“To be secure against the threat of a totalitarian regime with a policy of mass murder, or the threat of tyranny of any kind, the American people must retain their right to keep and bear arms and restore it wherever it has been abridged. They must reestablish control over their government. Congress must regain its exclusive right to declare war and its exclusive right to legislate. The courts must be required to uphold economic freedom. The government must be reduced in size and scope to the point that conscientious legislators can understand its operations in detail and be in a position intelligently to enact laws designed to control them. That is what is required to establish genuine, meaningful gun control.” – George Reisman, Gun Control: Controlling the Government’s Guns [via georgereismansblog.blogspot.com]

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56 COMMENTS

  1. Nice find Robert and thanks for posting it. I’ll have to look into reading more of Mr. Reisman’s work.

      • What have you been smoking recently? Read it again. An anti-gunner would have sooner went to a shooting range with his newly-purchased AR-47 fully-automatic super-assault weapon than written something like that. He’s talking about suppressing the guns of the GOVERNMENT, and how a lack of guns in civilian hands encourages governments to be genocidal, totalitarian assholes.

        • Quote: “That is what is required to establish genuine, meaningful GUN CONTROL.”

          You go get ahold of the anti-….. and have him retract that…….

          Then I may consider wanting to read more from him.

        • “Quote: “That is what is required to establish genuine, meaningful GUN CONTROL.””

          Right – control of **government’s** guns.

          Had you read the linked blog post, you might’ve found this little tidbit:
          The last thing the United States needs is “gun control” in the sense of depriving its citizens of their right to own guns. What it does need is control over the use of guns by its government.

          Doesn’t sound like an “anti” to me.

    • He’s not talking about controlling or abridging citizens’ rights. He’s talking about citizens controlling government and government’s use of guns.

      He says: The last thing the United States needs is “gun control” in the sense of depriving its citizens of their right to own guns. What it does need is control over the use of guns by its government.

      and: In Aurora, in the movie theater where the murders took place, if members of the audience had been permitted to have guns in their possession, the number of victims would almost certainly have been far less. Anyone sitting near the killer and in possession of a gun, would have been able quickly to stop him.

      and: Our entire Constitution and Bill of Rights are essential measures of gun control—this time, gun control directed against the government. For example, the First Amendment prohibits the government from using its guns to abridge the freedoms of speech or press. The Second Amendment prohibits the government from using its guns to abridge the freedom of the citizen to keep and bear arms.

  3. I am with this guy. But he forgot to mention putting away the 535 criminals we have in Congress. THEN we might move forward.

  5. Excellent article. I really enjoyed it – thanks!

    On gun control – We all know that it is people that kill people, not guns. That said, the anti-gun crowd has not yet figured it out but they soon will. If you were to take people out of the kill equation like they do, guns still don’t kill people…..

    It is the PROJECTILE that does the job. Without ammunition guns are just expensive paperweights and clubs. And ammunition is the expendable part. It needs to be restocked for guns to keep shooting. Guns on the other hand last a lot longer. If the government decided to regulate ammunition, we would be done.

    Taking this one step further someone could argue that we could still melt our own projectiles and that would be correct. Except that ammunition is not just a projectile anymore, it is a self contained delivery system; a shell. Within this shell, the most important and complex part that can not be easily manufactured is the primer. Regulate the primers and then it’s really over.

    This could easily and inexpensively be done by a government that goes to manufacturers and tells them they will buy their whole production, forever. Done deal, no more “guns”, and it would be that easy.

    Go to cheaper than dirt and look for .223/5.56 ammo and select show all. Most of the lines are sold out…. This could easily happen if all the “unaccountable agencies” Reisman mentions in the article all of a sudden start buying lots and lots of ammo. Wait! Didn’t that just happen??

  6. His blog posting gets to the heart of why the Second Amendment exists. Governments are the most lethal killing machines, that’s their expertise throughout history.

    Thanks for posting, I’ll be reading more of Mr. Reismans stuff in the future.

    • I understand your point of view, but really you being armed with some pistols and rifles is hardly going to stop a determined Government attack. B-52 bombers, cruise missiles, A1-M1 tanks etc are not defeated by your guns.
      As for the conspiracy theory of Henry’s below – if that was really true you would be in Gitmo now (set up by the Republicans remember) and nobody would know anything about it. So obviously the Government doesn`t have a list of suspects to take away.

