Dear Mr. Farago,
I suspect that my firearms experience is not atypical. I grew up in a small coastal city in California. My father had been an officer in the Marine Corps, and a veteran of the Korean conflict. When I was about 8 or 9 years old he started to teach me about guns. My father learned about firearms in the Marine Corps., and passed what he had learned on to me. When I was younger we would hunt together. As I grew older, my father and I grew apart, and my interest in firearms waned. That was over thirty years ago. In that time, I got married and pursued a career. I’ve had little if any interest in guns or hunting . . .
My wife and I now live in a middle class neighborhood in a large metropolitan area of California. About three years ago we started to see a dramatic increase in crime in our neighborhood and surrounding areas. Mostly violent assaults, burglaries and home invasions. My wife suggested that we should consider buying a gun. At first I was hesitant, and frankly not very enthusiastic about the idea. However, as I thought about it more, and the incidence of home invasions increased, I weighed the consequence of my wife or I being defenseless victims. I was resistant to the idea of a handgun, and instead focused on a rifle. I narrowed the choice to a Ruger Mini-14.
My wife and I went to a “local” gun shop, actually some distance from where we live. For the most part, local politicians have driven firearms businesses out of the area. The salesman showed us the Ruger. My wife is small, and it was immediately obvious that the Mini-14 was too long, and too heavy. The salesman suggested an AR, and showed it to my wife. She collapsed the stock all the way, and with the pistol grip was able to get a comfortable handle on the rifle. We eventually settled on an AR platform rifle because it fit both my wife and I.
After some additional research, I determined the AR might not be the best option to defend against a home invasion, and later purchased handguns for my wife and I. We’ve since taken several firearms classes, go to the range on a regular basis, and do dry fire/snap cap exercises at home. We’ve invested in safe storage devises, and have implemented procedures we follow daily to safely store the guns when neither of us are at home. In short, we’ve invested time and money to be responsible gun owners.
Today, I read the piece about the Southern Poverty Law Center tracking an up tic in “Patriot” groups, tying it to recent “gun-control” politics, and asking for the US DOJ’s involvement. I then went to the US DOJ website and reviewed information posted there related to the proliferation and increasing sophistication of criminal street gangs throughout the US and internationally. (I assume the SPLC does not track criminal street gangs, and does nothing to address violence related to the illegal activities of street gangs.) Later, I read an article on the FOX News site about a Florida lawmaker that wants to require anger management courses as a prerequisite to purchase ammunition. At that point I could no longer hold it in.
I, like the millions and millions of responsible gun owners, feel under personal attack for doing nothing more than owning a gun. My guns, like those owned by the millions and millions of responsible gun owners, do not commit crimes, do not threaten anyone, and do not belong to any criminal, or any criminal street gang. I am angry, upset and frustrated that lazy politicians do absolutely nothing to address crime and violence in this country; and instead waste so much time and valuable resources attacking an issue that has no problem connected to it.
I am tired of listening to the Piers Morgans’ and Bob Costas’ of the world; tired of Mayors Against Illegal Guns; tired of demanding plans; and tired of “common sense” attacks on fundamental constitutional rights. Where were any of these people when Reginald Denny got his head crushed by a block of concrete at the intersection of Normandie and Florence, and the LAPD made a conscious decision to stay away?
Ms. Feinstein, Mr. Bloomberg, what’s your plan to stem the tide, or at least put a finger in the dike to abate in any appreciable manner the tidal wave of illegal drugs that flood this country? What is your plan Piers Morgan to curb the murders, assaults, mayhem and violence incident to the mega billion dollar illegal drug trade? What do you plan to do Mr. Costas to protect the millions and millions of honest, hardworking Americans that are the victims of violent recidivist criminals?
Until any of you have a real plan that addresses the cause of violence in this Country, I suggest you put a sock in it, stand quietly in the corner, and think about it for more than a microsecond.
Thank you for listening to me Mr. Farago. I feel a little better. Maybe now I can take an anger management course, and buy some nonexistent ammunition.
Bill
My hope Sir, is that as well as writing Mr. Farago, you have also written your President, Vice President, Senators, Congressmen, State government, Mayor, City Councilmen and any other person who has influence on the laws which pertain to your life.
