Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

“It does not pay a prophet to be too specific.”
—Robert A. Heinlein

I’d like to be among the first people to note that my expectations of rioting on 7 November 2018 did not take place. As near as I can tell no really tremendous event of great importance took place that day. So I have no clarity about why I was led to anticipate an eventful day at that time. On the other hand, there are always the things we don’t yet know about that happened on that day, so it isn’t clear that the premonition was pointless. It only seems that way right now.

However, I’d also like to admit that I did not believe I would be living in a world where politicians fat-shamed children and took their toys out of their Happy Meals, as I gather from a phone conversation today has actually happened while I wasn’t paying any attention. It was also a considerable surprise, yesterday, to find a seated representative in the USA congress posting on Twitter that Americans who refused to turn in their guns on the day his planned confiscation act goes into effect would be targeted with nuclear weapons.

I read that original tweet, and it was one of those “said in anger, Freudian slip showing what he really believes” in my opinion, and not one of those “sarcastic witty posts” that the representative now claims he was making. Oh, well.

So, again, I was not expecting to live in a world where congresscritters were threatening to nuke Americans over gun confiscation. But I am. So that happened.

I’m also hearing on the Twitter and elsewhere about yet another operation, this one called “Operation Hot Musket” which is mobilising troops for a domestic deployment. Apparently there are no shreds left of the Posse Commitatus act. No one seems to know what the rules of engagement may be.

But, I do think there is considerable evidence that USA politicians believe there are only 87 million Americans who own firearms. And since the government defines “firearms” to exclude a large number of actual guns (such as those made before 1898 or some date) and has no reasonable control over the actual making of gun-like devices, I’m quite confident they are full of manure. In fact, my estimate is that close to 200 million of 335 million Americans have access to a gun in the home where they live, and that upwards of 750 million guns are in private hands in the USA.

Which facts suggest that any actual gun confiscation act is going to be an interesting situation. Avoiding a vast effusion of blood would still be nice. I no longer see it as a probable outcome.

Jim Davidson is the vision director for HoustonSpaceSociety.net and the chief financial officer for three start-ups: DialogueKey.com DeepGreenFutures.com and FreedomTVNetworks.com