      • Mike said: “I understand your point of view, but really you being armed with some pistols and rifles is hardly going to stop a determined Government attack. B-52 bombers, cruise missiles, A1-M1 tanks etc are not defeated by your guns.”

        Sun Tzu said: “Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards… Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.”

        Don’t need or even want to directly fight tanks, bombers, missiles, etc. In a hypothetical totalitarian America we just go after the leadership sent their goons against us, quite literally where they live. Booby trap their cars, their mailboxes; burn their houses over their heads while they sleep at night; poison their food; go after their families, etc., etc.

      • of course they would bomb the crap out of a standing absent composed of citizens.
        but think about this, with millions of insurgents spread across the country if there’s some rebels in a city, are they gonna bomb it, nuke it? if they did then that would definitely throwpublic support to the rebels. the gov could not afford collateral damage.
        the other issue would be if the gov was willing to kill your family, or god forbid, did actually take them out, why wouldn’t rebels target the families of military, police, politicians? desperate people do desperate things, there’s no way possible they could guarantee protection for all these guys families.
        the gov is made up of people, these are the cogs in the machine, and that machine can be ground to a halt

        • “Sand in the gears will eventually stop the machinery!!”
          Guerilla warfare is just that, sand in the gears. It has been proven time and again, throughout not only our history but World History also, that modern technology/modern tactics cannot and do not stop or trump guerilla warfare.
          Shoot move and communicate!! Rebel bands somewhat well organized and willing to fight for their countrymen and with a little ingenuity can bring a large force either to a complete stop or slow it so much and make it so costly that eventually the Big Machine will either give up and go away or self destruct!!
          The biggest threat to a rebel or guerilla band would be the specialized military forces (SEALS/SF/Rangers), but in and around the guerilla forces you will have those same Spec Ops people who are retired from Active Duty and are training and teaching those same tactics to the rebels.
          I hope and pray it never happens in this country because it would be an unholy bloodbath!!

      • Gitmo was set up by the gop. But the dems have had 4 years to undo that injustice. And have they? Whatever is happening in this country now is owned by barry and freinds.

        • Many, many of his “friends” are still as anti-Gitmo as they were before he took office. They are as anti-torture as they were. They are as anti-drone. I agree. Obama owns Gitmo, but I don’t think the congress has given him an out.

      • Mike. You have learned nothing about asymetrical warfare, have you. The loved ones and family members of the Government getting shot and sniped to death will end any hostilities quickly….or not start at all with the threat of such.
        You cant very well nuke your own town because your own soldiers would rise up. If your own people are against you, you just cant win (assuming you are properly armed (AR/AK/M1A/various hunting rifles to snipe til’ doomsday from behind every blade of grass) with a country of American riflemen.

  7. Most of us are probably already on “The List.” If you weren’t yet, you are now. Governments don’t like discussions about limiting it’s power.

    As to the quote, exactly right! Controlling the guns of governments is essential to peace, freedom, and prosperity.

    • The history of the 20th century would disagree. How many tens of millions of people were murdered by the explicitly aetheist communist regimes of Russia , China, Vitenam and Cambodia? And how many by the vaguely Pagan but generally anti-religion Nazis? Or the ethno-linguistic genocides and ethnic cleansing in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia?

      Compared to that, the Crusades were spit in a bucket.

        • That’s exactly right, all the ism’s, communism, catholicism, socialism, budhism all are simply a belief systems held by different groups of people.

          Most beliefs have thier fanatics who will kill you to enforce thier belief on others; communists and socialists are latest fanatics in the long history of fanatics who will murder anyone to enforce thier belief.

      • Bullshit.

        When you consider that the butcher’s bill for religion has a start date that goes back thousands of years, and that it included wholesale oppression of liberty for just as long, the atheists have a ways to go before they catch up.

        • Bullshit? jkp, you do realize by your explosive explitive you just confirmed that you know it’s true, the truth does hurt; the history of the last hundred years is the mass murder by the non-religious upon thier dis-armed populace.

          Aka- communist, socialist attempt at earthly utopia leading to hell on earth for hundreds of millions of people.