I too am responsible, and my regiment includes all the safety practices you describe. I write, call and email at least twice a month.
The Powers that Be and the World needs to hear from we that are responsible, as the MSM will do nothing more than take every single opportunity to sensationalize the morons who (pick one) allow a toddler to get their loaded guns, drink and shoot, don’t take their meds and shoot, break into homes to steal guns and shoot, steal their parents guns and shoot, glorify violence in movies and then demand a plan to disarm the rest of us, etc., etc.
Good show, Bill, good show.
Hear, hear. I feel a little better too. Keep calm and fight on.
This should be required reading, but I suspect it will just find its way into the circular filing cabinent (trash can).
The problem is not a lack of citizens screaming at politicians, the problem is the politicians. The Progressive politicians. They aren’t listening to us, only their narrow interest groups. In fact, they are working to demonize anyone that isn’t in their interest group. Until the low -information citizens out there realize this and start voting these Progressives out of office, we are in trouble. Otherwise, we are simply getting what we are asking for.
Maybe we need to apply the same prerequisites these a holes press for to own a gun toward voting. Im pretty sure that they would change their tune with a quickness. After all, the most dangerous thing on Earth is a group of DC politicians with some pens…
All I can say is Ditto. Well said!
Very well put, couldn’t have said it any better Bill. Thank You.
Bill,
It’s beginning to dawn on you. Feinstein, Bloomberg, et al, are not interested in reducing the events that give them excuses to advance their agenda to the ultimate goal. They hate guns and they hate gun owners. They view all of us as a bunch of old fat white guys (OFWGs) because they don’t own guns, they don’t know anyone who owns guns and they never visit a gun shop or range to see who gun owners really are. They have a bigoted view of the more than 100 million law-abiding gun owners in the US. And bigotry, when practiced on a societal scale, is fascism.
+1000
I keep trying to pound it into peoples’ brains that the anti-Second Amendment crowd is pro-crime. Crime is how they will control you. When it is unsafe to go outside you will live in fear and poverty. You will be dependent on the socialist class. Their concept is that society is a great prison where they can control you just as inmates are controled in the big house.
Why do you think that Colorado legislators were so quick to denigrate a rape victim? If she armed she is independent. Disarmed she is just another potential helpless victim living in fear. The new totalitarians aren’t looking to build concentration camps. They are busy turning the entire country into one.
Dianne Feinstein owns guns. Are you kidding? She just doesn’t want the groundlings to have any.
That is no longer true. She doesn’t have a concealed carry permit, and is no longer a gun owner.
She has an SFPD security detail when needed, and THEY have guns. It’s the whole nobility/knights/filthy-commoners system in action.
Glad I got to read the article and the first comments before the typo was removed. I sure got a good laugh from that one.
We are all under attach by an ever increasing tyrannical government. Time to speak up and make your voice heard
It is not like they are stripping you of your firearms all at once. It is not even about firearms entirely. They are just doing a slow deliberate strip of your rights, this one, then the next one…………………Hillary in 2016? According to the naturally non-biased national news sources, she leads already. Do you think she will turn a slam dunk down? You ain’t seen nothing yet. If it sounds crazy, it is because it is crazy, but, that is the liberal sanity.
To quote Rachel Maddow (July 02, 2009):
Partly it’s a deliberate effort to attach a social stigma to being a gun owner, partly it’s an intellectually lazy inability to distinguish between capability and intent.
It goes much, much deeper all working to “divide and conquer”. Please realize that “red vs blue” is as much a false paradigm as any. If everyone is the enemy then Big Brother becomes the security blanket, the surrogate parent.
At the same time there is an effort to raze the established institutions (parents, churches, even the USA) and replace them with controlled substitutes. All to get people to align with groups that are at odds with each other and even with the member’s own interests. We are well into the process of tearing down common experiences, values and language to widen the gulf between people.
With any “luck” the citizens will actually start fighting with each other. Under the guise of “protection” we will lose more rights at a faster pace. Makes you wonder if the
sheeppeople are being herded/pushed for any particular reason.The goal is to curtail basic human freedoms and… welcome to [y]our brave new world!
