A restaurateur on the Hugh Hewitt show said that mandating health insurance for food service employees would drive many restaurants out of business and drive up the cost of eating at those restaurants that were able to survive. Another food service manager said that, in the event Obamacare passes, he was considering laying off his wait staff and having customers order at computer terminals at each table.

08-03-09 Liberal Columnist Paul Krugman appeared in a video clip shown on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox TV Show. Krugman, sitting on a discussion panel, asked “How many Canadians in the audience?” Several hands went up. “How many of you Canadians believe that you have a terrible health care system?” About the same number of hands went up. Krugman responded with a strained grin, “Well, now! I shouldn’t have done that, should I?”

In the United States Political Arena, the Democrats have effectively shut the Republicans out of the health care debate. One result of this one-party approach is that there appears to be no effective tort reform in either bill. Insurance companies, until they are driven out of business by the “public option,” will still not be able to offer coverage across state lines. There appear to be no effective provisions to increase the number of doctors and other medical staff to handle the increased patient load. One survey of doctors reported that as many as 45% of them would consider retiring, if Obamacare were passed.

Stories from the occupied territories:

A young Canadian man was on a two-year waiting list for an operation. Unfortunately, the doctors only gave him 18 months to live. He came to the US for his operation. He survived.

A Young Canadian woman needed a hospital that could handle multiple births. There were no openings in Canada. She had her babies in the US.

A Canadian woman reported that her dog has better health care than she does. Her dog can get same day treatment in an unregulated veterinary clinic, while she must wait for three weeks to get an appointment with a government-regulated physician.

A doctor called Hugh Hewitt from Texas on 08-02-09 and reported that he overheard the payoff on a gruesome bet between residents (apprentice doctors), while he was working in England. One of their patients had been on a waiting list for two years for an operation to correct a life-threatening aneurysm in the wall of his aorta. One of the budding doctors had wagered that the man would die, before he got the operation. The other one bet that the man would get the operation and survive. Unfortunately for the patient, the death-betting resident physician won the wager.

The same caller reported that, following rounds one day, the doctor and the residents were enjoying tea. A nurse came in and told the doctor that a patient was having severe chest pains. The doctor looked up and said, “Tell the patient that we are at tea, and that when we are finished, we will come and have a look at him.”

A survey of British Subjects revealed that many of them were dissatisfied with their health care, but that they didn’t complain, because they felt that no one in government would listen to their pleas.

A story out of Great Britain reported that only 40% of cancer patients in that country are able to see an oncologist (cancer specialist).

The main reasons to oppose Obamacare-probable results:

• The destruction of Medicare Advantage to “save tax dollars” will mean that millions of seniors will be driven to buy more expensive Medicare supplemental coverage from the anti-gun American Association of Retired Persons, otherwise known as AARP. (AARP is now on board as a supporter of Obamacare.)

• Obamacare will be terribly expensive in terms of tax dollars and probably require raising taxes on all Americans.
• It will drive up the costs of all goods and services.

• It will destroy an American Health Insurance Industry unable to compete with a government-subsidized “public option.”

• It will result in health care rationing, especially for the elderly, who will not be ” good investments” as candidates for heart surgery, knee and hip replacements, or expensive medication. Not only will overweight people, elderly people and others who are not considered “worthy” not be able to get government health care, they will not be able to get government approval for certain procedures or drugs anywhere in the country.
• Gun Owners of America has published information indicating that government health care may result in de facto registration of gun owners. The intrusive health care bureaucracy may view gun owners as a “high risk” group, comparable to smokers or obese persons. Will criminal penalties for failure to buy insurance create more “prohibited persons” who are forever banned from legal gun ownership?
• Obamacare will vastly increase the national debt and may very well wreck the economy.

If Obamacare passes, Congress will keep its own “special” heath insurance. Many government bureaucrats will have special plans. “Common” citizens will be locked into a health plan that has had marginal results at best in most of the rest of the world.

The end result of Obamacare will likely be a system where the rich, including wealthy Democrats, go to other countries for treatment for serious conditions, knee and hip replacements, and expensive medication. Substantial numbers of US doctors will leave to practice in these countries, where they will be able to make much more money than they can under a socialized system in the US. Elderly Americans will die on waiting lists, or along with overweight citizens, be unable to get treatment anywhere. Illegal aliens and people on welfare will continue to receive care at low or no cost, unless of course, they are elderly or obese.

