. For their own safety, of course, they round them up, place them in interment camps. Resistance was futile and many were killed when they tried to resist…
Sound familiar? People truly want to repeat history, it is easier than making your own unique history. The ethnic group could be jews, or catholics, or protestants, Tea Partiers, Libertarians or former military, or the proffesional class, they have all been targets in the past.
January 10th, 2013
Excellent post Claire!
January 10th, 2013
Thanks Claire – I’ll second every single idea and emotion and thought in this.
January 10th, 2013
Right on!!!!!
January 10th, 2013
Molon Labe – attributed to King Leonidas 1 speaking to the Persian Army just prior to the battle of Thermopalye.
It is a great quote. Please remember though that the Persians were not held off by a nifty quote, but by 300 well armed and trained warriors holding a strategic pass. Ultimately; 1) the Persians took him up on his request and ultimately defeated the 300 and took their weapons. 2) He was betrayed by an insider 3) the 300 were not defending a civil right or a motto or slogan, they were ultimately defending their homes and families. 4) While the 300 were holding off the Persians in the pass, the Greeks were raising and readying their army to try and hold off the invading Persians. 5) Even though their cause was just and their hearts pure (maybe) they were still defeated by overwhelming numbers.
January 10th, 2013
“So you think your police and soldiers will be willing to kick down our doors to get our unregistered, privately held, or banned guns and throw us into prison for decades merely for owning tools?”
Police officers have already demonstrated their willingness to kick down our doors and shoot innocent people in order to get our unregistered, privately held, or banned drugs.
Why does anybody believe they’ll give up their authority and power to protect our rights? They’re not going to behave differently this time.
Hell, I don’t believe gun owners would protect our rights. If Hitler 2.0 or Stalin 2.0 said “I’m going to send some undesirables to camps and gulags, suspend elections, etc. But I won’t take away your guns. Except for the undesirables, your daily lives will go on as before”, most American gun owners would happily support Nazi Party 2.0 or Communist Party 2.0.
January 10th, 2013
“Why does anybody believe they’ll give up their authority and power to protect our rights? They’re not going to behave differently this time.”
Didn’t say they would behave differently. Some will refuse. A minority. Others are just hired guns, adrenaline junkies, control freaks; they’ll love the chance to kill us. Just said the bloodshed would be the fault of the gun banners and their armed agents, not us.
Sadly, I do agree with your observation about average American gun owners being willing to give the rest of us up.
But we don’t need majorities. http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-is-three-percenter.html
January 10th, 2013
“You think your armed, violent agents will do this to us time and time and time again…”
And how many of those agents will still be willing to kick down doors and violate people after their own bodies are carried away from the scene in ever increasing numbers…
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
Some things are worth dying for, absolutely. Those same things are worth living for. It will be up to us to make sure the aggressors do the dying as much as possible.
January 10th, 2013
Molon Labe … I am a disabled Veteran … Molon Labe … but I can still shoot well … Molon Labe … I was taught by my Grandfather … Molon Labe … he was one of the Flying Tigers … Molon Labe … he stood in my Father’s place …. Molon Labe … my Father was one of the 1st killed in Vietnam … Molon Labe … My Great Uncles fought in WW2 too … Molon Labe … my Great Grandfather’s fought in WW1 … Molon Labe …every generation of my family – all 14 going back to the Mayflower have served our country in conflict …. Molon Labe … we came to this country to be free of tyrants … Molon Labe … we buried Hitler, Tojo and watched the wall collapse …. Molon Labe
so, Washington, DC … Molon Labe … you think men & women forged in adversity, born into freedom, branded by birth with a hunger for liberty …Molon Labe … you think you can call US criminals and con us into giving up the means to protect ourselves from the very tyrannical form of government we have fought before?
Molon Labe Bitches
January 10th, 2013
Don’t forget to watch the State level governments. Once or before Obama indicates that he’ll sign something regarding guns, the States may take it as a sign to start confiscations, even if Obama doesn’t go THAT far.
January 10th, 2013
I know you don’t mess with F*c*book, but I started a new page yesterday based on your bad influence…
http://www.facebook.com/FreedomOutlaw
Hope you don’t mind and hope it’s OK to pass on your posts to that audience… just getting it started so not much of an audience yet.