        • jkp, lets keep it to say, the beginning of our republic, shall we. You are WAAAAY too general in terms of reach and scope to the point where nothing makes any sense and we should just all kill each other because Homo Sapiens Sapiens is BAD and is irredeemable. The whole world was savage and nasty thousands of years ago. Why are you plugging mans primitive past in with todays modern world. Nobody can deny that Islam (and the region where most of its practitioners live) is broken. I see no comparison with Christianity in todays America.

        • socialist atheism?

          talk about revisionist history.

          religion was prevalent in China. The Soviet Union. Cambodia, even with communism’s official anti-religion stance.

          I wouldnt say religion is the biggest killing machine: that distinction goes to governments. Now lets compare body counts. I have ten years of documentation recording people getting slaughtered by their own governments since the time of Alexander the Great, Sparta, and Ancient Rome.

    • Joe, if you are talking about Islam (the religion of ‘pieces’) then you would be only partly right. The cult of libtard secular atheism with its communist tendencies has colored the 20th century red with blood. Christianity has been rendered neutral centuries ago when their primary role in gov ended.

  9. This will never happen because people want free shit and to get their free shit they need a massive government to distribute it to them. With this free shit comes attached strings that curtail everyone’s liberty since everyone is invested in everyone else whether they like it or not. Oh and the free shit isn’t really free because we all pay for the unsustainable levels of production and distribution of expensive free shit.

    If you think government is the solution to our problems, not the problem, then you have no reason to ask yourself: “what could possibly go wrong?”

    Some people delude themselves into thinking they can reform bad government. This is wish thinking at its worst. How many rights-violating federal laws have been repealed in the last ten years? Fifteen years? Twenty?

    A culture of entitlement and free shit will not last. The gravy train comes to an end eventually.

    • What free stuff? Social Security in which you have to pay into for at least 10 years? Unemployment benefit which again you have to pay into and is time limited. Explain why it is that of the 10 states that take the most, nine of them are GOP states. What moochers they must be, probably why Romney got 47% of the vote!

      • I guess I need to use sarcasm tags more often.

        BTW, nice strawman.

        I’m not interested in Team Red or Team Blue talking points B.S and find you regurgitation of one of the latter team’s standard canards both unsurprising and tiresome.

        Since you tossed me a strawy, I’ll give you one in return: Why do you hate the urban poor stuck in Republican-dominated states?

        • Since the EDIT function is limited to a window of just a few minutes (WHY?), here’s the updated post I wanted to make: I guess I need to use sarcasm tags more often.

          BTW, nice strawman.

          I’m not interested in Team Red or Team Blue talking points B.S and find you regurgitation of one of the latter team’s standard canards both unsurprising and tiresome.

          The “federal funds” calculation that went into determining the list you reference includes funds to defense contractors and other non-welfare related stuff. It was deliberately calculated that way by Mr. Ezra Klein to serve as easy political fodder while the truth isn’t so simple. No list calculated based solely on entitlement spending exists that I’m aware of. Furthermore, where is that welfare money to “red states” going to?

          Since you tossed me a strawy, I’ll give you one in return: Why do you hate the urban poor stuck in Republican-dominated states?

    • Michael B, so true. As Christmas (opps, sorry libtards….new years holiday, Ramadan, Kwanzaa) approaches, we are reminded that “You just cant beat Santa” at the poles (voting, not north).

  10. I like this guy!! Great article and have already bookmarked his blog.
    If you have ever seen the movie or read the graphic novels of the series “V for Vendetta” he tells Natalie Portman one of my favorite lines of all times.
    . “People shouldn’t be afraid of the Government; The Government should be afraid of the people”!!!!!
    Too True!!!

    • I love that movie. I never read the graphic novels though.

      I love the line the BTN guy says about creating news and the government fabricates it.

      • Yea me too!! Really does kind of fit things going on in our country nowadays.
        I never can remember the guys name that plays the Prime Minister? He is a damn good actor and the part he played reminded me a lot of Anti Gun people I know around this country.
        Loved the part too when V and Natalie Portman are on the top of the building and he starts conducting the orchestra’s concerto and she can’t hear it at first!!! So cool the way it ended.
        Before I got divorced I actually had every issue of the series, din’t remember how many now, but my ex decided to use them for bonfire material. But got repaid in court!!
        If you can find the novels I would say buy and read. Goes a lot more into the premise of what the movie really didn’t cover of the story, due to time and all. Movie would be a mini series to cover all the novels!!!