If the US socializes health care, where will seriously ill British and Canadians go for treatment? (The rich ones will probably join the rich Americans in clinics in South America and the Caribbean.) The rest will suffer on their own waiting lists like the silly American “common citizens” who voted for “Hope and Change.”

Go to DickMorris.com for more information

Def Mech

Here’s a newsflash!  An Associated Press story in the May 14th Denver Post on Page 2A carries the headline, “N. Europe still tops U.S. unwed births.”  Oh!  But unwed mothers are so cool.  You remember the old slogan, ”A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”  Fine!  What has happened in many cases in this country is that either the poor slob of a biological father ends up paying for about two decades of child support, or we the taxpayers foot the bill.  I wonder how it works in Europe?  Oh!  Right!  They just take your back teeth in taxes.

British and European Liberals’ desire for control seems to know no bounds.  In England, they are collecting kitchen knives.  (See my posts under the Category: “Foreign Gun Laws.”)  In Germany, following the most recent school shooting, the government wants to ban paintball games.  Sooner or later, everyone in Europe except government officials, rich people, and rock stars will be wearing handcuffs or those new shock bracelets that can incapacitate the wearer by remote command.  

The other problem with “sophisicated Europe” is that in about one or two generations Europe will be Eurostan, a Muslim suburb.  The sophisticated, native Europeans are not having enough babies to maintain their oh-so-cool population levels.  Muslim immigrants don’t seem to have that issue.  Read Mark Steyn here for a brief discussion of the European population problem.

By the way, during the last century, “sophisicated Europe” spawned two world wars and numerous genocides.  Europe seems to be going the way of the Passenger Pigeon.  (That’s extinction for recent graduates of public schools where self-esteem is the most important subject.)  If we continue to emulate the ways of Socialist Europe with regard to gun control, economics, education, immigration policy, health care, and religion or lack thereof, I am afraid we will follow them in their sad journey toward the death of Western Civilization.

Gun control is just part of a larger pattern, but it is a very important part.  What are Liberals planning that is so terrible that they fear armed resistance?  Once Liberals turn the West into a dying, Socialist  prison camp, who will guard the guards?

Def Mech

An Internet search of ”Ninth Circuit Court,”" Nordyke,” and “ Second Amendment,” will give you a great sample of blogs and organizational websites concerned with the debate over the fundamental right of American Citizens to armed self-defense against crime, tyranny, and genocide.  What is missing from this picture?

Out of thirty pages of Internet search results, I could find one mention of the decision by a newspaper or TV source.  The Seattle Post Intelligencer ran the Second Amendment Foundation’s press release.  Where in the name of cowardly chicken feathers were the rest of the Mainstream Media on this story?

There was actually something here that they would have liked to report: the court ruled in favor of Alameda County, California,  in banning gun shows on county property.  This decision is in keeping with some legal scholars’ opinions that Heller will not be enough to prevent massive government infringement of the rights recognized by the Second Amendment.  (More on this issue later.)

My immediate concern is the deafening silence of the national print and electronic media that are supposed to be the bulwarks of our informed discussion on critical issues.  It has become blatantly obvious to anyone who observed the lack of reporting or biased reporting of the “Tea Party” demonstrations that the Mainstream Media is more than ever determined to ignore or marginalize any occurrence that does not further the Socialist Agenda of the hard left radicals who have taken over the Universities, the “Old Media,” and the Democrat Party.

There has been a well-known, long-term Liberal bias in newspapers, television and magazine reporting.  (See my posts under the Category: “Media Bias.”)  The extent to which the Old Media now grovel at the feet of “The Chosen One” in the White House is truly beyond belief.

In any discussion with people who get their news from most newspapers, magazines, or TV outlets, the first painful thing you might want to tell them is, “You have been stonewalled and deceived.”  This is a hard position to come from, because it runs into “cognitive dissonance” issues.  People don’t want to believe that they have been deceived by their trusted sources of information, because this calls into question their personal intelligence and judgement. 

Not only do they not want to admit to past mistakes, an admission of questionable judgement means that they will be afraid to rely on their own cognitive abilities in the future.  A scary prospect, indeed!  Most people won’t make the jump, but will seek refuge in defense mechanisms, such as denial, displacement, projection, reaction formation, etc.  (See my post entitled, “Displacement as a defense mechanism in the irrational fear of guns,” 08-17-08, under the Category: “psychology.”)