January 10th, 2013
“Hell, I don’t believe gun owners would protect our rights. If Hitler 2.0 or Stalin 2.0 said “I’m going to send some undesirables to camps and gulags, suspend elections, etc. But I won’t take away your guns. Except for the undesirables, your daily lives will go on as before”, most American gun owners would happily support Nazi Party 2.0 or Communist Party 2.0.”
What does being a gun owner have to do with it? A gun is a tool, not a magic talisman that transforms human nature. Can, or would, everyone who owns a hammer and saw build you a cabinet? A lot of people who own guns for self-protection, maybe even most, aren’t really psychologically prepared to use them –or at least, to kill with them. Many are hoping just the presence of a gun will make using it unnecessary…and that is often the case. When it isn’t, such people find themselves in serious trouble.
Most people are not natural warriors. Some can be trained to fight, some can’t. But the reality is, most people are passive and are not going to even defend themselves, much less someone else. People will let a thug walk them into a back room or a walk-in freezer, then kneel down in a group, and wait for their turn to be shot in the back of the head. MOST people will do that. Very few will go down fighting.
A study by General SLA Marshall estimated that during WW2, only something like 25% of front-line soldiers aimed and fired their weapons to kill enemy soldiers during combat. Since that study the military has worked tirelessly to find training methods to get that number up to 100%. Most sane people have a natural inhibition to killing other human beings that has to be overcome through training.
I can’t tell from your remark if you’re a gun owner or not, but in any case, why would you expect gun owners as a group to protect YOUR rights? I’m not responsible for protecting YOUR rights. I have a gun to protect MY rights. If you want your rights protected take responsibility for yourself, buy a gun, and learn how to use it.
January 10th, 2013
Ragnar — Mind??? No way! I think it’s fantastic. I love your statement about the sort of zombies who really are coming after us.
January 10th, 2013
Great post! Thanks.
January 10th, 2013
Jake MacGregor, your words made me shed tears of fury…..that does not happen often.
I don’t have much of a family history in fighting, our family fled two continents in an effort to pursue life and liberty.
I think that this time, we will have to stand ready. We are preparing….
They say, “Think about the children, you selfish evil loonies!”….I say, “I am….I have children, and the one thing that you do not do is threaten my children.”
January 10th, 2013
I second everything Claire deClaires in the above. Well, not about being a silver-haired female, but the rest of it.
January 10th, 2013
The times they are a’changin’.
“On December 20, 2012, Buckeye Firearms Foundation announced the Armed Teacher Training Program. The original intent was to simply offer free firearm training to 24 teachers in order to show that teachers could be an effective deterrent to mass murder in schools. After three weeks, we have received well over 1,000 requests for this training.”
“Q: Will boards of education give their approval?
A: Some will. Some won’t. What might surprise you is that there are armed teachers in (Ohio) schools right now. And more and more are considering it every day. Many of our applicants have told us they already have permission.”
http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/story/135780323790a0c7je9q0
I read the gun-ban folks as desperate. Schools are the one major “gun-free” venue they have left. Once teachers are successfully carrying the major remaining limitation is federal government offices, and with what’s online they can largely be avoided.
January 10th, 2013
I too had ancestors that fought in the Revolution, the war between the states, The Spanish American war, WW1 and WW2. My dad was a “cold warrior” post Korea, and I will be damned if I just sit and watch while the Bolsheviks in the District of Criminals flushes that entire legacy down the drain. Because they are skeert of us.Eff them, and everone that lines up with them. I have called. I have written. I too am running out of options. So yeah, come and take them assholes. Better bring some friends.
January 10th, 2013
Thanks Claire… bet you didn’t know you are an “Interest” tag on FB… as you are your own interest keyword…
January 10th, 2013
“So you believe that we — the ones you have already declared to be evil, violent, fanatical, ruthless, fringe-oid, and so very, very dangerous that we can’t be trusted around children — will meekly submit to your will?”
Borrowing that!
January 10th, 2013
MamaL – we have to work on your history a bit. There is nothing out there worth dying for.
There are many things out there worth making the OTHER guy die for.
“The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other guy die for his.” ― George S. Patton Jr
Claire – if it’s going to be like Prohibition, and I’d agree it will – except worse – and even recognizing your hermity nature, want to go halvsies on a chain of “shooteasies?” In lieu of the good ol’ speakeasies, obviously…. ;-)
January 10th, 2013
Ragnar — Should I be horrified, nonplussed, impressed, stunned, or completely unimpressed?
