Who'll Be There To Save You?
by Charles Stone, Jr.
canam@mpinet.net

Exclusive to TLE

The latest ploy by the virulent anti-gun forces is to use the current fear of terrorism to push their agenda. They say that the terrorists are buying scads of firearms, especially assault rifles, through the gaping "loopholes" at the hated gun shows! As usual, they are lying through their teeth. Terrorists, like other kinds of criminals buy their weapons from scumbags just like themselves.

In the first place, the weapons the gun-grabbers love to hate are not assault weapons. They are all semi-automatic with operating mechanisms not much different from hunting or target rifles. "Assault weapons" are fully automatic, are exceedingly difficult to purchase or sell and have heavy government restrictions. Secondly, the gunshow "loophole" doesn't exist. All licensed dealers at such shows are required to obey all laws regarding the sale of firearms, including background checks. The folks that buy or sell guns to each other as individuals do not fall under those regulations any more than they would if they were trading in their own home. Another gungrabber boogieman slain.

The "Brady Bunch," one of the most virulent of the gun grabber outfits has decided that Florida's new "Castle" doctrine will take us to the brink of civil war, so they are flooding the state's major airports with fliers denouncing the law and they are placing ads in the newspapers of cities that provide a lot of Florida's tourists warning them of the supposed danger. These are the same people who warn that every new law that makes it easier for law-abiding folks to have firearms will result in streets flowing with blood and law-enforcement officers slaughtered in their thousands They haven't been right yet but they just hope for one tiny hiccup in the crime statistics because they know the media will turn it into a full scale massacre.

The anti-gun weenies also want to convince American citizens that government, not the people, are primarily responsible for protecting the individual. Well folks, it may come as a shock but the United States Supreme Court has plainly stated that the individual has no right to expect protection from the government police forces.

The only people who are going to protect us is; us!

It's time for the Bush administration to knock off the kinder and gentler rhetoric they seem to love so much and rescind all of the previous administration's anti-gun Executive Orders and Directives and to get their minions in Congress to work on legislation to permanently repeal the dreaded BATF 922 regulations on the importation of firearms as well as the myriad of other laws that have effectively disarmed a large part of the American populace.

If there are to be terrorist attacks on American soil in the future, (and I'm certain there will be) the people should be allowed to be at least as well armed as the terrorists. That means semi-automatic long arms, usually (and incorrectly, see above) referred to by the Left biased media as "assault weapons" and modern semi-auto handguns. Can't you just see a bunch of American civilians going up against a gang of al-Qaida terrorists who are armed with AK-47s, AK-74s, high-capacity handguns and RPGs, while they are limited to an assortment of bolt action hunting rifles, .22 plinkers, rusty revolvers and antiquated shotguns? That's all the anti-gun forces think we should have. The enemy has no such restrictions.

Suppose you are in a supermarket or department store and a bunch of armed homicide bombers comes charging in. You are faced with two choices; meekly submit and have a one hundred percent chance of being blown to smithereens or pull out your gun, fight back and have a chance to survive? Take your pick. I know mine.

Whenever the subject of easing the restrictions on Americans owning and carrying guns is raised the gungrabbers always paint a grim picture of western movie style slaughter in the streets. In fact the actual record shows quite a different picture. In states where "Must Issue" laws have been passed to allow any law abiding citizen to carry a gun, the rate of violent crime has gone down. The number of confrontations involving legal gun toters is nearly nonexistent. As usual, where bullets are flying through the air, they come from the guns of the gangs and drug dealers who continue to shoot each other up with illegally acquired firearms.

The Brady Bunch likes to use the specter of the "High Noon" or "O.K. Corral" shootouts as a grim reminder of the horrific results of an armed populace. In fact, that's all Hollywood fiction. The "Old West" was actually a pretty peaceful place, in part because there were so many armed people around that the occasional miscreant would think twice about committing a crime, lest the mild-mannered storekeeper haul out his Colt .45 and "ventilate the varmint!"

Another straw man dragged out by the gun haters is the fear of the "vigilantes," sometimes grandly referred to as "Committees of Vigilance." (Even President Bush has bought into this baloney when referring to "The Minuteman Project." down on the Mexican border) Always portrayed as evil men acting at the behest of some wealthy land baron, keeping the locals thoroughly cowed while they awaited the appearance of the handsome, clean cut, good hearted U.S. Marshal. The reason they can get away with that nonsense is that's how the vigilantes were portrayed in decades of Hollywood western movies and TV shows to the point that the viewers believed, and still believe, that the films were a reflection of real life.

Were the vigilantes all honest, public minded citizens trying to bring a semblance of law to their frontier towns? Considering human nature, probably not, but neither were they all nefarious evil-doers. In most cases they were just regular folks who wanted to bring a semblance of law to their town and knew that the government wouldn't and couldn't provide it.

That's what we need to do. Realize that the government can't and won't provide individual protection and that either as groups or as individuals we must provide the means and the mettle to take care of ourselves, our loved ones and our property. That's what being an American used to be about. That's what it should be from this day forward.

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