As some of you may have noticed, I've latched onto the whole "2nd amendment" thing recently. You have to understand that for the past 20+ years, while I love to target shoot, I've refused to own weapons or store them in my house. When I was growing up, I was taught to shoot, and I was familiar with firearms. In college, I regularly went to a shooting range on campus and shot. However, once my kids came along, I didn't want to become a "statistic" so I just dropped all ideas of owning and using firearms. On the other hand, my brother continued to hunt and raised his daughter to shoot and hunt as well. At this point in time, I wish I had done the same.
However, the recent school shooting in Connecticut and the following "anti-gun government" statements and media showings are really starting to concern me. In fact, so much so that I have recently started building my "arsenal" at my house - and teaching my daughters about them as I go.
Real talk time, folks!
I don't think people truly understand what's happening with the recent "Ban Automatic Weapons" thing and how serious it can be. Between the pro gun nuts, and the anti gun nuts, the actual, REAL issue is getting lost in all the bickering between us regular citizens. You might say, "So? Who cares? People don't need large capacity magazines," or "What're you going to do with an assault weapon anyway? Hunt with it?" or "They can't do this! I paid for it fair and square!" or "They can have my guns when they take them from my cold dead hands!" or any number of variations of these two themes. I'm sure you've even taken part in one of these discussions already, and if you haven't, I'd lay even money that you will soon.
And you know what - we need to stop with these discussions. Why? Regardless of anyone's opinions, THIS IS EXACTLY what our current government wants to happen. The more confusion, the more arguing, the more bickering and complaining, the better the chances they have they will succeed. So, what really is going on?
Here's what I think IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING. I believe that your 2nd amendment right is on it's way to being taken away from you, whether you choose to have a weapon or not. And a lot of us don't even realize this because of all the smoke and clutter being fed to us. It doesn't matter if you like guns, or agree with having them, love them, or if they scare the living crap out of you. IMO, It's the most important right we Americans have because it's the amendment that gives us, the governed people, the ability to defend ourselves against our GOVERNMENT should the need ever arise. It was so important to our forefathers that it was made the SECOND right on the list. The only one that's more important is the amendment that gives us the ability to try and talk our way through our problems first. Think about it. In many cases, our voices are not being heard anymore by our government. Now, if THIS right is taken away successfully, what's to stop our own government (sworn to protect our rights, by the way) from taking away the right to vote or the right to voice your opinion? What's to stop the government from arresting and holding you for no reason and seizing your property, or to just stop with the whole fair trial thing? What if women, or people who aren't white and rich, were suddenly unable to vote or own property again? How about not being able to vote legislators and presidents in and out of office?
You get the picture - once the most DANGEROUS of our rights (to the government) - the defense of your person and the ability to raise a militia against a corrupt government - is taken away, there will be no way you can stop a government and their army.
Just a little history lesson to warm you up. (My interpretation - you history teachers, if I get it wrong, please jump in!) Our forefathers saw this happening with England around 230 some years ago. Sometime in the early to mid 1700s, England was in another battle - fighting the French here in the Americas. However, it was one of those, "We will NOT lose and will use everything we have to win" wars. Because of this, England eventually won that war, but it went broke doing so and a major recession set in. They were in a pickle, but someone got the bright idea that since the war was fought over here, and they were actually defending "Colonists", then the colonists should pay for the war all by themselves. The problem was that they didn't give the colonists any choice in the matter. (You can read all about taxation without representation here.) In fact, the colonists were more than willing to do their share, it's just the GOVERNMENT didn't want to listen to them (sound familiar)? To make matters worse, life in the colonies, due to the recession was a bit more dangerous than normal.
After several incredibly stupid tax increases without listening to us, England (probably realizing something was up) decided to enact what I call "marshal law". All of a sudden, soldiers were bursting into homes of civilians, eating their food, sleeping in their beds, etc. People were being arrested for having an opinion against the King and England. No trials, or very unfair trials were being held. Yes, even weapons were being confiscated - usually leaving only one weapon to be used for hunting. Remember the famous midnight ride of Paul Revere (along with two other patriots, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott) where they warned the colonists that "the British were coming!"? Yes, that was to warn people that the ammunition and weapons that had been stored for safe keeping in event of a war with England was about to be taken by a group of soldiers. This was to happen at Concord and it actually was the start of the Revolutionary War.
Ok, let's correlate between then and now - government that is broke and decided that throwing taxes at the people without the people's input is ok. Check and Check. Times are a little bit more dangerous due to recession. Check and Check. Government is taking away basic freedoms from people. Check and trying to. Ok, this is as far as we've gotten so far. But, if they take our rights away, how far away are we from revolution again?
Yes, this is all coming from my head, but it's logical - at least to me. Consider it a conspiracy theory, whatever. But, think about it. Mull it over. What would YOU do, if you wanted TOTAL control of a country? I think the first thing you would do is to take away the people's ability to fight back.