LOL, until now, oblivious has served pretty well …
January 10th, 2013
Claire — There is something to seriously consider here. Remember the uses Bill Clinton made of the Oklahoma City bombing. Consider them the uses that Obama and his Chicago crew could make of shootings, etc of federal officials. It would not be too hard to provoke such an event, declare an emergency, beef up the federal security state, etc.
That the proposed gun control measures would simply create a new prohibition, and a black market, doesn’t matter to these people. Any opportunity to increase their power and that of the gov’t is what matters.
tim
January 10th, 2013
Ha Ha… I figured it would freak you out a bit, at least you’re a famous non-attention-seeking kinda wannabe hermit. ;-)
January 10th, 2013
Tim — I agree that could (and probably would) happen. Any degree of resistance will provoke its own peril and I wouldn’t be surprised at all by any number of false flags operations.
For the record, I hope nobody egregiously shoots any government officials or other gun banners — with the single exception of criminals who break into homes to steal firearms from peaceable people.
Even then I’d rather see the invaders … oh, trapped in vats of jello. Or reasoned with. Reasoned with would be nice …
Or how about not invading in the first place? Even better.
January 10th, 2013
I still don’t want to shoot the bastards…
but I would like to see them have to walk out of Capitol Hill…
barefoot across a million legos.
January 10th, 2013
Ragnar. Yeah. Like that. It would be so elegant and humane to avoid actual shooting if they come for us our our guns. I’m all for that.
January 10th, 2013
Hobbit —
“Claire – if it’s going to be like Prohibition, and I’d agree it will – except worse – and even recognizing your hermity nature, want to go halvsies on a chain of “shooteasies?” In lieu of the good ol’ speakeasies, obviously…. ;-)”
Do I get to be Texas Guinan? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Guinan
January 10th, 2013
We’d have to call it “Club .308,” but otherwise, sure, it’d work for me. ;-)
January 10th, 2013
Excellent, totally nailed all the points, Claire….I hope this is linked far and wide – and reaches masses of people…..
January 10th, 2013
This article was beautifully written.
January 10th, 2013
Hats Off to you , Claire!!
This post ranks at the top of my all-time favorites!
Having come here from one of the more restrictive countries (guns and a million other things) across the pond, I second every single word wholeheartedly!!
January 10th, 2013
There probably will not be any raids, or any overt action. Just increasing pressure to conform, then by denying services – banking, electricity, etc. – to any who cannot prove they don’t have a firearm. If you bought anything via mail order, or the internet, or any not-totally-anonymous means, there is a record. Buy ammo at Walmart? So you paid cash, but your face is on a video recording. There are photos of you walking to your car in the parking lot, with the final photo revealing your license plate as you drive off.
See
http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/01/letter-re-why-civilian-disarmament-in-the-us-is-just-a-statist-fantasy.html
That writer concludes:
“You see, there are countless ways that the government can make us ‘voluntarily’ give them up. The pressure will be overwhelming and, given how long they have been considering this, probably much more expeditious than I am making it sound.
In any case, the VERY LAST THING they will try will be the midnight raids. Everyone and anyone will be your enemy before that occurs. There will be no one individual to strike out against. The giant, gray miasma of society will be your enemy. Ignorance, lethargy, apathy. How do you fight that?
And government has all manner of resources, time, people, money, to address this problem.
My two main points are these: First, if the government has people who are even reasonably smart (they do) and they are earnest about solving the problem of identifying gun owners (they are) then the technology to do this should not elude them. Second, busting down doors is expensive, risky and provocative, and they will use all of the tricks at their disposal to avoid it. – Michael W.
January 10th, 2013
HOUSE BILL NO. HB0104, Firearm Protection Act.
1 AN ACT relating to firearms; providing that any federal law
2 which attempts to ban a semi-automatic firearm or to limit
3 the size of a magazine of a firearm or other limitation on
4 firearms in this state shall be unenforceable in Wyoming;
5 providing a penalty; and providing for an effective date.
http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2013/Introduced/HB0104.pdf
January 11th, 2013
Samuel Adams – I just heard about that earlier today…it’s not actual signed law yet, right?…
January 11th, 2013
And this just in for those who don’t already know:
As our overlords debate just how much they can take away from our gun rights, they just passed a new law giving Ex-Presidents and their wives ARMED Secret Service protection – FOR LIFE.
Hypocrisy – thy name is politician.
