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 THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 851, December 13, 2015 It is time to finish the American Revolution
Meanwhile, Down at the Gun Confiscation...
Attribute to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise ...Old John was standing in line with his shotgun, on the first day of the mandatory turn-in. He looked at the others, all with sad or disgusted expressions, much like his own. He would also grimace in pain once in a while, the cancer finally finishing up on him soon. The damn government made it difficult to get morphine to help relieve his suffering. Obamacare was a joke. "Government," he thought, "always ready to lend a helping hand." There were two cops outside the building, and four inside, not counting the man at the table receiving guns. John noted they all had AR-15's or M4's, and were wearing vests. There was a dumpster for the guns being turned in. The cop at the table was handing out receipts, and admonishing all with a stern voice to make sure to bring every gun in. Unlike every other person in line, John assumed, his shotgun was loaded with 00 buckshot. Finally he got to the table, and without further ado, lifted the gun and shot the cop in the face. Quickly jacking another into the chamber, he shot one of the guards in the groin, and shortly after in the neck. Before he could swing to the next cop, he was hit multiple times by two of the remaining guards. His last charge of buckshot smashed harmlessly into the ceiling, and he slid slowly to the floor with a smile on his face. There would be no more pain for him, and he had done what he had set out to do. His last feeling was one of pride. The cops did not stop there, however. They had not been paying much attention, and had been rudely shocked at the "BOOM" of John's shotgun. They saw a line of people, now scattering and going for the floor, all of them carrying weapons. Needless to say this presented a general threat to the cops, so almost without thinking they started shooting, over and over, into this crowd. Their first magazine ran dry, and they went for cover. The entire place was in chaos, full of screams and shouts of outrage. "Stop shooting, stop shooting!" "Please don't kill us!" John had been right; he was the only one loaded and ready, as no one returned fire on the cops. But in the act of inserting another full magazine, the break in the action caused the cops to finally stop shooting and just cower behind cover, shouting conflicting and nonsensical orders. Perhaps the screams of the people might have influenced what humanity they had left in them, so there was no more shooting that day. The death toll was two cops, John the original shooter (shortly deemed a terrorist), and 7 bystanders. There were 12 others wounded, some critically. Needless to say, this event became big news in the state. The first result, was that the confiscation was suspended "until further notice". The next result was a massive, tax-funded funeral for the two cops. The other funerals were left to the families of the victims, but various politicians promised to get them a little money just as soon as they could. Finally the engineers of the "voluntary" confiscation promulgated new orders. All firearms were to be brought to the confiscation depots either broken down or with bolts out of rifles, cylinders open on revolvers, and so forth. There was some fuss about single action revolvers since a loading gate is a very small thing, difficult to see from a distance; they decided the cylinders must be removed. How to tell that every gun was unloaded? They decided to try. This was given up on shortly, when two people who hadn't understood or heard the new regulation walked into a depot without the gun broken down or opened. They were shot for their trouble. The confiscation was halted again. New orders were promulgated, simply requiring the actions to be open and bright cable ties inserted through, as was often done in gun shows. The people were warned to get it right or they would likely be shot, and charged with criminal negligence! However, by that time, those willing to bring guns in were getting a bit reticent. Why bring a gun in at substantial risk, when you can simply throw it in the ditch? It never occurred to them to sell on the black market, let alone keeping it despite what the new law said about it. Kids started finding guns here and there, minus the serial numbers, typically. This did not please the kids' parents, who blamed the confiscation, reasonably enough. Of course, non-compliance was massive, estimated at over 90%, just as all gun control schemes experience. The confiscation continued, at a rate much below expectations. The deadline was set back over and over. But now an ominous factor entered the picture. There were copycat killings. One man carried an old .22 rifle with cable tie and bolt properly removed and set it on the confiscation table, then pulled a pistol out of his jacket and started shooting cops. He managed to get one past the vest into the neck and killed another cop. Only 3 bystanders were killed by cops that time. Another simply took his elk rifle and sniped a cop outside a depot from 300 yards away. A .338 Winchester Magnum hits pretty hard. Then even worse, people decided not to bother with the heightened security at the depots, and simply started killing any cop they saw. A typical method was to see one on the highway handing out traffic citations, circle around, and hit that same cop car going over 100 mph (typical man-on-the-street response: "Too bad, so sad."). Or the driver would stop a hundred yards down the road, pull out a deer rifle and take the cop down with that. Even the old .308 Win will usually penetrate a cop car from end to end. Usually the perpetrator was just another old fart, often in the terminal stages of some disease. Every society has an ample supply of people with nothing to lose, and another cohort of people who have been severely abused by the authorities (the latter being the necessary byproduct of any state). They may hate, but something (social disapproval? habit? tradition? fear?) stops them from carrying out their fantasies of revenge. But it's fragile. When the authorities abuse people enough, there is a downside that is not easily visible—the erosion of that "something" that deters the people from revenge. People come to realize that most murders of victims by strangers are never solved. Or they simply don't care. Eventually some trigger event becomes the straw that breaks the camel's back, and then it's time to hang onto your hat. Cops started calling in sick, and looking for a safer line of work. Nobody wants to walk around with a target on his back. Even the SWAT teams, out raiding homes for guns and for publicity of the confiscation, started getting shot up the backside or ambushed when stacked up for a raid. The publicity turned unfavorable; nobody appreciated a full-blown battle in their own back yards, and a couple of babies shot by stray bullets certainly didn't help the picture. Unsurprisingly, some selected politicians started getting shot, as did a few gun-prohibitionist "opinion-shapers". At that point the confiscation was done, and the rulers threw in the towel. They promised to avoid proceeding with any prosecution of "terrorists", if the shooting would just stop, right now. Please. Of course, people being individuals, not cogs in a machine, the politicians continued to be taken down or disappeared for some years thereafter, despite the continuing threat of prosecution. A favorite ploy was to leave them hanging a'la Mussolini with a sign that said "TYRANT". Highway overpasses were favorite locations for this display. In time the general populace, including gun owners, got disgusted with this; and the practice finally tapered off. Disappearances continued for a while however...
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