Oldie but goodie from Claire Wolfe.
Text with included hyperlinks can be found at: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_cwolfe/19990520_xccwo_before_the.shtml
Cliff
-----
Before they come for the guns
© 1999 Claire Wolfe
"... Romanian term limits," somebody was
saying as I walked into Grouchy's Gun Shop,
just north of the Hardyville stoplight.
The other guys around the counter laughed, as
if at a bitter joke. Then their grins -- and their
talk -- chopped off as they turned to see who'd
come in. "She's OK," said the glance they
exchanged. I went to look at holsters and they
went on as if they'd never been interrupted.
"Didja hear about this new executive order?
That murdering dictator in the White House ..."
one groused as I disappeared around a display
rack. And it occurred to me -- not for the first
time -- that this is why politicians and
bureaucrats are so desperate to crush gun
dealers and gun shows out of existence.
It's got less to do with "killer guns" than with
talk.
Maybe they don't do it in the locked room at
Cabela's, where rich folks buy $6,000 engraved
shotguns, but in every gun store I've been in the
last six years, this is what goes on all day. Talk.
Talk about what's being taken away, and how
brutally, how unlawfully. Talk about their
whole culture being demonized and slowly
legis-regulated out of existence -- not only "the
gun culture," whatever that may be, but an
entire culture of independence, individuality,
and live-and-let-live.
Like 'em or hate 'em, these once-peaceful gun
owners of the '90s are feeling a lot like Jews of
1939 Germany. Maligned, lied about,
persecuted and threatened. Afraid, confused
and angry. Very.
Of course, talk is proverbially cheap. A
substitute for action, as often as not. Still ... if a
revolution or a Bill of Rights underground is
going to develop, it's going to happen here, in
grubby little gun shops like Grouchy's.
It is happening. ...
"I was talking with Colonel Beaudoin, over at
the Armory," stage-whispered one of the talkers.
"He said if they ever get the order to confiscate
guns, he'd warn some of us. That way we could
turn over old junk and hide the good stuff for a
'rainy day.'"
"S---," snarled another. "If the government ever
comes collecting guns, that's about as rainy a
damn day as we're gonna get. What is this 'rainy
day' BS, anyway? Do you suppose the farmers
at Lexington and Concord just said, oh well,
we'll let 'em take our guns now and will fight on
some 'rainy day'?
"Look, if they come for the guns, we fight. Even
if we can't do anything but die. That's the day.
We either give up or stand up -- right then. But
the truth is, I don't think they're gonna come for
the guns. Not just like that."
"Yeah. They'll just regulate everything away
until there's nothing left. They're already doing
that, one whack at a time."
"Nothing left that's legal. But there will still be
hundreds of millions of guns. They're not going
to go away just because Rosie O'Donnell and
Sarah Brady wish they would -- or just because
politicians wave their magic laws. No more than
booze or dope just went away. You know what
this country's going to look like once there are
hardly any legal guns anymore?"
"Cali. Medellin."
"The South Bronx."
"Al Capone's Chicago."
"Half a million more people in prison, at least."
"Won't old Rosie like that, now?"
"But speaking of Al Capone's Chicago, if they
want to make criminals of us, some people are
going to be good ones."
"Good ones?"
"Yeah. For starters, most gun owners will outwit
the Gestapo one way or another.
"They'll just crack down on anything we try,
eventually."
"We outnumber them, though. Even if they put
a half a million of us in prison, that still leaves
millions of us out here."
"Yeah, but doing what?"
"Well, if they make guns illegal or impossible to
get, some people are going to build their own.
And the thing is, when you can go to prison for
owning a .22 single-shot target pistol, why not
own something bigger and meaner, instead?
Did you know you can build an assault rifle or
machine gun -- from scratch -- with ordinary
machinist's tools?"
"Friend of mine, a gunsmith, just got a new
lathe. He says he can do anything now,
including that."
"And if you don't have those tools, you can still
turn some kinds of .22 pistols into machine
pistols, right in your own garage."
"Geez, that's crazy!"
"Look, I'm not saying anybody should do it. I'm
just saying that people will do it once they can't
get legal stuff. It's a fact."
"Some of those guns will be blowing up in
idiots' faces!"
"Yeah, just like some people went blind from
drinking wood alcohol once the government
stopped 'em from getting the legal booze. Just
like they die of drug overdoses because there's
no quality control. What else is new?"