Numerous sources have documented that some ordinary German Citizens stated after the war that Adolf Hitler received “bad advice” or was “misunderstood.”  This, after the bloody socialist dictator had engineered the destruction of his country and perpetrated the Holocaust.  Read Mayer’s They Thought They Were Free, excerpt here,  to get a better understanding of how honest people became involved in socialist discrimination and genocide in Nazi Germany.

It is much harder, but probably a better tactic to ask liberals questions about their beliefs and try to identify areas that they are less sure about in their own minds.  Be patient.  It is highly unlikely that you will “convert” someone during a single discussion.  Remember that they have a lifetime of conditioning and what I believe to be misinformation behind their belief systems.  When you directly attack their belief systems, you are attacking them.

You might try the following exercise with a liberal who will actually talk to you, instead of  screaming ”bigot” or ”gun nut.”  Ask them to think about the right-wing politician that they hate the most.  Give them a minute to really feel their self-righteous anger.  Ask them to imagine the object of their animus as President of the US.  Then ask them the question, “Do you really want to ban guns in civilian hands and give that person a total monopoly on the use of armed force in our country?” 

You may then be able to talk about the dangers inherent in gun registration and how the Nazis used lists of previously registered firearms to disarm their political enemies, before exterminating them.  You might be able to plant a seed of doubt that could grow into a political awakening 

Read the book by Horowitz and Poe, The Shadow Party, (here and here) to find out how left-wing moneyed interests set up an interlocking network of non-profits and foundations to elect Hillary Clinton to the Presidency.  Enter Obama.  Hillary out.  Obama in.  Find out how he inherited a “turn-key” political operation that propelled him from obscurity to the White House.

What do we do?  How do we keep from becoming the “little men” described by Mayer, who were swept along in a destructive national socialist movement?  Do just one thing a day to promote freedom!

Promote the “New Media” to your friends and neighbors.  Fight the “Fairness Doctrine” and other Liberal schemes to limit free speech, such as the “Card Check” scam to end secret ballots in union elections.  Join pro-Second Amendment organizations.  Check New Media sources on a daily basis.  (You don’t have to worry about not getting the left-wing side of the news.  It’s almost impossible to escape it.)  Get politically active.  Join a major party.  Become a block worker or precinct leader.  Contact your state and federal elected representatives on issues related to freedom.  Write letters to editors.  Donate, campaign, and stay involved.  Support electable candidates.  Support the Second Amendment as though your life depended on it.  You know, it very well might.

Def Mech

The murders of police officers in California and Pennsylvania and the New York immigration center killings have provided a bloody backdrop for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s call for gun registration.  The Second Amendment Foundation issued an alert on her April 7th pronouncement.

The Democrats just happen to have a bill in Congress that registers semi-automatics (”assault weapons”), handguns, and the people who own them.  HR 45 is the dream bill for the Brady Campaign, the Violence Policy Center, and all the other organizations that call for the disarmament/dis-empowerment of the American People.  (See my post: “House Bill 45, the anti-gun rights campaign begins in earnest,” 01-19-09, under the Category: “Culture War.”

If you haven’t read The Shadow Party by Horowitz and Poe and you own a gun or love the Constitution and freedom, you are like a blind cow being led down the chute at a slaughterhouse.  The above posts contain links to relevant web pages that I believe assemble the puzzle regarding the rush to Socialism by the Obama Administration.

Contact your senators, representative, Ms. Pelosi, and Mr. Reid and politely let them know your feelings about gun registration.  They are nervous about the political consequences of gun bans.  They need to be as nervous about registration, which is a necessary first step to the confiscation of privately held firearms in America.  (If you don’t believe it, check out what happened in England, Australia, New York, New Jersey, Louisiana, and California.)

If you don’t belong to and support  pro-individual rights organizations like the NRA and the Firearms Coalition of Colorado, get on board, now!  This may be your last chance to make a difference!  (See my Category: “Order of Battle.”)

This is not a drill!  This is the real thing.  Either respond now, or get ready to register and eventually give up your guns, or become a criminal subject to fines and imprisonment.  These people are serious!

Def Mech

Hunters and fishers are easy targets for fee increases, since they buy licenses for their activities.  Owners of larger boats, off road vehicles, and snowmobilers pay the search and rescue fees with their registrations.  State Park users, who buy Habitat Stamps, ”contribute” to the fund.  Hunters and fishers also automatically “contribute” to the Habitat Stamp Fund, since a Habitat Stamp comes with the hunting or fishing license.  (That’s another story.)