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
A better translation of ‘divide et impera’ is ‘divide and rule.’
Awesome Mr.Bill !!!!!
May I use this speech? It says a lot we have all been saying together and seperate and outs it together quite well. Thank You!
More and more, this country feels on the edge of a new civil war.
What I wonder is IF there is to be a war and enough of our military and law enforcement fight to uphold their oath, who will fight for the politicians? Will we see DiFi, Bloomer and Biden charging the lines? And if so with what? Are they going to fight to ban AR-15s with AR-15s? Will they brave three charge us with double barreled shotguns?
Foreign troops
The funny thing is that the vast majority of Americans continue to go about their lives with only the haziest awareness of the battles being fought in Congress and statehouses over the immediate future of 2A rights.
Newtown has faded from the collective consciousness of America, with brief poignant reminders when Big Media latches onto and sensationalizes a shooting somewhere. Then it drops into the background again.
Only the activists care at this point — those who would disarm America, and those who would protect our right to self-defense.
BUT…
The ranks of activists are MUCH bigger than in 2012, because there’s nothing like an empty gun store and a permanent ammo shortage to wake up gun owners to the fact that something serious is going on. It’s pretty hard to pretend things have gone back to normal when casual shooters can’t find (or afford) ammo for their thrice-yearly trip to the range.
I have a hunch we are seeing a slow moving and complex sequence of events
that after its over will be categorized as
“Darwins Law”
at least as it applies to many of these low information voters…
I have a hunch we are seeing a slow moving and complex sequence of events
that after its over will be categorized as
“Darwins Law”
at least as it applies to many of these low information voters…
I feel the same, Bill.
“President, Vice President, Senators, Congressmen, State government, Mayor, City Councilmen”
Let’s see… I see about six on that list that will file the letter in the circular file, right away.
I’m not saying don’t write. By all means, DO. But the realism of our situation has to taken into account.
Write the letters, and be prepared to attack this madness on a local level. Once prepared (shouldn’t take long), ACT.
Between which specific factions? What are their goals? What event(s) do you think could trigger one?
I hear the “civil war” meme bandied about a lot lately. But so far everybody has been very vague about it. “Freedom fighters” versus “statists” is stock nebulous answer I’ve received from gun shop folks.
Meant to reply to Greg Camp, epic typo.
The answer to the closing questions about illegal drugs, of course, is to legalize them. Thus, illegal gangs would have no incentive to traffic in them. Crime would be reduced almost immediately.
Otherwise, spot on. As a resident of a southeastern state there is no real social stigma around owning guns. However, I realize that we’re very much in the minority.
And this sums it up rather well.
Let’s be honest about a few things:
Most gun owners don’t give a crap about the Constitution or civil liberties, any more than the ACLU does. It’s just a convenient talking point. And most of us aren’t going to be victims of violent crime. Statistically, we’d be better off losing weight and getting a portable defribulator — those are more likely to save us than a gun ever will.
Likewise, the proponents of gun-owner control don’t give a crap about “public safety” or “the children”. The death of children is just something to exploit to advance their agenda.
Both Left and Right would be more than happy to have some type of dictatorship, as long as it is their guy in charge, and it was the other guy who is getting shafted.
So why are we so passionate about our gun rights?
Unlike all the other political stuff we can talk about, our guns are tangible objects. We paid money for them. We own them. We can physically touch them. Collectng and shooting them — whether alone, with family, or with friends — is something we do. We do nothing wrong with them. Violating our right to own them upsets us in a very personal way that, say, warantless wiretapping or Gitmo never can (at least not yet). The anti-gunners are dictating what we do in the privacy of our own homes.
And their double standards and hypocrisy are not lost on us.
The Democratic Party believe that merely having to show a state issued I.D. card to vote once every two or four years is an intolerable violation of an American’s (and a Mexican‘s) 15th and 24th Amendment rights, targeted at the poor and minorities and disabled and elderly. Yet they insult our intelligence every time they tell us that the burdens and restrictions they want to place on law-abiding gun-owners are not an attempt to disenfranchise us from exercising our 2nd Amendment rights.