"But why would anybody want to build a
machine gun? They aren't that effective,
compared to being skilled with plain old
semi-autos or bolt-actions. They found that out
in Rhodesia a few years ago. Machine guns are
mostly just big, noisy toys. Use up a lot of
expensive ammo. And we'll have to make that
for ourselves, too."
"Like I said, if you're gonna hang for being a
litterer, you might as well hang for being an
international jewel thief. At least you get some
excitement before they stick your head in the
noose. Besides, it's not just machine guns.
People will go for bigger caliber stuff. Exotic
stuff. More destructive stuff. Just like they went
for harder booze and stronger drugs once they
were illegal. Just like they went back to big old
.45 ACP once the Feinstein magazine ban made
9-mill less useful.
"It's not a recommendation. It's just history.
Reality.
"And another thing. Don't you suppose those
guys who're getting their cocaine shipments
around the world will be happy to add another
line of merchandise to the inventory? Stick some
pistols in with the white powder. Even the
government admits 90 percent gets through -- so
you can bet even more than that does."
"Oh, man. We're gonna have cartel wars
between Glock and Colt!"
"Something like that. Between whoever replaces
them on the black market, anyway. But
whatever happens, guns aren't going to go
away. They're just going to get more dangerous,
every which way -- for the people who own 'em,
the people who shoot 'em, and the people
getting shot at."
"Then what's Rosie gonna be screaming for, I
wonder?"
"Longer sentences. Death penalty for 'gun
traffickers.' Then death penalty for 'possession.'
House-to-house sweeps. Visits from your
friendly, local SWAT team."
For a moment, there was a silence. Then
someone said, flatly, "We're still going to have
to fight. In the end."
"Probably."
"Lay in a stock of military manuals, guys. And
start readin.'"
"Yeah, ain't it interesting that the biggest
supplier of subversive literature in the world
isn't really Paladin Press or Loompanics or
Delta? It's the U.S. gummint. Teach you how to
do everything from set booby traps to sabotage
communications."
"Their Special Forces Handbook is real good.
The fedgov will teach you how to shoot that
homemade M16 of yours, too."
"Man, I don't want to get into any of this stuff! I
just want to be left alone."
"You might not have that choice, someday. The
gun-banners are setting up unintended
consequences that everybody's going to have to
live with. They just don't understand that the
only way to get rid of guns is to murder a few
million gun owners. And after that, they'll have
to murder all other people who get mad about
the police state they created in the process -- and
those guys will have found guns to fight with,
somehow. I, for one, am gonna stand up and
kick butt a long time before it goes anywhere
near that far.
"I'll play criminal games as long as I have to. But
someday, it's gonna be Lexington time all over
again. And there's a few million of us out here
who not only feel that way but have the
experience -- Thank you, Vietnam; Thank you,
Korea, World War II, Desert Storm and all Bill
Clinton's little wars -- to know how to do it. And
when you're talking guerrilla tactics, you don't
need big numbers on your side."
"When, though? How do we know?"
"If they come for the guns, for sure. When they
burn the next church full of babies. Maybe. If
they declare martial law. Maybe. I don't know.
Maybe there won't be any one time, but a whole
lot of little incidents over the years, leading up
to something big. I just know we'd better be
ready. Maybe it's even good that we don't know
exactly when. Because that means they never
know how far they can push us before we push
back -- hard."
At that point I came around the counter and the
guys changed the subject. It's not that they
suddenly realized I was overhearing. They
knew all along there was a writer lurking.
No, they'd just said all they had to say. For the
moment.
"Hey, Claire," one said, "you really stirred up a
fuss with last week's Rosie O'D column."
"Well, freedom lovers did. It seems we
swamped Rosie's Web servers that morning and
sent so many protests to Kmart that they took
two of their e-mail addresses out of service.
Most of the credit goes to other people."
"You said you were going to write about armed
confrontation this week. I tell you, that Joseph
Farah's a good guy, but he's never gonna let you
write about that."
"Oh, he might," I said. "If I handle it carefully."
"Well, in that case," said one of the guys who,
like the rest, shall remain nameless, "You just
tell that Rosie O'Donnell something for us. We
don't want trouble and we aren't gonna start
any. Leave us alone and we'll leave you alone.
But you can tell Rosie and all her fans --
including Chuck Schumer and Orrin Hatch and
Larry Craig and Dianne Feinstein -- that when
they send their goons after our guns, Hardyville
will be waiting for them."
