First let me say that I have owned guns most of my adult life. I’m not a gun nut or a fanatic with high-powered rifles and semiautomatic handguns, or a bunker under the house. I owned a shotgun for home protection and a pistol for personal protection because I worked in a rough area and had to make cash bank deposits.
I never had to use either gun but felt safer for knowing that I had them just in case of emergency. During my divorce my wife told sheriff’s deputies that she had no knowledge as to where my shotgun was, but quickly handed over my pistol to them. Yes, the police confiscated my firearms without any proven charges against me. Six months after the divorce I was able to go to the police department and reclaim my pistol. My ex was able to keep possession of her pistol the entire length of our divorce, because only men are violent.
The sheriff who returned my pistol was quite affable and friendly throughout the procedure. I guess he had seen his share of the angry having their guns removed by police power through court order without charge or conviction. But the important thing to remember here is that if they are coming to take your guns, they will take them; end of story.
The right, the far right, the NRA, white supremacists, neo-nazis, skin heads, the whole bunch cling to this macho fantasy of freedom-robbing politicians versus the patriotic Minute Men with the Chuck Heston’s quote ringing in their ears. "As we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those words again for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Gore: From my cold, dead hands!" The simple truth is, if that’s the way you want it, that’s the way they’ll give it to you.
This lunatic mentality believes that somehow the government is afraid of you because you own a pump shotgun and a revolver. Maybe you own a lot of guns and have them buried in a secret location, waiting for the uprising, but no matter how many guns you have they’ll always have more. The police and military are just like you. They like playing army on the weekend, too, and some recalcitrant gun nut just makes for good sport!
Little Powder Springs, where I once made my home, had one main street and used boys from the high school law enforcement club to direct traffic at car club meets and festivals on Marietta Street. But down at the city garage was a black, armored personnel carrier for use by the town's black-stocking-masked SWAT Team. Yes, a town averaging less than one murder a year needed an armored personnel carrier. The possibility of some gun nut holed up in his house with a personal arsenal justified the public expense. They feed on your paranoia and you feed on theirs.
Every time that there is some citizen movement, be it militia groups or border patrol groups, their leaders always end up in jail on charges real or fabricated. The famous cases of Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge and the Branch Dividians in Waco prove the Japanese proverb: the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. Their guns didn’t empower them, they condemned them. Their guns legitimized government murder; there will be no S.A. in the United States, not now, not ever. If you wish to start up a well-armed band of mercenaries you must work inside the government, like Eric Prince of Blackwater, Inc.
These efforts are expensive and there must be a way to defray the large costs and as long as the government knows that you are on their side there will always be plenty of work. All political movements must, first and foremost, have the sympathies of the public. The race riots of the 1960’s changed no minds; it was the dogs and firehoses of Birmingham and bombs in the churches by the white supremacists that changed minds. The police riot in Chicago in 1968 made middle America question what was going on in Vietnam. To see riots in the street outside of the Democratic National Convention with the mayor of Chicago screaming obscenities inside the convention totally undermined the American body politic.
The Kent State massacre in 1970, where National Guardsmen fired into a crowd sixty-seven times in thirteen seconds killing four and wounding nine, changed the mood of the nation. But what if one shot had been returned by the crowd? What if one national guardsman had been so much as grazed? Then any and all government actions become appropriate.
Our economy is shedding over half a million workers a month; for most the unemployment check will not keep their heads above water. Unemployment checks will not be forwarded when they lose their homes to foreclosure. They must reapply, that is, if they still have a verifiable new address. The children must find new schools, that is if, like their parents, they have a verifiable address. The parents must maintain their children’s immunization records and how can parents without income or address do so? Schools will be obligated to turn children away from their doors, mandated by government regulations.
We have lost four million jobs in the first five months by government statistics, which no one believes are accurate. We are on track for another three million home foreclosures this year, and more ominously, retail sales in groceries stores are beginning to fall. This is a clear sign that dark days are upon us. It is a statistic that cannot be spun or manipulated; the American people are running out of money to buy food.
That is why it is important to remember that your gun will not save you; it can only paint a target on your back. Your mere presence, in place of firearms, can change the world far more than a band of armed vigilantes. More than ever before our industries and services depend on "on demand inventory." A day or two of blocked highways or deliveries will bring the economy to its knees. A few thousand protesters blocking key highways in half a dozen major cities holds more power than an armed division.
That would be a peaceful and non-violent demand for redress of grievances. The government would respond with national guardsman and mass jailings, but to the millions of unemployed out there I ask, what else better do you have to do? As I’ve said before, this isn’t your father’s recession; this is the permanent deindustrialization of America. Your jobs are not coming back unless you make it clear to the powers that be that you are willing to put your body on the line.
Yesterday President Obama again maintained that that the federal government wouldn’t try to micro-manage the new GM. "We won’t try to tell them where or when to open their factories." Got that? They’re going to China and you and I are going to hell; we can go alone or we can take them with us. But guns? Sell your guns and buy your family food; the food will make you stronger and your guns will make you weaker.
As for me, I gave my pistol away. I have no more need of it; I have no home or property to protect anymore. In the words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn:
"Blow the dust off the clock. Your watches are behind the times. Throw open the heavy curtains which are so dear to you -- you do not even suspect that the day has already dawned outside."