Hikers, backpackers,bird watchers, nature photographers, trail bikers, skiers, canoe users, kayak users and other unlicensed/unregistered,  non-consumptive outdoor folk benefit from search and rescue services and maintenance of wildlife habitat, but aren’t easily charged for their share of the costs, as long as they don’t use state parks.  Of course, non-consumptive users can voluntarily buy a Habitat Stamp and a Colorado Outdoor Recreation Search and Rescue(CORSAR) Card.  According to information provided at the last meeting of the Sportsman’s Caucus at the State Legislature, the voluntary response of non-consumptive users has been somewhat underwhelming, at least with regard to the Habitat Stamp.

Non-consumptive users and environmental groups are pushing for a larger voice in how public lands are administered in Colorado.  I believe ways need to be found to insure that they pay their fair share of the costs.  This process could be a proverbial double-edged sword, since getting the non-consumptive users to be “patriotic” and pay their way would probably involve more bureaucrats, red tape, and government control.  Imagine getting a license to take a hike along a green space trail close to your home. 

In the Orwellian world of the Left’s apparent determination to regulate everything, state hiking permits may not be far off.  I understand that reservations are already required in many national park campgrounds.  You already pay to drive into Colorado state parks.

In other news, Colorado’s Democrat Governor Ritter has apparently been forestalled, so far, in his drive to tax firearms’ background checks to the tune of an extra $15.00 above the current $10.00 fee.  The current fee goes to the dealer performing the check.

The $10.00 fee was part of a compromise struck as part of the passage of Amendment 22 that requires background checks at Colorado gun shows.  I believe any fee increase would be an extraordinary example of bad faith on the part of state government.

In addition to the bad faith issue, I believe that any tax on the exercise of a constitutional right is illegal.  The Supreme Court struck down poll taxes.  Someday, hopefully, the Court will strike down fees for background checks, if not the background checks, themselves. 

SB 170, the bill that grants in-state tuition to illegal aliens who graduate high school and “promise” to try to become citizens sailed through the Senate Education Committee this week on a party line vote.  It will go to the floor of the Senate without going through the Appropriations Committee.  (Go figure!)  As a Second Amendment advocate, I am concerned about this bill, because I see it as a blatant attempt by the Democrat Party to pander to illegal aliens and enroll them as citizens in a new voting bloc for, you guessed it, the Democrat Party.

Stay alert!  Eternal vigilance…

Def Mech

Senator Stabenow didn’t mention television or the mainstream print media in her call for “accountability.”  Of course, TV, newspapers, and magazines are dominated by Liberal anchors, editors, columnists, and reporters who often disguise “Progressive” propaganda as news reportage.

You may wonder what a Second Amendment blogger is doing talking about First Amendment issues.  “Understand!”  (BHO, “The Chosen One,” uses this so often to imply that his opinions are fact that I like to throw it in every once in a while just to let everyone know how “happy” I am to be under his “rule.”)  Understand! The Bill of Rights is a rich tapestry that protects the fundamental freedoms of all Americans.  Once you begin to tear at any part of the fabric of this most precious national treasure, you risk unraveling the miracle that is our republic.

The Democrats are not the party of free speech.  They are the party of super delegates, of no secret ballots in union elections, of press conferences stacked with Left-wing reporters, and of government research funds used to push political agendas.  Government funding of “Global Warming” studies, “Economic Stimulus” money that rewards “Shadow Party” organizations like ACORN, and funding for gun control studies through the Centers for Disease Control are all examples of ideology driving junk science through the use of taxpayer dollars.

(Read “The Shadow Party,” by Horowitz and Poe to understand what happened in the last election.  Substitute BHO for HRC and you will be enlightened as to how Obama inherited a “turn key” situation of ready-made, top-down-funded, “grassroots” organizations that carried the water for him in 2008.)

President Obama is reportedly on record as being opposed to “The Fairness Doctrine.”  He does, however, seem to support “Localism.”  This term is Liberal code for creating many small radio venues to provide “voices” for women and minorities who will somehow be more “responsive” to the needs of the people than large radio networks that host Conservative programs.  You can interpret this to mean the breakup talk radio as it exists and the replacement of the current system with Libral Radio probably funded by your tax dollars.  National Public Radio obviously isn’t enough for the Left.  I wish we had just one publicly-funded Conservative radio network.