Text with included hyperlinks can be found at: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_cwolfe/19990520_xccwo_before_the.shtml
Cliff
-----
Before they come for the guns
© 1999 Claire Wolfe
"... Romanian term limits," somebody was
saying as I walked into Grouchy's Gun Shop,
just north of the Hardyville stoplight.
The other guys around the counter laughed, as
if at a bitter joke. Then their grins -- and their
talk -- chopped off as they turned to see who'd
come in. "She's OK," said the glance they
exchanged. I went to look at holsters and they
went on as if they'd never been interrupted.
"Didja hear about this new executive order?
That murdering dictator in the White House ..."
one groused as I disappeared around a display
rack. And it occurred to me -- not for the first
time -- that this is why politicians and
bureaucrats are so desperate to crush gun
dealers and gun shows out of existence.
It's got less to do with "killer guns" than with
talk.
Maybe they don't do it in the locked room at
Cabela's, where rich folks buy $6,000 engraved
shotguns, but in every gun store I've been in the
last six years, this is what goes on all day. Talk.
Talk about what's being taken away, and how
brutally, how unlawfully. Talk about their
whole culture being demonized and slowly
legis-regulated out of existence -- not only "the
gun culture," whatever that may be, but an
entire culture of independence, individuality,
and live-and-let-live.
Like 'em or hate 'em, these once-peaceful gun
owners of the '90s are feeling a lot like Jews of
1939 Germany. Maligned, lied about,
persecuted and threatened. Afraid, confused
and angry. Very.
Of course, talk is proverbially cheap. A
substitute for action, as often as not. Still ... if a
revolution or a Bill of Rights underground is
going to develop, it's going to happen here, in
grubby little gun shops like Grouchy's.
It is happening. ...
"I was talking with Colonel Beaudoin, over at
the Armory," stage-whispered one of the talkers.
"He said if they ever get the order to confiscate
guns, he'd warn some of us. That way we could
turn over old junk and hide the good stuff for a
'rainy day.'"
"S---," snarled another. "If the government ever
comes collecting guns, that's about as rainy a
damn day as we're gonna get. What is this 'rainy
day' BS, anyway? Do you suppose the farmers
at Lexington and Concord just said, oh well,
we'll let 'em take our guns now and will fight on
some 'rainy day'?
"Look, if they come for the guns, we fight. Even
if we can't do anything but die. That's the day.
We either give up or stand up -- right then. But
the truth is, I don't think they're gonna come for
the guns. Not just like that."
"Yeah. They'll just regulate everything away
until there's nothing left. They're already doing
that, one whack at a time."
"Nothing left that's legal. But there will still be
hundreds of millions of guns. They're not going
to go away just because Rosie O'Donnell and
Sarah Brady wish they would -- or just because
politicians wave their magic laws. No more than
booze or dope just went away. You know what
this country's going to look like once there are
hardly any legal guns anymore?"
"Cali. Medellin."
"The South Bronx."
"Al Capone's Chicago."
"Half a million more people in prison, at least."
"Won't old Rosie like that, now?"
"But speaking of Al Capone's Chicago, if they
want to make criminals of us, some people are
going to be good ones."
"Good ones?"
"Yeah. For starters, most gun owners will outwit
the Gestapo one way or another.
"They'll just crack down on anything we try,
eventually."
"We outnumber them, though. Even if they put
a half a million of us in prison, that still leaves
millions of us out here."
"Yeah, but doing what?"
"Well, if they make guns illegal or impossible to
get, some people are going to build their own.
And the thing is, when you can go to prison for
owning a .22 single-shot target pistol, why not
own something bigger and meaner, instead?
Did you know you can build an assault rifle or
machine gun -- from scratch -- with ordinary
machinist's tools?"
"Friend of mine, a gunsmith, just got a new
lathe. He says he can do anything now,
including that."
"And if you don't have those tools, you can still
turn some kinds of .22 pistols into machine
pistols, right in your own garage."
"Geez, that's crazy!"
"Look, I'm not saying anybody should do it. I'm
just saying that people will do it once they can't
get legal stuff. It's a fact."
"Some of those guns will be blowing up in
idiots' faces!"
"Yeah, just like some people went blind from
drinking wood alcohol once the government
stopped 'em from getting the legal booze. Just
like they die of drug overdoses because there's
no quality control. What else is new?"
