September 10, 2004

This weekend, while attending a freedom-oriented event over in the next state, I watched as a dozen people went through a handgun training course and other folks were out shooting some vicious cans and evil pieces of paper for fun, and a thought flitted through my head. [Since this is (according to many people) a rare event (the thought, that is), I grabbed it, hid it away, and have been chewing on it for a while.] Why, I asked myself, do almost all the freedom-related activities my family and I go to (or want to go to) seem to have this fixation with firearms? We don't HAVE to go out and make loud noises and little holes when we get together to talk about living free and regaining liberty, do we? Am I just hanging around with a bunch of foolish gun-nut types, using all this talk about freedom just because they have this thing for guns?

Think about it - yeah, sometimes there ARE liberty-related events (like the Freedom Hog Roast outside Sioux Falls this summer) that don't have a shooting range, or a weapons training class, or a gun-show component. But even at those, you'll see folks from Second Amendment Sisters, or Gun Owners of America, or JPFO or some other gun group. And most events go a lot farther than that: ranges, test firing, ammo reloading, a little trading here and there, and such. Guns and liberty are curiously entwined in our minds and habits. Why?

The answer came via the Liberty Round Table, when two knights had this message traffic (in part):

---Hunter wrote:
A lot of them [American people] are awake. They just are too scared, and the information
control has been successful enough that they are distrustful of people like you n' me at first glance. And a lot of them are hoping that somebody else will just hand them a nice, easy answer to the whole problem.

--- Ragnar replied:
And, the only way for someone to "hand them a nice, easy answer to the whole problem" is for them to stop by at the shooting range where I am sure just about anyone there would be happy to hand them the answer and help them understand how to use it.

Yeah! That is it. A few years ago, Clair Wolfe wrote the book "Don't Shoot the B******* (Yet)", but that was a long time and a good many events in the past. I fear the time has come. In our much-ballyhooed "war against terrorism" the United States has instead created a situation where the United States is instead creating thousands (if not millions) of "terrorists" (their definition, not mine) who, consciously or subconsciously have come to the decision that, sooner or later, the issues will have to be settled by force. Although he didn't mean it in this way, Lincoln said it clearly: "I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free." Abraham Lincoln made this statement during his 'House Divided Speech,' referring to the existence of racial slavery, but it is true nonetheless today. If this goes on...

There are terrorists out there, too. There are people who hate us, hate our wealth (no matter how poor an American is, to 90% of the world, we are nearly unimaginably wealthy), hate our religions, our entertainments, our opportunities. They will, for whatever reason, kill us: they won't ask if we voted libertarian or GOP or CPUSA; they won't ask if we support American foreign policy; they'll kill us and as many people as they can, whether it is with a truck filled with ANFO or a plane filled with kids or a few grams of germs. And that doesn't count the people in this country who will kidnap and rape and kill a preteen, or strangle an old crippled widow for a pension check, or stake out a guy on a fence for a "joke." If this goes on...

While our politicians talk about the value and need for liberty and freedom worldwide, they seem to spend every waking hour taking more of both away from us. They appear to be sincere in their claims of love for liberty and desire to free the oppressed - but just as sincere in their efforts to take away the very freedoms they praise. They wish to extend the nanny-rule of government to every minute (waking or sleeping) of every day of every person - a tyranny no ancient emperor or king dreamed of. They do not see, or at least do not admit to, any conflict between these views. They are crazy. That scares me and I think it scares a lot of us, including those who are otherwise defending these people. And it should. It is, indeed, to the layman, a kind of sickness for which there is no cure - only a crying need to protect yourself and your loved ones from it. If this goes on...

What is this leading up to?

It is natural, and godly, to want to protect our family, our loved ones, our friends, yes, and ourselves. People will take whatever actions are necessary - those who are wise will look ahead, prepare and plan. When the criminals rule the streets and roads, it is time to be prepared. When the crazy people are running the place, it is time to be ready. When it is clear that reason will no longer work, whether it is a rabid dog, a bloodthirsty mugger, or a madman, you can't decide to go get something to hold them off with - you may not even have a choice over how to stop them - it may be necessary, however regretfully, to kill them. And for people, most people, that requires a tool.

We cannot, in this September of Anno Domini 2004 and Anno Libertatus 228, address freedom and liberty without constantly having the primary tool of liberty and freedom on our minds. That tool, of course, is the firearm. The individual firearm. Not crew-served weapons (cannon, machine guns, laser-zap-geewhiz thingies, panzers, ships-of-war, etc.), but a man or woman with cold iron in their fist or in their hands. And the greater the danger to us, the greater the restriction of our freedom, the greater the need to see, to touch, to grow comfortable with those tools, to talk about them, work on them, learn about them.

Our "lords and masters" are right to fear such measures as concealed carry laws, open-carry laws and anything which makes it easier to obtain, keep AND bear firearms, especially in a time when freedom is threatened around the world, and in every state, for the natural result of such threats is to reach for the comfort of a device, a tool, which you control yourself. When you see the wolf on the trail, the bear in the trash can, the mugger in the bushes, the mob in the commons, the cop in black, the goon squad in the limos, you reach around and touch the weapon on your belt, on your shoulder, in your boot, then you watch and pray and wait - hoping you won't have to use it, expecting that you will, and choosing your time to do so carefully. That is where we, and a million people in this country, are at, even though we don't always realize it.

It is not irrational to focus on guns at events concerned with liberty and politics. It is not being a "gun nut" to practice "tap-tug" and changing magazines, and debate the qualities of handloads and headshots and center-of-mass. Indeed, the refusal to do so is the irrational thing - akin to the ostrich's head in the sand. There is an old spiritual, "Sinnerman."

So the next time you or a friend are accused of being a gun nut, of being obsessed with firearms, of being paranoid; just smile, and tell them (assuming that they are a friend, relative, or neighbor), that you hope that they become one too, and soon enough. If they ask you "why" you say, "soon enough." Ask them if they know the parable of the ten virgins, from Matthew 25:1-13. In the story Jesus told, the ten virgins were waiting for the bridegroom to come. It was night, and they all had lamps with oil in them, burning brightly. They waited and waited, but still the wedding party did not come. Finally, they fell asleep. Then someone called out, "Here they are! Come out and meet the bridegroom!" As the girls got up, some of the lamps started going out - they were out of oil. Five of the girls had prepared for this; they had wiselybrought along extra oil to add to their lamps. Five others, more foolish, had no more oil. They tried to borrow from the others, but the wise virgins refused regretfully, fearing there would not be enough. So the foolish girls had to go out and find somewhere to buy more. While they were gone, the bridal party arrived, went into the wedding hall, and shut the door. On their return, the foolish girls shouted to be let in, but it was too late.

It may not be too late, now, for you or me to have that weapon, to have that ammo, to be prepared, not for the joy of the wedding party, but rather, for the arrival of that actual moment when the only way to protect the liberty and life of our family, our friends, ourselves, is to stand and fire. It MAY not be too late now, but the time is coming very soon when it will be. Sooner than we want.

Are you foolish, or wise? "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed." (Proverbs 13:20).

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