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All the articles in this series may be found by entering “guns and liberty, 2023” into the SMM homepage search bar.

The first four articles in this series dealt with issues of philosophy, morality and theology. It is now time to delve into issues far less lofty and divine, issues fought in the muddy and fetid fever swamps of Washington D.C., which was, ironically, built on swampy ground. As we have already established the right to self-defense is a fundamental, unalienable right, a right not granted by government, a right which may not be lawfully infringed or taken away by government, it may seem odd to have to deal with politics in regard to that right, but such is the nature of man.

The Constitutional Convention
credit: frauncestavernmuseum.org

It is not widely known a substantial number of the Founding Fathers did not want a Bill of Rights.  Ultimately, they would not sign or assist in the ratification of the Constitution without a solemn understanding the Bill of Rights would follow in short order.  Unlike so many of our politicians today, these were honorable men; their word meant something. They were afraid future generations of politicians would claim rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights were the only rights of citizens.  As it turns out, they were prescient in this and much else.

Gun control has always been an issue fraught with political intrigue, and reasonably so, for an armed society is a free society.  No dictatorship can allow its subjects the freedom to keep and bear arms, as they will inevitably be driven to use them against the dictator and his—or her–-thugs. Dictators, in consolidating power and control over their populations, always deprive them of arms, commonly through the mass application of deadly force.  Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, all have followed this common pattern, as have all dictatorships before them.  Free men wisely look upon restrictions on firearm ownership and use with a jealous and wary eye, for history warns them of the dangers and depredations that inevitably follow.  Politicians seeking to disarm the law-abiding are not fit for office–-or a free society.

James Madison
Credit: wikipedia.org

James Madison, writing as “Publius” in the Federalist #46, clearly understood this political reality and the dark nature of human beings grasping for ultimate power over others:

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is not certain, that with this aid alone they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will and direct the national force, and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments, and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned in spite of the legions which surround it.

In Madison’s time, the militia were the people–-all men of military age–-who would band together when necessary, bringing their own weapons and other equipment, to overthrow a tyrannical government.

In our time, the self-imagined elite hope the people—the militia—won’t do that, which is why our meat puppet president warns the people can never prevail against the federal government because they have F-15s and nuclear weapons. He aids the Chinese and throws open our borders to invasion, but threatens to nuke and precision bomb Flyover Country Americans.  The Founders, from experience, were wary of standing armies.  Madison obviously recognized the individual ownership of arms as a powerful deterrent to would-be tyrants. Notice in Madison’s prose there is no mention of self-defense, hunting or sport shooting. The primary purpose of the Second Amendment is the deterrence of, and if necessary the abolishment of, tyranny in defense of individual liberty.

credit: owlsandorchids.com

The historical record is more than clear, as the Supreme Court justly observed in its Heller (2008) decision, followed by the McDonald (2010)  decision, which applied Heller to the states, and Bruen (2022), which made clear the Second Amendment affirms the right to be armed outside the home. Unfortunately, the Court had not clearly defined limitations on that right, through it say arms may be prohibited in “sensitive” places such as schools, government buildings and courts. As a result, some states and cities attempting to get around the Constitution have declared everywhere “sensitive.”

Contemporary would-be tyrants hate the Second Amendment, and never stop trying to destroy it, bit by bit. Hillary Clinton, in her failed presidential bid, actually ran on nullifying Heller, though she danced around such obvious language. Her daughter, Chelsea, assured Democrats/Socialists/Communists Hillary would work for gun control every day.  Armed citizens frighten would be despots, as well they should.

Barack Obama’s major 2013 anti-gun push was a spectacular failure. Most congressional democrats did not dare support him.  Circa 2021, this changed, particularly in the D/S/C controlled House, yet they achieved no real success.  New York, New Jersey, Illinois and similar blue jurisdictions have passed laws clearly unconstitutional under Bruen, knowing it will take years for them to be overturned. When they are, they’ll just play the game again, and their citizens will suffer. The BATF has recently released a “rule,” making millions of Americans owning AR-15 pattern handguns with stabilizing braces instant felons, classifying them as “short barreled rifles,” a ruling placing them in the same class as machine guns. Thus does the Biden Meat Puppet Administration avoid the hassle of trying to obtain legislation they can’t get through the Congress, violating the separation of powers. Thus do they violate the Constitution—again—still.