The genius of Socialism and other oppressive statist ideologies is their ability to use tax dollars extracted from productive people to control and disempower the same citizens that they tax.  As we have recently discovered during financial disclosures from several potential Democrat candidates and appointees, some Liberals seem less than enthusiastic about paying their own taxes.  (I guess taxes are just for “ordinary citizens,” not for the Liberal Elite.)

Ironically, Liberals also seek to expand the number of citizens dependent on the public dole, thus broadening their constituent base.  “When you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can always count on the support of Paul.”

All supporters of the Constitution and lovers of freedom must be alert to any potential infringement of every liberty recognized by the Bill of Rights.  Eternal vigilance is, indeed, the price of freedom.

As Patrick Henry said, “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.”  Walt Whitman echoed Henry’s sentiment.  “There is no week nor day nor hour, when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance-Tyranny may always enter-there is no charm, no bar against it-the only bar against it is a large resolute breed of men.”  (And women.)

The First Amendment is almost as vital to the protection of our liberty as is the Second Amendment.   Let us defend the entire Bill of Rights and work to regain those freedoms that have been taken from us over the years.  Gun control and control of free speech don’t help our society.  They promote corruption, disregard for law and order, tyranny, and genocide.  Support the Bill of Rights!  (See my recent post, “The African-American experience with gun control,” under the Category: “History.”)

Def Mech

The Cherry Creek School District could, and probably will, expel Ms. Morrow for the rest of her senior year.  (Ms. Morrow has already secured a scholarship to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, which may or may not be affected by this nonsense.)

When questioned, school officials fell back on the old, “Orders are orders!” ploy, which didn’t work so well at Nuremberg.  (For recent public high school or college grads, the trials for Nazi war criminals were held in that German city.)  Apparently, Colorado State law does require a suspension for a real firearm on school property, as well as for “a firearm facsimile that could reasonably be mistaken for an actual firearm.”

(When I was in high school ROTC back in the 60’s, patriotic students were evidently more responsible or school officials and legislators less hoplophobic.  We used real (Gasp!) semi-automatic rifles in drill team routines.  It’s a wonder that we didn’t go berserk and kill everybody in the school and surrounding neighborhoods.)  (This is an example of sarcasm for anyone educated primarily in “self-esteem” and “social justice.”

By the way, hoplophobia is an unreasoning fear of weapons.  See my August post, ”Displacement as a defense mechanism in the irrational fear of guns,” under the Category: “Psychology.”

Ms. Morrow’s case got more interesting, when Denver talk show host Peter Boyles engaged attorney David Lane to represent the student.  The school district responded by moving up the hearing on Ms. Morrow’s indiscretion to today, probably to limit time for fundraising activities for her legal expenses.  To Mr. Lane’s credit, he did offer his services pro bono.  (If you recently went to public school, look it up!)

The Rocky Mountain News editorialized on 12-11-09 that the law needs to be more flexible.  (”Safe needn’t be stupid…,” Rocky Mountain News, Denver Newspaper Agency, page 34.)  Yuh think?

Schools have suspended children for drawing pictures of guns.  One child drew a picture of a fortification.  When he said there was a gun in the fort, his school suspended him.  I know from the coach of a student shooting team that national-level air rifle and .22 caliber rifle target competitors are forced to call in sick to school in order to attend out of town shooting matches.  This madness with Ms. Morrow is merely the latest in a long series of paranoid abuses caused by Zero Tolerance.

Who actually believes that Zero Tolerance or “Gun Free Zones” are going to deter a sociopath bent on murder and destruction?  The Columbine High School killers, nameless here forevermore, violated about 22 state, federal and local laws.  Did school regulations stop them?

Who is going to serve in the police or military, if educators and legislators instill a superstitious dread of firearms in the minds of American students?  Oops! I forgot.  In the brave new age of Obama, we will just sit down with criminals and our international “neighbors” and talk out our differences.  It didn’t work with Hitler, but then Chamberlain wasn’t “The Chosen One.”  (If you recently graduated from public school, you know the drill…)

By the way, the schoolyard informers received food coupons as a reward for their efforts.  In psychological research, this handy arrangement is called a token economy.  When the experimental subject does what the researcher wants, the all-powerful, all-knowing scientist rewards the subject.   (positive reinforcement)  Roll over!  Sit!  Stay!  Good job!  Is this a great country or what, Comrade?

