Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

New Gun Laws

37 Comments

Could they spark massive civil disobedience?

The political class would do well to recall (if they’re sufficiently educated to have ever learned it) what it was that sparked the first American Revolution:

In obedience to your Excellency’s commands, I marched on the evening of the 18th inst. with the corps of grenadiers and light infantry for Concord, to execute your Excellency’s orders with respect to destroying all ammunition, artillery, tents, &c., collected there, which was effected, having knocked off the trunnions of three pieces of iron ordnance, some new gun carriages, a great number of carriage wheels burnt, a considerable quantity of flour, some gunpowder and musket balls, with other small articles thrown into the river. Notwithstanding we marched with the utmost expedition and secrecy, we found the country had intelligence or strong suspicion of our coming, and fired many signal guns, and rung the alarm bells repeatedly; and were informed, when at Concord, that some cannon had been taken out of the town that day, that others, with some stores, had been carried three days before …

This, not hunting, despite all of the nonsensical rhetoric about the latter, is the purpose of the Second Amendment.

37 thoughts on “New Gun Laws”

    1. They better, or else we’re doomed. Simple as that.

      As the saying goes, “If it’s time to bury them, it’s time to use them.”

  2. I’ve seen two TV talking heads saying Federal Law Enforcement trumps Local Law Enforcement in disputes between the states and the feds. First, that’s as backward a statement on how the government is supposed to work as I’d ever heard.

    The other thing I thought about was the Earp Vendetta Ride and some of the range wars of the late 1800’s.

    Historically, nobody wins when both sides in a political dispute, or a monetary dispute for that matter, claim that THEIR SIDE has the ultimate legal authority. Especially when that legal authority IS spelled out and one side is saying they just have a different ‘interpretation’ of said powers. And when both sides are heavily armed and saying they’ll do whatever it takes, you get the Vendetta Ride or the Lincoln County War moved to the 21st Century with WAY more firepower, and WAY more participants.

    I can say that I do not think that ALL of the people who have guns, would turn them in. I think it’s less likely that people who have purchased guns over the last 4 or 5 years, who bought them because they were worried about a gun grab, will now just roll over and turn them in, because BHO and the DOJ say so!

    And that’s the kind of thing that could cause ‘civil unrest’. And voting rights / civil rights might bring out peaceable marchers. But if they want to come to people’s homes and arrest the gun owners and take their guns, that sounds more like the KKK and lynchings.

    Except in most cases, the lynchees weren’t armed, when the lynchers showed up!

    I still will go on saying I want to know just who it is that BHO, DOJ, and the Reid / Pelosi anti-gunners think is going to DO these gun collections. The Federal Government doesn’t have enough LEO’s to do it. I think they’ll have fewer still IF there is a ban and turn in program. Too many of the federal agents are ex-military or gun owners themselves, so I don’t see them going with the gun grabbers side.

    Local Sheriffs are saying in public that they won’t do it. I’m betting more still will not get involved even though they haven’t said so aloud. And in jurisdictions that do go along, how many street level LEO’s will start on the job. Lot’s of shooters and ex-military there too.

    I agree that this is a civil rights issue, there’ll be no marches to anywhere, unless it’s armed, pissed off people marching on State Houses, State Legislatures and on D.C. in general. And NO good can come from that scenario. You know that old song lyric about a ‘Dead Head sticker on a Cadillac’? I saw a ‘Molon Labe’ sticker, next to a ‘COEXIST’ sticker on a Ford Focus, at Wal-Mart last Wednesday morning.

    I’m not sure if that shows broad contempt for the gun grab, or schizophrenia, but it should scare us all to death!

    1. I saw a ‘Molon Labe’ sticker, next to a ‘COEXIST’ sticker on a Ford Focus, at Wal-Mart last Wednesday morning.

      Wow. I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around that one.

      1. Wikipedia says that a couple of football teams named after the Spartans have molon labe as their motto; maybe the owners of the bumper sticker came by it that way and don’t know its origin.