Imagine showing up at the polling place, having two fill out a two page form, give the poll worker your drivers license, and have a background check run before you could vote? And mail-in ballots would be illegal. Democrats would be rioting in the streets.
When I was at the Colorado House Judiciary Committee hearings last month, one phrase that proponents of gun-owner control used over and over again was “the right to life”. Regardless of one’s positon on abortion, the Democrats never talk about “balancing” the rights of the unborn child’s “right to life” with that of the mother. But they’re more than willing to take away our rights in the name of “balance”.
If you merely suggest that a minor child should be required to notify her parents of an abortion — don’t even think about parental permission — Democrats have a conniption.
And as for being “pro-choice”, they are willing to deny a woman her right to choose how to protect herself from rapists (eg, that despicable creature Evie Hudak).
should be the Party slogan.
Democrats are willing to restrict CCW in certain areas — such as college campuses — not for safety, but simply because some ignoramuses and bigots feel uncomfortable with the idea of people carrying concealed weapons. Yet would they be as accomidating to people who felt uncomfortable with Muslims on airplanes?
If a parent said that she felt “uncomfortable” or “unsafe” leaving her children with a gay teacher or day care worker, would Democrats be understanding of her irrational fear, or would they slander her as a hateful bigot?
Then there’s the elephant in the room: race.
It’s been a long time since I’ve crunched the numbers, but if trends haven’t changed — and I don’t think they have — blacks commit violent crime at a rate higher than the genral population, and at a rate roughly equal to (if not higher) than gun owners. If Democrats are willing to “balance” the rights of gun owners with the needs of the public, then they should stop complaining about Bloomberg’s dispicable “stop and frisk” gun-control measure which disproportionatley targets young black and Hispanic men, but rarely finds any guns (about 0.2% of the time out of 4 million random searches in 10 years).
The fact that race “is not a choice” is irrelevant. If you really believe in collective punishment and “balancing” rights with public safety, then racial-profiling is a valid crime-fighting strategy. (Also, voting, abortion, practicing Islam, and illegally crossing the border are choices).
Gun-owners are a hated group, and we know it. And it’s acceptable to hate us in ways that’s it’s not (and should not) be acceptable to hate blacks, gays, Mexicans, Muslims, etc.
After World War I, the victorious allies robbed the Germans of their dignity by requiring them to pay usurious reperations and disarming them. When the economy collapsed, the conditions were ripe for someone to exploit that resentment. Whether that resentment was justified or not is irrelvant, because it existed — fueled by the western mistreatment of Germany throughout the 1920s.
The Democrats believe that they’re going to be welcomed as liberators for disarming the American population. They are creating a culture of anger, resentment, and contempt among a large group of people who would rather be left alone, while we are facing another economic collapse — conditions ripe to be exploited.
And when that day comes when the gays, blacks, Muslims, Mexican, or whoever are put on cattle trains to wherever, or women are reduced to the legal status of breeding cattle, I will have stopped caring.
Why should I speak out for the rights and dignity of others, when the Democrats are taking mine away?
[ Note: As a piece of writing, this is not as good as I’d like, since it’s a collection of recent thoughts that I’m still working on articulating. I’m also in a hurry, since I’m heading down to the Colorado state capitol in a futile effort to speak with some senators before tomorrow’s vote . And while this post is critical of Democrats, I have no love for the Republicans or libertarians, but the things I hate them for are not relevant right now. I really wish the gun-owner rights movement could separate itself from the rest of the right-wing bullshit ].
RF or whomever, I’d really like to see this as a separate article.
Great thoughts, thanks.
One addition, Anonymous. With all the other hoops I have to jump thru to own a gun that the state of California does not consider an infringement on my rights I have to provide a thumbprint every time I buy a handgun. And I have to have a valid certificate from the state before I can purchase said handgun. So I guess that’s 2 more.
Try to suggest a simple drivers license or other state ID for voting and you get called an extreme right winger or racist. Or both.
Great stuff. Personally I might nit pick with the premise that a good number of gun owners don’t have all that much respect for the constitution, but then again you may be right for all I know. All other points are just about spot on.