On a more positive note, let’s repeal the Zero Tolerance farce and restore some semblance of sanity in our school systems.  Republican State Senator Kevin Lundberg and “other lawmakers” are considering legislation to improve the situation.  Please give them polite encouragement.

Def Mech

Today, Denver talk show radio personality Peter Boyles hosted David Kopel on Boyles’ 630 KHOW morning show.  They discussed many anti-citizen elements of the proposed legislation, including licensure for owners of handguns and semi-automatic firearms with magazine wells.  (I have covered some of their issues in previous posts.)

I may have missed it, but I did not hear them discuss the blanket prohibition on loaded gun possession or gun use by minors, which is in the bill.  This provision alone would kill the shooting sports and defensive gun use in this country by denying minors any reasonable access to firearms for practice or hunting.  (That is no doubt the ultimate purpose of the measure.)  (See my post, “House Bill 45, the anti-gun rights campaign begins in earnest,” Category: “Legislation.”)

The comments on that post have run the gamut from personal defiance; to the apparent advocacy of widespread non-compliance with H.R. 45, should it become law; to some hints of potential rebellion.  (See my post, “Re: Comments on H.R. 45…,” Category: “Legislation.”)

Theoretically speaking, one step short of armed resistance to a tyrannical government is passive resistance or refusal to comply with a law or laws.  We have seen this non-compliance in numerous cities and states where heretofore-honest citizens, and certainly criminals, pay no attention to gun bans and registration requirements. Chicago, the home of ex-Panther Bobby Rush is a notable example.  (See my post under the category “Gun Law Failures.”  The entry is, “Poor Chicago-so corrupt-so like Mexico in its gun laws.”)

As David Kopel pointed out on the Boyles Show, Chicago gun licensure, similar to H.R. 45, was passed in the 1960’s.  This law failed to protect Blair Holt, the Chicago teenager murdered in 2007, who is the namesake of H.R. 45. How ironic!   If it doesn’t work in Chi Town, it must be good for the rest of America, right?

Speaking of Chicago, the failure of Prohibition is probably the greatest example of the American People’s refusal to knuckle under to heavy-handed government control.  Let us not forget that Prohibition corrupted the police, fostered the rise of gangs, and promoted widespread disregard for the law among “ordinary” American citizens.

Al Capone, the Purple Gang, bootlegging, speakeasies, and bathtub gin were all products of an era when the government banned a product that was widely used by the public for lawful purposes.  You recall that Elliot Ness and his men were called “The Untouchables,” because they could not be corrupted by gangsters made rich by Prohibition.  I recall my parents, who were honest to the point of self-denial, telling the story of the time that they visited a Colorado speakeasy in the company of a county sheriff’s deputy.  One of my aunts reportedly bootlegged bathtub gin in Kansas.  (Of course, it could just be my family, but I don’t think so.  I think massive numbers of Americans helped make the gangs rich and brewed their own booze.   Eventually, the government recognized its mistake and ended the best deal that organized crime ever had.)

Aside from the fact that it is not generally wise or lawful to publicly advocate illegal behavior, we as Americans do not want our country to descend into the lawless Hell that passive non-compliance, or even compliance, with a draconian gun law could bring.  The specter of revolution, should it occur, would mean the destruction of America, as we know it.  (See my posts, above.)  Revolution aside, think about the frightening possibilities inherent in this proposed law, as it now stands.

A disgruntled neighbor reports you for a real or imagined license violation.   A SWAT team kicks in your door at 4 AM.  If you survive the encounter and identify the neighbor as the informer, what happens then?   Do you dump grass clippings in his yard?  Key his car?  TP the tree in her front yard?

If you are not compliant with this law and you have a fire, a medical emergency, or a break in, will the fire fighters, EMTs, or police chance upon an illegal weapon?   In the case of a burglary, will the police spend more time trying to bust the victim for unsafe storage than they spend trying to catch the burglar?  Penalties for violations under this bill range from fines to two to ten years in prison.  Needless to say, a felony conviction wipes out all hope of ever legally owning any gun.

Do we want to endanger first responders of all types by putting them on the front line of a potential gun war with the people they are supposed to serve?   Do we want military personnel enforcing gun laws and armored personnel carriers patrolling our streets?

Will the BATFE compile all the old dealer records into a database and come around to find out if that handgun you bought on paper in 1983 is still in your possession?  Better think again about not getting a license.

If you have a concealed carry permit, THEY know you probably have a handgun.

