I’ve been somewhat silent for the last couple of months, observing and pondering.
I have lurked online on a number of sites, and attended some recent gun shows. I have read and overheard everything from “a civil war is coming” to “how will things look after the next civil war”. The conversations have turned from people saying that talk like that is “tinfoil hat” stuff to how it will be handled. Some are even talking about how new leadership will be elected after.
There are plenty that don’t want to see something like this happen. I’d like to think that I’m one of those. A civil war, a war to restore the Bill of Rights to a respected place would be costly, deadly…on many fronts.
There are now conversations about boycotting manufacturers that will sell products to LE agencies and officers that are restricted to the general citizenry of those locations. A number of companies are refusing to sell anything to LE that an average citizen can’t buy, while others such as Armalite and PWS will continue to do so.
If you go to any sporting goods store or gun store, you find little – if any – ammunition on the shelf. You find no black rifles (AR-15’s and similar) on the shelves. Try to buy an FNH USA PS90 or FS-2000 – both of which are named specifically in the new AWB legislation being considered – and you can’t find them. The few that you see at gun shows, even used, go for $3000 to $4000, and I have seen them sell for those prices.
I listen to these discussions, and I think of what discussions took place in pubs, homes, and churches back in the later 1700’s. There are records that show debate of similar things – boycotts of enterprises loyal to King George, how to obtain powder and ball, how many people will die in the coming days, what will an American Nation be…
There is a tension in the air. Many people are thinking that since the majority in the last election voted themselves largesse from the public treasury, that perhaps the time of the ballot box is done – that since things seem lost there, we have only the other recourse left to us by those that framed this nation. Is it possible that things have strayed so far from honoring the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that we are at that point?
It’s a troubling idea – not in the least that one can ponder the question with good reason. That it is truly a valid question should trouble EVERY American. I walk back in my mind to those days in the 1700’s, where groups of men assembled to discuss these questions. Some of them were fervently in favor of a revolution. Some of them were most adamantly opposed and would never think to question their King. Many were thoughtfully contemplative. After hearing the discussion and reasoning of both sides, they came to a decision.
You can see it in the very document delivered to King George, where they made it clear that governments should not be changed for mere transient reasons. They wisely noted that while it was tolerable to suffer some injustices, the people were more disposed to do so.
But once things became intolerable, the people had the right and the duty to change them.
And so they did.
We are at the point where taxes are more than burdensome. We are at the point where many of the elected legislatures pass laws in the night, in the shadows, clearly without the assent of the people. Those are among the points made by those that once took up arms to take back their natural rights.
We have elected leaders that refuse to honor the Bill of Rights.
I’d like to be able to stand before our Congress and make these points, and ask that they all take a step back and observe how close they are to the corner that they are backing the people into. People are openly talking about revolution. When it has reached that point, and it’s not just a few on the fringes but many in the mainstream of American life, it is time for them to clearly see that the course they are on is one that has the possibility of resulting in another American revolution.
We know how the first one turned out.
Honor the Bill of Rights. Realize that in a truly free society, sometimes bad things will happen. Rather than trying to legislate away everthing (such as the society in the movie Demolition Man), permit freedom and liberty. If you back The People into a corner, enough of them will do what it takes to restore the Bill of Rights as an honored and un-infringed limit on our government.
Don’t back them into that corner. Please. But that means abandoming these legislative infringements. Turn away from this course before it’s too late. Don’t force what will surely follow if you do.