        • The characters name is Chancellor Adam Sutler played by John Hurt.

          Hurt also plays the protagonist Winston Smith in the film adaptation of Orwells 1984. If you appreciate irony you will see both stories are quite simillar and John Hurt plays opposite roles in them.

          That sucks about the divorce and what she did. Sorry to hear that. Mine just took the complete series of Scrubs and Big Bang Theory.

          • Yep!! He is an outstanding actor and those two movies just prove how wide a range of character he can play and play well.
            1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are probably two of my favorite books for reading and re-reading and for making comparisons to today’s form’s/form of government.
            “Of course We all know that our government would never ever be like that!! “(sarc off).

  11. George Reisman’s Article is a great read and his analysis and ideas are well taken.
    As I read it, I thought “this gent is saying exactly what haunts my dreams at night”, but, even better, his understanding is better than mine. His analysis expanded and confirmed what I had already begun to suspect, but was thinking I am just becoming a “cranky old man”. Definitely want to read more of what he has to say.

    Thanks RF!

  14. I like the basic Idea of what has been said about what the government needs to be and that we need to get off our arse and go do it… Legally of course. Besides keeping our arms IE…fire arms, swords, bows, knives, and anything else we can employ for protection… We all forget the Firearms are not the only form of arms we have the right to bear… Think, in most places it’s illegal to carry a sword or knife longer then 3.5 in. out in public. Those edged weapons where and still are arms and they took that away and we let them, because of our apathy…

  15. I was writing about this just last night. The purpose of the 2A is to reinforce the proposition that the People, not the Government, are Sovereign. The People ahave the power and are supposed to control the government so that it serves them, not the other way around. We have a situation now where the people seem to have forgotten–or been other wise persuaded, as to who is in charge, a process that started with the Civil War and continues to this date, most recently demonstated by the Patriot Act, the most unpatriotic piece of legislation passed by Congress in history.

  16. Very good points! I agree and that’s another reason contrary to liberals say we carry ARs and M1As if it came to war we need to fight.

  17. “The average American of today is intellectually so far removed from his forebears that instead of regarding government with apprehension, he is more likely to regard it as a virtual parent, concerned only with protecting and helping him. Evil, he believes, can come only from uncontrolled private individuals, notably greedy businessmen and capitalists and, now and then, psychopaths such as the murderers in Aurora and Oak Creek. And in these cases, of course, the solution is believed to be still more government power—power to tax, regulate, and control the businessmen and capitalists to the point of extinction and power ultimately to deprive private individuals of the right to own guns.”

    This guy is the second coming I tell ya. OK, maybe not that extreme, but if you haven’t already done so – click thourhg and read the full version.

  18. George Reisman hit the nail on the head as it were on so many levels.
    A very good article. I goes beyond the defending your home and puts it into the light it needs to be. First a foremost, we the people are this country and politicians are public servants. Not the other way around.

    In the last generations the government continues to grow and grow, both in physical size and legislation into our everyday lives.
    There needs to be a 180 within the government, but I don’t see that happening until the people take it back.

    This probably won’t happen until the money runs out, and the government jobs pool dries up. When the wealthy financially separate themselves from this country, like Google, GE, Microsoft, rich individuals, etc, and the debt finally hits the point of no return, only then… When we see the handouts dry up, and people start going hungry, and can’t pay rent, or keep their lights on, only then… When the government regulations start shutting down undesirable businesses, and crime sky rockets in urban areas because people have nothing left, only then… When inflation finally hits, from the flooding of the markets with new money from the federal government, and you need a wheel barrow to by bread, only then…. When the farmers loose their lands, and stop growing food, only then….

    It sounds ludicrous, and in many respects it is, but it is going to happen unless the government stops what it is doing. This isn’t a right or left thing, this is a government thing. The idea of a limited federal government and strong state identity we will continue to drift down this path.

    I don’t know what the end game will be, or what the new reality will bring us, but I pray for my kids future, and prosperity.

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