Tyrants rely on “the banality of evil,” a term coined in Hannah Arendt’s 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.  The book is based on the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann.  Arendt observed that Eichmann was not a deranged monster, no superhuman, but an ordinary, efficient bureaucrat that willingly accepted the mandates of the state, including murdering millions of innocents, including many fellow Germans.

But if a D/S/C government tried to seize privately owned arms, federal employees surely would not go along.  Anyone thinking that is sadly, tragically mistaken in ways that would lead to their deaths and the deaths of millions of law abiding Americans. Many federal agents, would not take up arms against their fellow Americans, but more than enough would. We see it every day. It’s human nature. They have mortgages to pay, families to support, pensions for their retirement years, some have tyrannical leanings, or merely want to be on what they think will be the winning side.  Human nature.   Madison and the other Founders understood this, and so must we.

Anyone wishing to learn how such a conflict would likely play out need only read Stephen Coonts’ Liberty’s Last Stand.   Or Kurt Schlichter’s six-book series about the division of America into red and blue nations.  One should begin with the first book, People’s Republic (this is a review of books 1-3). A review of books 4-6 in that series is here. 

Attempts to seize citizen’s guns would likely be the spark that ignites a second civil war.  There are very real and direct benefits in prestige, power, creature comforts, and domination over others for men and women willing to oppress, beat, torture and kill their fellow citizens. They eat steak and eggs, while those they oppress eat bugs. As long as they enjoy a monopoly on the means of applying force, they maintain those benefits, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In such tyrannies, once the line is crossed, there is no going back, for the state will gladly murder a formerly loyal agent that suddenly develops a conscience, and even that agent’s family, the better to “encourage” others.

One need not read history to know the truth of this. It’s happening in totalitarian countries around the world today, and our self-imaged elite are edging closer to it every day.

Mr. Obama, like a good narcissistic Socialist, was undaunted.  During his 2014 State of the Union speech, he swore to use his pen and phone to impose gun control measures, measures that he could not obtain constitutionally, through the legislative process in the Congress. In his final two months of dictatorial power, he used executive orders, just as his weaponized agencies used rule making to impose a blizzard of tyrannical, unconstitutional measures, and to illegally spy on, persecute and prosecute innocent Americans, including President Trump.  It was his administration that began openly enacting the socialist/communist trends that threaten to tear America apart today. Obama said:

I intend to keep trying, with or without Congress, to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans in our movie theaters, shopping malls, or schools like Sandy Hook.

Obama also said:

‘Citizenship means standing up for the lives that gun violence steals from us each day,’ he continued. ‘I have seen the courage of parents, students, pastors, and police officers all over this country who say ‘we are not afraid.’

None of the measures Mr. Obama tried to impose would have, in any way, stopped the crimes he cited, nor would they today.  Such laws only inconvenience and criminalize the law-abiding.  And of course, the fact that Mr. Obama–-the head of what, until the Biden Meat Puppet Administration, was the most lawless administration in history–-regularly bypassed the Constitution to work his will, was a matter of no small concern to normal Americans.

Mr. Obama worked to legalize millions of illegal immigrants, thus throwing open the border floodgates to millions more.  President Trump reestablished enforcement of immigration law, but Biden’s handlers threw open America’s borders to five million or more—currently a quarter million a month–largely unknown, illegals in a mere two years.  Among them are terrorists, Chinese spies, cartel thugs, and thousands upon thousands of criminals.

The necessity of keeping and bearing arms against a tide of criminals–-and I speak not of the honest man or woman merely seeking a better life for their family–-can’t be denied. The perverse, vindictive evil of Mr. Obama’s government, the current D/S/C government, the governments of blue state governors, and congressional D/S/Cs in trying to disarm Americans in the face of this threat, and the never-ending threats of actual terrorism and the domestic crime they have unleashed, likewise cannot be denied. Their enabling of vicious criminals, racists and anarchists while simultaneously crippling our police forces has made America a much more dangerous place.  Joe Biden has gladly furthered Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of America.

Circa 2023, the evil George Soros continues to bankroll prosecutors and politicians, going far beyond the damage of the Obama years, abolishing bail, releasing violent felons from prison and refusing to prosecute most crimes, including crimes of violence, even the most vile murders.  Crying “white supremacy” and “systemic racism,” D/S/Cs promise to establish a system of “social justice” where race and membership in politically favored victim groups/tribes determines prosecution, not law breaking.  No wonder gun purchase records continue to be set–-women and Black people, many D/S/Cs, are the fastest growing groups of new purchasers—and ammunition, while easier to find than a few years ago, continues to be in short supply.