  3. There’s two possibilities:

    1) They know you have guns.
    2) They don’t know what guns you have.

    If it’s the second, then they’re reduced to chasing rumors. If it’s the first, they don’t come to your house to get your gun.. they just send you a fine for failing to turn it in and give you a new date by which you have to turn it in. The fines get bigger and bigger until you can’t afford to pay and then they start trimming your salary, seizing assets, etc, etc.

    1. What if I just don’t pay the fines?

      Millions of people — millions — duck the IRS every year. They don’t file. They don’t pay. They don’t keep records. The IRS arrests, tries, and imprisons a few of them every year. But there is no way the IRS could arrest, try, and imprison every tax-ducker in the country. They couldn’t do it if they were ten times their present size.

      Most people who duck the IRS get away scot free.

      Millions of Americans will duck a gun ban. A few thousand Feds will be on call to enforce it. They’ll arrest, try, and imprison a few scofflaws.

      But most gun-owning Americans will get away with ducking a gun ban scot free.

      As for me, I will simply ignore any “law” that infringes my ability to own guns. Let the Feds do their worst.

  4. But TW, they have records of damned near every gun or gun owner in the country now. But ultimately, they’d have to go to someone’s house to get the guns.

    And if they start holding back the salaries of 40% or 60% or 70% of the population, it won’t just hurt the gun owners, it would cripple the economy. And much like during the Revolution, too many people being mad as hell, leads to more people taking sides in the Revolution.

  5. They think of Lexington and Concord as quaint little stories..nice in their way but certainly not relevant to the situation today….and of course those were all slave owners, or supported the slave owners so who cares about what those guys thought…

    After all it was in spite of those barbarians that Sheila Jackson Lee became a freed slave….

    1. Gregg,
      somehow, they see the militias at Lexington and Concord as the cool, radical left of the 18th Century. BUT the signers, founders, and leaders of the Revolution were just the evil rich, right wing white guys, who were ONLY in it for themselves. They think the farmers / tradesmen / merchants who were the minute men, got sold a bill of goods by the rich WHITE guys.

      I’m not surmising this on my own. I just remember some of the college kids who worked for me in the mid and late 70’s. That was what the said THEN, and those guys are the college profs, community organizers, ACLU lawyer honchos and editors who are leading the Left NOW.

      To me, as usual, THEY of the Left see themselves as being WAY smarter than Average Joe whether Average Joe wears a NY Yankees baseball hat, or the tri-corn hat of a Yankee who lives in NY.

      The modern Left knows all and sees all.

    1. a reader,
      I’m a 58 y/o Navy veteran and oddly for an old sailor, I do NOT have any tattoos. But I have seriously thought of getting the old Greek script of Molon Labe on my arm.

      When people asked me why a ‘sailor’ didn’t have any ink, I used to say I’d never found anything I liked well enough to spend the money. I think I have with that.

      2. I’m not sure I’d put one on my body or my car, but it seems a nice thing to have inscribed on a weapon. I wonder if Ruger would sell more if they came out with a ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ edition. Maybe it’d look nice on a high capacity magazine.

  8. They won’t go house to house and confiscate weapons. They’ll sic the IRS on you, lock up your bank accounts and fine you to death until you comply.

    1. That sounds like Darth Soros’s wet dream, but the sad fact is that by the time they can implement something like that, the bullets will already be flying, and then no amount of money in your bank accounts will save you.

      1. I’m stocking up on rope. It’s cheaper than bullets.

        I’m considering buying an unregistered gun. Who should I talk to in the DOJ? I imagine Holder is too busy covering his butt to answer my calls.

      2. I’m trying to find a web site that ells how many LAMP POSTS there are in the District of Columbia. I can’t find that number and I have it on good authority from a conspiracy theory web site that the number is a national secret.

        I wonder why?

  9. If they outlaw the guns and try to collect them I see two options:

    1. Refuse and demand to be arrested. If a few million people use this method the system will break down peaceably and the laws will be changed.

