September 11, 2001: Gun Death Day, by William Stone, III

Special to TLE

Gun control kills. See New York City.

I know that no libertarian doubts this for a moment, particularly after Columbine. After the events of September 11, 2001 no one can creditably argue that it doesn't.

On September 11, it killed thousands. Perhaps TENS of thousands.

As I write this, emergency crews can't even begin to rescue the injured, much less count the dead.

I know people who worked in One World Trade Center. I spent part of the day on the Web, listening on IRC chat rooms and watching the few news agencies that weren't so flooded with traffic that they couldn't respond.

I chatted with one man on IRC whose sister and 14-year-old daughter had been sight-seeing in New York. Fortunately, they were both ultimately accounted for among the living -- as were my friends.

Only slightly more horrifying than the events of the day themselves was the fact that NOBODY I talked to seemed to understand that they were easily avoidable.

It's important that we understand the truth of this: a few dozen guns -- that's ALL -- would have prevented everything that occurred.

Just a few guns. That's all.

The fault for the events of September 11 -- hereafter referred to as what it was: "Gun Death Day" -- can be laid squarely at the feet of the 20,000-plus Unconstitutional and immoral gun laws in this country.

By extension, the fault of Gun Death Day can be laid at the feet of every power-mad, autocratic, would-be dictator who ever wrote or voted for a gun law.

Think of it: if only a tiny handful of people on each of the four aircraft that were hijacked today had been armed, there would only be a dozen terrorists lying dead in pools of their own blood.

Instead, there are uncounted THOUSANDS -- perhaps TENS of thousands -- dead under the rubble of the World Trade Center buildings.

Never forget this:

Gun Death Day was AVOIDABLE.

It occurred because the Federal government and State governments all over the United States colluded to deprive individuals everywhere of their natural right to self-protection.

And we let them.

Now they're going to use Gun Death Day as an excuse to destroy whatever may be left of the Bill of Rights in this country. Before the day ended, Federal officials were moving their lips, telling Americans that we were going to have to "pull together" and "make sacrifices" to eradicate terrorism.

That's all just gummint-speak for "give up our rights."

The time is past for talking to government about giving back our freedoms. The time is past for trying to vote our liberty back. The time is past for waiting for the government to be nice to us for a change.

They're not going to give ANYTHING back to us. At BEST, they're going to collapse due to the basic financial instability of socialism. At worst, we're going to have a Second American Revolution to take our rights back.

But the time is past to wait for the government to allow us to be freemen. It's simply not going to happen.

It's time to IGNORE the gun laws. It's time to intentionally VIOLATE the gun laws. It's time to say to yourself, "Starting today, I am a freeman, and that's how I'm going to live."

It's time to stop travelling by air. If the Federal government won't let you take a gun on a plane, take a train, a bus, or drive.

Or -- if you've got the gumption (and I'll readily admit that I don't) -- just let them drag you away in chains from the airport by refusing to become a victim.

Understand: we don't do this because we have a CHOICE. Things are bad, and they're going to keep getting worse until government collapses internally or we have a civil war -- whichever comes first. While we wait for the outcome, governments aren't going to make things better.

It's time to start ignoring government and their laws.

There's some strength in numbers. If even those individuals reading this decided to ignore the laws, it would be more people than can be policed -- or coerced.

The choice is simple, and Gun Death Day proves it beyond even a shadow of a doubt:

Obey government laws and die; or become a freeman and live.

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