Don't Tread On Me
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” U.S. Constitution, 2nd Amendment
I’ve been silent about this issue and a lot of you have asked me why? Well, I was simply waiting; waiting for a lot more information to surface…maybe see if anything new comes of the latest wave of intense anti-gun rhetoric.
While I waited, I read this and that, listened in on lots of conversations, caught some of the drivel from the talking heads, and just did my best to absorb as much information as possible. Not surprisingly, all I’ve heard are the same old tired arguments and talking points; the only real differences now are the volume and pitch, and we have a Constitution ignoring president that fancies himself a monarch of some sort.
So, where does that leave us? We’re in one hell of a predicament if you ask me. Did anyone expect Joe Biden and his team to do any more than pay lip service to the NRA and others on the opposite side of his viewpoint? They shook hands, sat down, smiled a bit, extended a very shallow air of politeness, and then gave the president a list of expected suggestions that they probably had written long before that dog and pony show ever began. The outcome of those meetings has been etched in stone for decades, and the goal could not be clearer. Just like King George III, and every other despot in history they want to control the people, and as long as We the People can defend ourselves, they cannot, so it is key for them to disarm us.
Recently, we all waited with bated breath for the president to lay out a 19 point plan to combat firearm ownership, and as we know, since he had his pen out anyway, he bumped it up to 23. He started that tirade with the following, easy to pick apart, opening statement:
”These are a few of the 23 executive actions that I'm announcing today, but as important as these steps are, they are in no way a substitute for action from members of Congress. To make a real and lasting difference, Congress too, must act, and Congress must act soon. And I'm calling on Congress to pass some very specific proposals right away. First, it's time for Congress to require a universal background check for anyone trying to buy a gun.” The obvious question to that and all of this nonsense is why? Has any of it ever stopped a bad guy?!
“The law already requires licensed gun dealers to run background checks, and over the last 14 years that's kept 1.5 million of the wrong people from getting their hands on a gun.” Where did this stat come from?
“But it's hard to enforce that law, when as many as 40 percent of all gun purchases are conducted without a background check. That's not safe. That's not smart. That's not fair to responsible gun buyers or sellers.” Again, where did that 40% stat come from? I had to undergo a background check to get a permit; why should I have to repeat that every time I choose to purchase something? Additionally, if as he stated just before this, that the law already requires back ground checks…why add more?
“If you want to buy a gun, whether it's from a licensed dealer, or a private seller, you should at least have to show you are not a felon or somebody legally prohibited from buying one. This is common sense. And an overwhelming majority of Americans agree with us on the need for universal background checks, including more than 70 percent of the National Rifle Association's members according to one survey. So there's no reason we can't do this.” Again, stats pulled out of his butt; I prove I’m not a felon by virtue of possessing a permit.
He went on, in a staged event reminiscent of Adolf Hitler, tugging at the heart strings of the ‘sheeple’ by surrounding himself with children that were enlisted and quoted from the letters they had supposedly written.
He discussed limits on magazine capacity and the favorite of the left, ‘assault rifles’ saying:
“Second, Congress should restore a ban on military-style assault weapons, and a 10 round limit for magazines.” Continuing, he said, “…Weapons designed for the theater of war have no place in a movie theater. A majority of Americans agree with us on this. And, finally, Congress needs to help, rather than hinder, law enforcement as it does its job. We should get tougher on people who buy guns with the expressed purpose of turning around and selling them to criminals…”
Excuse me?! I doubt there is a single instance of anyone legally purchasing a firearm of any description with the intention of selling them for profit to a criminal.
The diatribe went on and included such drivel as “This will be difficult. There will be pundits and politicians and special interest lobbyists publicly warning of a tyrannical all-out assault on liberty, not because that's true, but because they want to gin up fear or higher ratings or revenue for themselves.”
Really…”not because it’s true!” Does anyone with half a brain really not understand that the ultimate goal of he and his cronies on the left is to completely disarm the citizenry? And may I ask Mr. President; if your proposals are so good, why did you feel the need to grant yourself lifetime Secret Service Protection? I would dare say because you and your cronies know very well that ‘gun control’ laws don’t work, and that just the opposite is true. The better armed we all are, the safer we all are.
Before I discuss some of the scariest of his 23 Executive Orders, I find it amusing; if not down-right chilling that he made the following statement just before signing them:
“This is the land of the free, and it always will be. As Americans we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights that no man or government can take away from us…” This he said while doing everything he can to remove the one that guarantees the rest!
Now, for some of the highlights of his list and my thoughts on them:
1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
I.E., they want to know where every legal gun in the country is. Period.