That elected representatives should even think to propose laws so clearly unconstitutional, so counter to the very foundations of liberty, and should see their law-abiding countrymen as threats, should be alarming to all free men that wish to remain free.  I’ll not broach the subject of First Amendment threats here, but they are of a piece with attacks on the Second Amendment.  The Second Amendment, after all, protects and secures the rest, and all must be destroyed if tyranny is to succeed.

Before I go further, a brief political primer might be useful.  Generally, American Conservatives/Normal Americans/the non-self-imagined elite, are supportive of the Second Amendment and D/S/Cs are not.  I’ll use that acronym, as many Democrats no longer like to be associated with the term “Liberal” or even “Progressive.”  Too many Americans have come to associate those terms with actual Democrat policies and intentions.  Circa 2023, a Democrat Party dedicated to American constitutionalism no longer exists.  The goals and policies of the contemporary D/S/C Party have become virtually indistinguishable from Socialist, or even Marxist, orthodoxy. Democrat, Progressive, Statist, Socialist, Communist, all are slightly different shades of the American left, and virtually all despise firearms and their possession by free men.  Actually, they despise America and all Americans that honor the Constitution, some half of America. They refer to our system as “our democracy,” rather than what it is: a representative, constitutional republic. This is intentional, because our republican government prevents infringement on the rights of the individual, while “our democracy” ensures it by establishing a tyranny of the majority.

For those familiar with the general philosophies of the respective political movements, this is to be expected and is a natural consequence of those beliefs.  Few political differences more clearly delineate and illuminate the philosophies and intentions of Normal Americans and D/S/Cs than their respective views on the Second Amendment.  Keep in mind this primer is, of necessity, brief and a generalization painted with a rather broad brush.

H&K MP5SD

D/S/C Philosophy: D/S/Cs are fundamentally concerned with equality of outcome.  During a 2008 debate, Mr. Obama asserted that he would raise capital gains taxes even if doing so produced less tax revenue (as historically has been the case) because it would be “fair” to make ostensibly wealthier people pay more.  Contemporary, in-power D/S/Cs think no differently. A leader of the D/S/C Party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has advocated a 70% or higher tax rate on the “wealthy”–whoever they might be–because they’re not paying enough taxes, despite the fact that the fiscal top 1% of Americans pay 37% of all taxes, and the top 10%, in 2018, paid 71% of all taxes, and the top 1% paid 40%.Remember that some 46% of American households paid no federal income tax in 2018, and the same is true today.  Some D/S/Cs have actually suggested the seizure of 100% of the incomes of wealthy Americans.  For D/S/Cs, the definition of “rich” is quite flexible, and given free reign, they would dramatically raise taxes on people not remotely wealthy. Despite swearing not to raise taxes on Americans making less than $400,000 a year, President Biden has done just that, and not only because of rampant inflation. Go here for a classic Bill Whittle video on the lunacy of that kind of economic illiteracy.

All of this is perfectly predictable because it reflects the D/S/C preoccupation with equality of outcome (circa 2023, substitute “equity” for equality).  In other words, in the name of “equity,” everyone should have the same things: food, housing, medical care, conveniences, etc.  That not everyone is willing to work for these things matters not.  This deranged mindset allows unlimited and unpunished shoplifting, carjacking, looting and other kinds of thefts in blue cities and states. Perhaps the most commonly known aphorism relating to this concept is the Marxist “from each according to his abilities; to each according to his needs.”  As a general, superficial, statement of “fairness,” it seems almost reasonable.  However, like so much of D/S/C philosophy, it ignores the realities of human nature.  Notice too that “equity” is nebulous; it means nothing and everything, particularly the redistribution of wealth from those who aren’t actually wealthy to the undeserving and entitled.  It also has the very salutatory benefit of allowing its user to conceal his true intentions.  Who, after all, opposes “fairness?”

D/S/C philosophy by nature demands big government and absolute governmental power.  This flows from the fundamental D/S/C belief that man is perfectible, or at the very least can be forced to behave–-even think–-in approved ways.  Only morally and intellectually superior, self-imagined elite, scientific D/S/Cs are sufficiently evolved to keep everyone on the straight path of Socialism where utopia will be established, and perfect social justice will reign under their enlightened and benevolent rule.  Normal Americans are untrustworthy God and gun clingers, homophobic, racist, sexist, unconcerned about the environment and “social justice.”