January 11th, 2013
Jacques…
Yes, this is the way the law was, before it was changed to NOT provide secret service… just a couple presidents ago.
I REALLY wanna make an observation about that, but these days I’m living with a heavy dose of “discretion is the better part of valor”. And I don’t like it one bit. We certainly didn’t start this mess… I don’t know how it’s going to end (except not well)… so I kinda want to stick around to do what I can later on.
January 11th, 2013
@naturegirl: Correct. I doubt it will pass, alas. Just the introduction is significant. It is getting national play, and not just in the pro-gun media.
January 11th, 2013
Lawhobbit – sometimes we don’t have any choice but to die, whether we fight or not. If we fight for what is right, it will be “worth” doing, even if we die in the attempt. Dying is, obviously, not the goal. :)
January 11th, 2013
“Even then I’d rather see the invaders … oh, trapped in vats of jello.”
Yeah, I suppose that could work, provided that the vat had a tight seal so they drowned. No sense in wasting a good bullet.
January 11th, 2013
MamaL, there’s ALWAYS a choice. Now, granted, you may have made a choice that puts you on the darned-sure track to death,* but even then you don’t have to believe it until it happens.
This cartoon comes to mind:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-20WO_LxFCSo/UFn5kAb7dkI/AAAAAAAAAGE/1_6ErgomYn0/s1600/never-give-up-frog.jpg
as does the intended-to-be-funny-but-still-true catchphrase from Galaxy Quest, “Never give up! Never surrender!”
*unless, you know, you’re an animated coyote chasing an animated road runner
January 11th, 2013
Great riff, Claire! And a heap of the comments are downright insightful.
January 12th, 2013
Claire…beautiful and eloquent words.
Yes, we surely do live in interesting times, though methinks we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
I must admit to a pessimism due to our “see something say something” society where most pine for security-false though it may be-rather than Liberty.
On the other hand, our revolutionary ancestors were a teeny-tiny minority that prevailed, though time has proven that mere ink on paper (the Constitution) is insufficient in maintenance of Liberty.
People, do not forget the peaceful power of resistance we can bring to bear as jurors…
When you get that notice for Trial or Grand Jury service, show up, act like you’re as dumb as a sack of cow-dung (the usual judge and prosecutor only want pliable rubber-stamps on juries) in order to be selected.
If the proceedings are over Prohibitionist sorts of “crimes”, vote not guilty and acquit or at the least hang that jury…
This assumes that our already watered-down right to trial by jury has been suspended/eliminated.
If such is the condition, time for the gloves to be removed has arrived…
January 12th, 2013
What she [Claire] said …
You go girl.
stay safe, [seriously]
gooch
January 13th, 2013
As a grandmother, I salute you. I’m tired, too.
January 15th, 2013
guns will be regulated just as easily as abortions are regulated. you can thank the religious right for that
January 15th, 2013
Spot on, Claire! As we’ve known for years the issue here isn’t guns rather it’s the cultural war against gun owners. We see it when the city-dwelling elitists call us “bubbas” or “rednecks”, despite most crime occurring by inner city (let me grab my decoder book here… Ah yes…) “youth”. We see it when people that think meat comes wrapped in styrofoam tell us that we’re “cowards” and that hunting meat with a rifle isn’t “sporting”. It’s not about the reality of gun violence, they know that and we know that. New York ALREADY has absurd gun control laws and yet they’re awash in violence. Same with Chicago and all of the other bastions of “inner city youth” across the nation.
Obama can’t have White Americans with high capacity magazines! What if a whole pack of “inner city youth” get killed by those high capacity magazines? Who will vote for him again? Who will operate the ACORN offices, or stand outside polling places with a night stick and intimidate (Sorry, “happy-fun-time”) potential voters?
The culture of self-reliance is what these people hate. They can’t imagine people taking care of themselves when they seek more and more government dependence. Their is no “solution” to gun control other than door to door confiscation and that’s what they’ll push for all the time. Each time they pass a new law we’re expected to “compromise”, then “compromise” some more. I’m DONE compromising! MOLON LABE!
January 15th, 2013
F*ck yeah. Awake the beast and get bit!
January 16th, 2013
Buck Ofama has riled up many. Many whom one would never think could become so angry.
Divisive racist fraud he is.
Will and when does the shooting start? One wonders. But with so many quiet types so angry…
So very angry…