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
Making it a central part of Obamacare and rates.
4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
The same AG Eric Holder that set up Fast and Furious which sent thousands of guns to Mexico to ‘prove’ a bogus point, and killed hundreds including at least two of our own agents….THAT Attorney General?!
5. Propose rule-making to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
So, we’d have to undergo background checks to have legally owned guns returned that were probably illegally seized?!
7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
That’s already in place, and every responsible gun owner practices long established safety rules.
8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
Why, so they can mandate even more bogus rules to drive up the cost and make them prohibitively expensive?!
9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
Isn’t this is already being done as a matter of normal police procedure?
11. Nominate an ATF director.
Translated: Let’s find someone that hates guns as much as I do and let him harass citizens.
14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
Does this mean he wants gun violence treated as a disease?
15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
Refer to point #4, and understand that this would also create more regulation and increase prices dramatically.
16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
This is egregious. It is none of any doctors business if anyone owns a gun or not.
17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
If he wants to destroy patient and client trust/privilege, why not extend this to attorneys as well?
Then, a few days later, immediately after re-taking his oath to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, both foreign and domestic,” he reiterated his destructive plans during his second inauguration speech, and we are now hearing rumors that he is asking top military people if they would fire on U.S. Citizens if it came to that.
I so want to believe that those rumors are baseless and false, and that they had nothing to do with the shooting in Newtown or anywhere else, however given the reality that this administration engineered, and was directly in charge of and responsible for Fast and Furious, the massacre in Benghazi, and who knows what else; I believe they are capable of anything, including the blatant murder of the citizenry. I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that our leaders are very afraid of the fact that the 2nd Amendment was put in place for just that reason; so that we could defend ourselves from a tyrannical government. I’ll also add that it seems all too convenient that the Newtown shooting occurred just after the election fueling this major agenda item of his administration.
For all of the rhetoric and bloviating, all of the proposals, closed door meetings, noise by the talking heads, and whatever, the bottom line is this; there are tens of thousands of restrictive laws designed against legal gun ownership. They vary in scope and size; some attack magazines, some barrel lengths, calibers, who can legally own this or that, where and how they may be carried, and a host of other nonsense. Even in the face of many schools being targeted because they are designated as ‘gun free’ zones, which while the spirit of that is all well and good; the reality is that all it accomplishes is it keeps them defenseless. The reality of any law is simple; whether it is anti-gun or speeding in a car, criminals don’t care about obeying laws. That’s why they are criminals.
Every one of the tens of thousands of Federal, State, and Local anti-gun laws have had only one effect; they keep law abiding citizens defenseless against those that would do them harm; be they criminals or a government gone wild.
Last weekend, there were ‘Guns Across America’ events held in capitals all around the country. While protecting our 2nd Amendment rights was a central theme, their purpose was to make a broad statement to our elected leaders on every level that We the People are not going to stand by and watch as our most sacred right, that of self-defense, is stripped away from us, only to be followed by the rest of our rights if that were to happen. I attended the event held in Brooksville, FL, but I imagine the scene was similar everywhere.
There were hand-made signs, Gadsden Flags and posters, and one might simply have thought these rallies were only about gun rights and speaking out against the recent tide of anti-gun sentiment and legislation. However, it was very apparent from the beginning talk that these events were about so much more. It was about Patriotic, Constitution and Freedom loving Americans from all walks of life and ages, men and women who understand the very real threats posed to our core freedoms and future, and who get it that they are in fact today’s Minutemen/Women; fighting anew that which our Founding Fathers risked their lives and families for, and shed their blood and gave up their fortunes for.
They know that without maintaining, unabridged, our precious 2nd Amendment, that critical glue that holds the rest of the Constitution together; the United States of America will quickly fall under certain tyranny. That is why our very wise founders made it the center piece of the Bill of Rights and a cornerstone of our Constitution in the first place.
Someone in that crowd asked the speakers, “What’s next, where do we go from here?” The big picture answer to that is that we must reiterate what our Spartan brothers of long ago said when they were told to lay down their arms and be spared; they replied “Molon Labe,” (pronounced ‘mow lawn la vey,’ which as many of us know by now, translates to “come and get them”) and those two words are fast becoming the rally call of freedom lovers across this great nation.
We need to look our children and loved ones in their faces, and stand together, en mass to draw a line in the sand and have our voices heard as never before. And just like the original Minutemen/Women, we must pledge our lives and fortunes, and never give up! The time is now!
To quote the famous close of Patrick Henry’s rallying speech, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”