"But why would anybody want to build a
machine gun? They aren't that effective,
compared to being skilled with plain old
semi-autos or bolt-actions. They found that out
in Rhodesia a few years ago. Machine guns are
mostly just big, noisy toys. Use up a lot of
expensive ammo. And we'll have to make that
for ourselves, too."
"Like I said, if you're gonna hang for being a
litterer, you might as well hang for being an
international jewel thief. At least you get some
excitement before they stick your head in the
noose. Besides, it's not just machine guns.
People will go for bigger caliber stuff. Exotic
stuff. More destructive stuff. Just like they went
for harder booze and stronger drugs once they
were illegal. Just like they went back to big old
.45 ACP once the Feinstein magazine ban made
9-mill less useful.
"It's not a recommendation. It's just history.
Reality.
"And another thing. Don't you suppose those
guys who're getting their cocaine shipments
around the world will be happy to add another
line of merchandise to the inventory? Stick some
pistols in with the white powder. Even the
government admits 90 percent gets through -- so
you can bet even more than that does."
"Oh, man. We're gonna have cartel wars
between Glock and Colt!"
"Something like that. Between whoever replaces
them on the black market, anyway. But
whatever happens, guns aren't going to go
away. They're just going to get more dangerous,
every which way -- for the people who own 'em,
the people who shoot 'em, and the people
getting shot at."
"Then what's Rosie gonna be screaming for, I
wonder?"
"Longer sentences. Death penalty for 'gun
traffickers.' Then death penalty for 'possession.'
House-to-house sweeps. Visits from your
friendly, local SWAT team."
For a moment, there was a silence. Then
someone said, flatly, "We're still going to have
to fight. In the end."
"Probably."
"Lay in a stock of military manuals, guys. And
start readin.'"
"Yeah, ain't it interesting that the biggest
supplier of subversive literature in the world
isn't really Paladin Press or Loompanics or
Delta? It's the U.S. gummint. Teach you how to
do everything from set booby traps to sabotage
communications."
"Their Special Forces Handbook is real good.
The fedgov will teach you how to shoot that
homemade M16 of yours, too."
"Man, I don't want to get into any of this stuff! I
just want to be left alone."
"You might not have that choice, someday. The
gun-banners are setting up unintended
consequences that everybody's going to have to
live with. They just don't understand that the
only way to get rid of guns is to murder a few
million gun owners. And after that, they'll have
to murder all other people who get mad about
the police state they created in the process -- and
those guys will have found guns to fight with,
somehow. I, for one, am gonna stand up and
kick butt a long time before it goes anywhere
near that far.
"I'll play criminal games as long as I have to. But
someday, it's gonna be Lexington time all over
again. And there's a few million of us out here
who not only feel that way but have the
experience -- Thank you, Vietnam; Thank you,
Korea, World War II, Desert Storm and all Bill
Clinton's little wars -- to know how to do it. And
when you're talking guerrilla tactics, you don't
need big numbers on your side."
"When, though? How do we know?"
"If they come for the guns, for sure. When they
burn the next church full of babies. Maybe. If
they declare martial law. Maybe. I don't know.
Maybe there won't be any one time, but a whole
lot of little incidents over the years, leading up
to something big. I just know we'd better be
ready. Maybe it's even good that we don't know
exactly when. Because that means they never
know how far they can push us before we push
back -- hard."
At that point I came around the counter and the
guys changed the subject. It's not that they
suddenly realized I was overhearing. They
knew all along there was a writer lurking.
No, they'd just said all they had to say. For the
moment.
"Hey, Claire," one said, "you really stirred up a
fuss with last week's Rosie O'D column."
"Well, freedom lovers did. It seems we
swamped Rosie's Web servers that morning and
sent so many protests to Kmart that they took
two of their e-mail addresses out of service.
Most of the credit goes to other people."
"You said you were going to write about armed
confrontation this week. I tell you, that Joseph
Farah's a good guy, but he's never gonna let you
write about that."
"Oh, he might," I said. "If I handle it carefully."
"Well, in that case," said one of the guys who,
like the rest, shall remain nameless, "You just
tell that Rosie O'Donnell something for us. We
don't want trouble and we aren't gonna start
any. Leave us alone and we'll leave you alone.
But you can tell Rosie and all her fans --
including Chuck Schumer and Orrin Hatch and
Larry Craig and Dianne Feinstein -- that when
they send their goons after our guns, Hardyville
will be waiting for them."