 It falls to the scientific D/S/C to force their less evolved brethren to better themselves, shut up entirely, or mouth the right platitudes.  If only government becomes large enough, if only the right laws and regulations are written and enforced (and there will never be enough, for the process of perfection is never-ending and its perfectors, insatiable), if only the God and gun clingers can be disarmed so they have no choice but to obey, only then can man be perfected despite himself.

There is perhaps no better example than the various Covid mandates.  Government assumed powers nowhere to be found in the Constitution and law to absolutely rule the people, who are finally fighting back. Even Joe Biden admitted the pandemic is over, yet the government renews its emergency powers every three months.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

D/S/C policies and beliefs are non-falsifiable, they can never be wrong, for if a policy appears to fail, this means insufficient Socialism has been applied, not enough money has been spent (sound familiar?), normal Americans have been allowed to exist to oppose it (in a tyranny that has deprived peasants of arms, this is a lesser problem as they can more efficiently be oppressed or killed), or it has not had sufficient time to work its miracles of transformation.

It was Barack Obama in 2008 who repeatedly swore to “fundamentally transform” America; D/S/Cs since have never stopped trying.  Circa 2020, soon to be Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer swore if D/S/Cs took the Senate, they would not only transform America, but the World.  Congressional D/S/Cs not only impeached President Trump twice, once after he left office, they support the elimination of the First Amendment, and call for the ouster of Congressional Republicans that dare oppose them.  They too are promising “fundamental transformation.”  They seek to pack the Supreme Court, eliminate the Electoral College, and institutionalize vote fraud everywhere. Contemporary D/S/Cs have, for the most part, abandoned any attempt at normal, political stealth, and are aggressively announcing their true intentions.  In two years, Biden’s handlers—no one believes Biden is actually in charge or capable of discharging the duties of the presidency—have done enormous damage, not only to America, but to the world.

This is a gross violation of federal law; Gropin’s Joe’s idea of unity…

Any philosophy that demands big and ever-enlarging government must of necessity support high and ever-increasing taxes.  Taxes can never be high enough, and must be imposed based on “equity”–-whatever the elite choose to define as “fair” at the moment, which circa 2023 blatantly and unconstitutionally disfavors white and middle class Americans–-rather than a rational, constitutional scheme of necessity.  In practice, this means taxes will always be highest on those D/S/Cs disfavor, such as the wrong kind of wealthy and/or normal Americans that oppose them. Thus is the IRS about to field 87,000 new agents.  D/S/Cs are obsessed with class warfare. Pitting Americans against each other, reestablishing racial hatred and tribalism, is one of their primary tactics, hence their current obsession with race as they brand America systemically racist.

D/S/Cs are, at best, unsure of the existence of evil.  Good is faithful adherence to D/S/C doctrine and the goals of the state, but overt recognition of evil would require the admission that evil cannot be controlled by D/S/Cs, that they are not the ultimate power, hence evil must be understood as resistance to D/S/C purity.

Unsurprisingly, many D/S/Cs are irreligious at best, and generally hostile to any expression of faith. This is also commonly demonstrated in the writings of the Legacy Media, the D/S/C propaganda arm, which is irredeemably anti-American, no longer bothering to pretend to be unbiased.  D/S/Cs commonly depict people of faith as fools, dupes, or dangerous lunatics seeking to impose their religious superstitions on all.

D/S/Cs often reserve their greatest hatred and venom for those that oppose their policies.  This is in large part why Normal Americans trying earnestly to discuss policy with D/S/Cs often find themselves on the receiving end of violently angry and irrational verbal assaults and name calling, “racist” being a contemporary favorite, followed closely by “gun nut,” “nazi,” “murderer,” “climate/science denier,” “domestic terrorist,” “insurrectionist,” “white supremacist,” and other choice bits of lazy and unsupportable invective. This despite the demand for white supremacy and racism so outstrips the supply, D/S/Cs virtually exclusively have to make up racist incidents.

For Socialism to flourish, the state must always take primacy over the individual.  The state’s powers are absolute, and the people have no rights, only the privileges accorded them by current state policies and preferences.  Despite continual lip service to “equity,” “diversity, “fairness” and the welfare of “the people,” there is no rule of law under Socialism, no equal treatment under the law, only social justice where some animals are more equal than others.