What happens if the all-powerful Attorney General decides that licensure is not enough for handguns and “assault weapons?” If you have a license for these weapons, you are a target for confiscation.  As Kopel mentioned, registration has been a harbinger of confiscation in England, Australia, New York, and California.  Think that it can’t happen to you?

A “friend” abandons you, because you have been identified as a “gun owner” in a government database.   Will “Big Brother” make you wear a yellow star? Will your son be forced off the school baseball team because his father or mother is branded a “gun licensee?”  Will you be fired from your job or denied liability insurance, because you dare to own a firearm covered by H.R. 45?

Will citizens avoid needed mental health counseling, because “open” medical records may deny them the legal right to ever own a gun? Ever been to a marriage counselor?  Chances are, the counselor gave you a diagnosis out of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in order to get paid by your insurance company. Oops!

A frightened relative turns you in, because they saw, or thought they saw a gun in a closet.  After the SWAT team leaves, if you are alive, how will you approach family dinners?  Sounds like a recipe for a food fight!

A child goes to school and mentions “Daddy’s gun.”  Joseph Stalin would be proud.

The police question a fellow gun owner, who “names names” to save his or her own skin.   Again, what do you do with an informer?  Do we want the ghetto-based “Don’t snitch!” campaign to spread to suburbia?

In the current economic environment, do we really want more taxpayers thrown into prison for inadvertent paperwork violations? Do we want taxpayers to become wards of the state in a bloated prison system that is sometimes regarded as a university for criminal behavior?

Once the government has established its power and magically transformed your Second Amendment rights into privileges, how long will it be before bolt action “sniper rifles” and “scatter guns” come under the licensure rule?  David Kopel clearly pointed out this danger on the Boyles Show.

Did you know that the English Olympic Pistol Team is forced to practice in Switzerland, because of British gun laws: or, as Kopel pointed out, that only four percent of British households admit to owning a firearm?  Great Britain is the “gold standard” for American gun prohibitionists.  The Fabian Socialists disarmed the British Isles one gun model at a time.  Their U.S. counterparts are now after handguns and semi-autos with magazine wells.  (These guns make up about half the guns in the country, according to Kopel, who is a nationally known expert on Second Amendment issues.)

Do we want to live in a police state riddled by informers, fear, and retaliation?  Think about the protracted mayhem in Northern Ireland.  Do we want our citizens “kneecapping” their neighbors on the suspicion that the neighbors ratted them out for suspicion of unlicensed gun possession?

Peter Boyles opined that it will take a groundswell of public outrage, much like that which stopped the McCain-Kennedy illegal alien amnesty bill last spring, to spare us from the travesty of H.R. 45.  This anti-individual rights bill makes a mockery of the Constitution and our birthright of freedom.  If you are not outraged, you are not awake!

Join organizations that promote your rights, such as the NRA and the Firearms Coalition of Colorado.  (See Category: “Order of Battle.”) Write and call your representative and senators.  Tell your friends who own guns or love freedom to stand up or be pushed farther down the road to tyranny.  If we do not stand up for freedom, we will be beaten to our knees, or worse.  Stop H.R. 45.

Def Mech

Professors Wright and Rossi initially believed that strict gun control deterred crime. The results of their research led them to the conclusion that armed citizens have a beneficial effect in reducing criminal behavior and that harsh laws, such as handgun bans could result in criminals using sawed off rifles and shotguns with more deadly results. 88% of the criminals surveyed by Wright and Rossi agreed with the statement that, “A criminal who wants a handgun is going to get one.”

A 1986 review of the professors’ work, Armed and Considered Dangerous, by Raymond G. Kessler of the Department of Criminal Justice of Memphis State University, concluded, “Although Armed and Considered Dangerous is not free of methodological problems, it is the best policy-oriented study of criminals and their guns available. Gun control proposals that seemed relatively straight-forward a few years ago must now be reconsidered.”

Wright and Rossi reported that:
81% of interviewees agreed that a “smart criminal” will try to determine if a potential victim is armed.
74% indicated that burglars avoided occupied dwellings, because of fear of being shot.
57% said that most criminals feared armed citizens more than the police.
40% of the felons said that they had been deterred from committing a particular crime, because they believed that the potential victim was armed.
57% of the felons who had used guns themselves said that they had encountered potential victims who were armed.
34% of the criminal respondents said that they had been scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed citizen.