I’m still miffed at how voter ID laws can be considered racist. Is possessing some sort of ID really that much of a burden for people? One needs photo ID to buy booze and smokes, fly on a plane, heck even to get a job most places require so many forms of ID that pretty soon they’ll be running DNA tests. In this day and age methinks that most someone who doesn’t possess a suitable ID to present at the voting booth probably isn’t all that interested in voting anyways.
“Imagine showing up at the polling place, having two fill out a two page form, give the poll worker your drivers license, and have a background check run before you could vote? And mail-in ballots would be illegal. Democrats would be rioting in the streets.”
I love using this when debating “common sense restrictions” with anti-gunners.
anonymous, this was brilliant. I concur with Ben in UT — this should be a post and not just a comment.
One correction — the Allies robbed Germany of nothing after WW1. The French took most of their reparations in coal. Most of the reparations were not paid. What galled the Germans wasn’t reparations, it was losing. They didn’t think they’d lost.
Good stuff anonymous. While many of us will not agree with 100% of your thoughts, you give us plenty of intelligent writing to think over. Your ability to put words on paper is impressive. As are Ralph’s gun reviews.
“One correction — the Allies robbed Germany of nothing after WW1. The French took most of their reparations in coal. Most of the reparations were not paid.”
The Allies took all sorts of industrial machinery from the Germans, often for virtually no gain, at least that is what a book on the history of German steel production said when I read it.
I like the term “gun owner control” over “gun control.”
Fact is the fascist want to get ride of us we must stand against them.
Bill, and all you gun owners:
You are the domestic terrorist enemy, according to them.
Face it. The die is cast.
The anti-gunners are doing everything they can to make sure all gun owners are vilified. Even the cadets at West Point are being taught this.
http://wr2a.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/the-ctc-at-west-point-you-domestic-terrorist-support-constitution/
Long Live the Republic, indeed. I fear the worst is yet to come, and it ain’t gonna be pretty. But I hope for peace, prosperity, and the healing of our Nation.
Not to one up the original writer’s letter, but since the late 1980’s, that has been the situation in California.
Welcome to the party.
Thanks for sharing Bill. As a whole I agree with you, but would revise the end. You state:
“Until any of you have a real plan that addresses the cause of violence in this Country, I suggest you put a sock in it, stand quietly in the corner, and think about it for more than a microsecond. ”
The underlying argument here is, I believe an unintended strawman – this could be restated by the libtards as “once we have a plan to end all violence in the country then we can take away the people’s guns and they’re ok with it. Protection from violence is the only legitimate reason to own a gun and now that we have a plan to remove all violence there is no legitimate reason to own guns, so we’re taking them away.”
The fact is, the 2nd amendment protects our right to gun ownership, even if the United States were a utopia with zero crime. Period. No justification is required to why I own my guns, it’s just my right.
As this is a very dangerous time for gun rights, it’s important that we be careful how we frame our view, as the liberals will take anything to strip us of our rights. The liberal media spin machine is good at twisting terms, even I was talking about “high capacity” mags, but now I have “standard capacity” 17 round mags in my Glock 17 – because they are standard, that is what police and military use, so its standard. Anything less is a 2A infringing artificially restricted cap mag.
Anyway, a minor point and thanks again for sharing your story Bill. As gun owners, we must stick together.
Attaboy Bill!
Thanks for the letter Bill, it encompasses the dilemma and feelings of most of us. We haven’t hurt or even bothered anyone, are already careful of our collections and only ask to be left alone. Even after going through many humiliations and treated like criminals, we are now actually determined to be criminals.
Time to push back.
THESE GUN CONTROL PEOPLE ARE A SERIOUS THREAT TO THIS COUNTRY, IF THESE ATTACKS CONTINUE, AND THESE FOOLS GET THERE WAY, THIS COUNTRY IS GOING TO HELL
The problem is not the responsible users but the irresponsible ones. Guns like cars need responsible people to use them, and as such there need to be laws in place so that peoples unfit to bear the responsibility, or those that have proven to be irresponsible, don’t have access. The current laws don’t allow for this to happen. May be you should consider helping those in charge write better legislature. No drunk person should be allowed behind the wheels, and no unstable person behind a gun. We all also have the right to own and drive a car! 🙂
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