Diversity is a euphemism for conformity, and so is “unity,” which the mummified Biden promised and has so obviously failed to deliver.  The state, which has no morality, no conscience, cares nothing for any individual, only the abstraction that is “the people,” and only to the degree that abstraction is politically useful at the moment.

As the 2020 and 2022 election cycles conclusively demonstrated, the minions of the legacy media are nothing more than D/S/C operatives with bylines. The media did everything it could to destroy Republican candidates and elevate D/S/C candidates, utterly abandoning any pretense of professional, unbiased journalism.

Kriss Super V .45 ACP Submachine Gun

This is why D/S/Cs absolutely oppose self-defense and the means to secure it. Recognizing the fundamental, unalienable right to keep and bear arms is a tacit admission the law-abiding individual is sovereign, and has supremacy over the state. A state forced to recognize the natural rights, and the rights of the individual under the rule of law, admits the individual and the rule of law are more powerful than the whims of the state. The admission that government derives its powers entirely from the people is toxic to despots. No tyrant can abide it.

D/S/Cs support collective rather than individual responsibility, and embrace victimhood.  If one is poor–-for instance–-it must be because they are black, female, an illegal immigrant, the education system has failed them, society has failed them and/or someone or something is oppressing them. This is particularly true of certain constituencies that slavishly support D/S/C policies in return for governmental largess.  Members of favored victim groups bear no individual responsibility for their behavior or circumstances, and all right-minded people are endangered by anyone that believes the Second Amendment means what it says and says what it means.  The greatest danger is, of course, the NRA.

D/S/Cs crave governmental power.  To that end, power can never be granted by “the people,” but comes from the will and intellectual and moral superiority of the self-imagined elite. D/S/Cs fear arms in the hands of the people, and always do whatever they can to disarm them.  Among the most severely punished crimes in Socialist societies—even Great Britain–-are those involving citizen possession or use of arms.  The possession of arms by citizens is an ever-present threat to the very existence of Socialism, and D/S/Cs never cease their efforts to achieve total citizen disarmament.  The D/S/C party has always been at the forefront of gun control efforts, particularly in support of segregation.  Gun control has its roots in the most evil expressions of racism. Historian Clayton Cramer’s essay “The Racist Roots of Gun Control,” should be required reading in every school in America.

Because they believe no right to self-defense exists, the means to exercise self-defense are illegitimate and must be taken from the law abiding. Ironically, D/S/Cs commonly hate and despise the Police, seeing them as stupid, racist brutes and oppressors who must be defunded or abolished, but recognize their social utility only when they keep D/S/Cs in power and/or keep their favored victim groups away from their homes and businesses.  Note their new-found love of the Capitol police as they seek to brand Normal Americans terrorists.  As I’ve noted in previous articles, the police—even in our representative republic—have no obligation to protect any individual.  In a Socialist state, the police are required to actively play favorites, which never includes the law-abiding.

Why would D/S/Cs favor criminals, even terrorists?  Why did they support and encourage the anarchists that burned cities run by their own kind during “the summer of love” of 2020?  Why do they continue to hamstring and persecute the police while enabling and coddling vicious criminals? It takes little effort to find thousands of contemporary examples of what rational people would find amazing, inexplicable affection for and support of the worst elements of society.  The politicians of New York State—and other states–-have done away with bail, unleashing criminals to prey on the law-abiding.  While some part of this may be nothing more than a perverse tendency to reflexively oppose the values of those they hate–-the normal American God and gun clingers of Flyover Country–-simply put, criminals and terrorists commonly share D/S/C views and goals.  They oppose individual liberty but support Socialism, because it gives them maximum freedom to work their wills, and accept the praise and support of D/S/Cs who tend to see them as oppressed victims of normal society, and/or anarchic forces useful in keeping Normals in a state of fearful chaos and so less likely to actively oppose D/S/C government.

Most importantly, criminals, who D/S/Cs virtually never try to disarm, overwhelmingly vote for the D/S/Cs that make their lives so very much easier, which is also why they seek to secure the vote for convicted felons in and out of prison.

Next week: the continuation of the political differences between D/S/Cs and Normal Americans and why they define the American gun debate. I hope to see you again next Tuesday.