Based on this government-funded research by Wright and Rossi, it would appear that armed citizens do have a deterrent effect on crime.

Wright, James D., Rossi, Peter H., Daly, Kathleen, Under the Gun, Weapons, Crime, and Violence in America, Aldine de Gruyter, New York, 1983.

Wright, James D., Rossi, Peter H., The Armed Criminal in America, U.S. Department of Justice, 1985.

Wright, James D., Rossi, Peter H., Armed and Considered Dangerous, a Survey of Felons and their Firearms, Aldine de Gruyter, New York, 1986.

Our opponents, those that believe that “common citizens” should be herded like cattle at the whim of rich and powerful philosopher king “intellectuals,” believe that they can divide us.  They believe that the “one slice at a time” Fabian Socialist ploy will cause us to falter.  They believe that coming in “under the radar” with incremental attacks on handgun and semi-autos will lull other gun owners into complacency and submission.

They believe that talking about support of the Second Amendment is enough to lull us to sleep, while they push for gun bans, registration schemes, and plots to keep young people from entering the shooting sports.  They believe that “Smart Guns,” and “Ammunition Accountability” can drive up the price and limit the availability of firearms and bullets to the point that the American Gun Culture will dry up and blow away.

Make no mistake about it.  There is a threat.  As Walt Whitman wrote, “There is no week nor day nor hour, when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance-Tyranny may always enter-there is no charm, no bar against it-the only bar against it is a large resolute breed of men.”  (I might add here, and, a large resolute group of women.)  (Bartlett, John, Familiar Quotations, Fourteenth Edition, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston-Toronto, 1968, page 703 b.)

But, what exactly are we fighting for?  Certainly we want to stop the possible rise of tyranny, the killing fields, the boxcars rolling to Dachau, or the casual lawlessness and murder of the Mafia, or Mexican and Columbian drug gangs.  I believe we are also fighting politically to preserve the miracle of American Republican Democracy and to keep this country from descending into the nightmare of a civil war or a protracted insurgency like the one that has rent Northern Ireland for generations.  (See my post, “Non-violence a non-starter as counter to established modern tyranny,” 09-08-08, Category: “Official Misconduct.”)

We want to prevent lawlessness, gang violence, and widespread public disregard for law and order such as that brought about by Prohibition, America’s greatest flirtation with heavy-handed government control.  We want to save America from the spectre of the Terror of the French Revolution, or the slaughter of brother by brother of our own Civil War.

We seek to preserve by any available political means those freedoms, which would at the last ditch, have to be preserved by force, in the event of the failure of all other remedies.  We seek to protect and preserve the Constitution of the United States, as all our political leaders and military personnel are sworn to do.  (May they always be mindful of their duty!)

Jeff Knox has written two thoughtful posts regarding some of the issues involved in our quest to maintain the liberties recognized by the founders of this nation.  “Mutual Assured Destruction, The power is in the threat, not the execution” and “Where’s Your Line?  It’s hard to draw in shifting sand,” should serve as cautionary  essays for everyone involved in the debate about the rights of Americans to armed self-defense against crime, tyranny, and genocide.

Is there a risk in standing up for freedom?  You know there is.  Will you be held up to ridicule as a “desperate, clingy” gun owner with one tooth, a dirty flannel shirt, an “assault weapon,” an alcohol problem, and a psychotic drive to slaughter Bambi?  They have already stereotyped you.  Is there a risk that political speech that should be protected by the First Amendment will result in discrimination, persecution, and possible unfair prosecution?  You never know.  Is it safer now to pretend that “they” don’t know who you are?  I don’t think so. (See my post, “Believe me!  They know who you are,” 11-18-08, under the Category: ” benefits of guns.”

Winston Churchill wrote, “If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

We owe it to ourselves, our families, our ancestors, and hopefully, our descendants, to do everything we can within the political framework created by the Founders to preserve that framework, which is the Constitution of the United States, especially the Second Amendment.  Let it never be said that we failed as citizens, patriots, and lovers of freedom to do everything possible to prevent tragedy for our country.  We never want to reach another sunrise, such as the one thrust upon another great American, Chief Crazy Horse, when he was forced by broken treaties and the murder of his friend, Conquering Bear, to say, “It is a good day to fight.  It is a good day to die.”

Let us rather emulate Churchill and the Greek, Thucydides, who said, “The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage.”  Let us now demonstrate political courage and resolve in the face of challenges to our liberty.

Def Mech