    2. Use the gun. If a few million people use this option there will be no more LEOs going to collect the guns but it will get very messy before it is over and Liberty is restored.

    I prefer a cold revolution to a hot one. I hope we get the choice. We could start by initiating recall petitions against the sponsors of confiscation laws.

    1. Unfortunately it won’t work here in Kalifornia as the majority of the electorate think confiscation OK and elect legislators accordingly. If enough of the rest of you can get the rest of the gun-grabbers out of Congress, maybe Congress can pass legislation to override the State’s confiscation laws…but not as long as the Fascist is in the WH.

      1. Jim,
        they can’t ‘elect’ cops / deputies dumb enough to try to do the job! And if it comes down to it, the cop shops will be kinda empty. Most of the LEOs I know or have known, ARE gun people too.

        Knowing what they know, I don’t see them turning in their guns either. Of course, I don’t see a gun collection, short of Martial Law, either. And that has all kinds other repercussions.

    2. Remember also that, as we’ve seen from various posturing from county Sheriffs, not all LEOs are going to even consider enforcing such a law, especially a Federal one.

      Also remember, votes matter, as does telling your Representatives about them – for all the wailing from the Left, this is still a democracy.

      And even Dianne Feinstein would drop gun control if it’d cost her re-election.

  10. I learned something new today.
    Trunnions. A pin or gudgeon, especially either of two small cylindrical projections on a cannon forming an axis on which it pivots

    I guess those where the bayonette points for assult weapons in those days.

    Oh wait, they actually had bayonette in those days, And cannon. For hunting no doubt.

    1. Trunnions on small arms, in modern usage, can be a lug that connects the barrel to the reciever in certain firearms. AK’s have a trunnion block. A bayonet lug is just a bayonet lug.
      And while nobody hunted with cannon per se, you should probably take a look at a punt gun…

  11. It’s likely (even for this over reaching admin) that they will not do a general gun grab. More likely, they will start with a small net and just make it larger over time. Meanwhile, they will demonize any the kill trying to take their arms.

    The pot is almost at a boil already and everybody is just enjoying the sauna.

  12. It does absolutely boggle the mind to believe for a moment that the Second Amendment was about hunting, or even self defense.

    This, because in 1789, nobody had any idea that either of those would ever be banned by the State.

    After all, even George III never tried to ban self defense, or hunting in the colonies, and even in Britain the former was solid law (see Blackstone’s Commentaries) and the latter restricted primarily by land rights and ownership.

    The Founders, I think, would have cried tears of shame if they thought that the State they were creating would eventually try to disarm the people to prevent self defense – and possibly the same related to hunting.

    To disarm the people to keep them oppressed is the normal job of a tyrant; to disarm them to keep them defenseless even against common crime is even worse.

  13. Drudge linked a story about Washington state’s assault weapons bill including a provision for yearly police inspections of gun-owner’s homes, which the legislation’s sponsors claim was an accident by a staffer.

    Amuzingly, even liberal anti-gun lawyers think it went way to far, completely confirming what the NRA keeps claiming about gun registrationk, and that it doomed the bill, along with any “common sense” gun control measures for this year.

  14. And the author of that story about the WA gun ban law says he thinks that people are just paranoid but no maybe he understands their point of view a little better but what he doesn’t seem to recognize that his party activists do actually want to ban all guns and confiscate them. The people who actually want to do that exist and hold a lot of power in the Democrat party.

  15. Annual home inspections doesn’t violate the 2nd, it violates the 4th. So basically they’re going for a twofer. That these are lawmakers makes their ignorance more profound. However, if during the inspection they confiscate weapons that certainly would be in violation of the 2nd.

    That they are looking for every net they can find means push will come to shove. It’s not a question of being enslaved, we are already that, it’s a question of the result. Obama’s second term has rattled me about making any speculation.

    Enslavement is mostly in the mind. It’s like tying a horse to a hitching post. No leather reins are strong enough to keep a horse from pulling free, but the horse never realizes that.

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