Limuel

You meet some interesting people when you hand out cards announcing that you are a member of the new media.   My new friend, Limmuel, above, caught my attention when he cautioned me against believing that “It could never happen here.” Limmuel was just a young boy when it happened to him and his family in the Philippines in 1972.  His father told him the details for years afterward . . .

Limmuel’s father was a security guard at a high school in the Philippines when Ferdinand Marcos issued an order prohibiting all civilian-owned firearms.

“NOW, THEREFORE, I, Ferdinand E. Marcos, Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and pursuant to Proclamation No.1081 dated September 21, 1972, do hereby order that henceforth and until otherwise ordered by me or by my duly designated representative, no person shall keep, possess or carry outside of his residence any firearm unless such person is duly authorized to keep, possess or carry any such firearm and any person violating this order shall forthwith be arrested and taken into custody and held for the duration of the emergency unless ordered released by me or by my duly designated representative.”

As a security guard, Limmuel’s father received advance notice of the coming house to house search for weapons. He carefully buried his personal weapons to prevent them from being confiscated, retaining only his officially issued firearm in the home. The search was conducted, and no private arms were found. I suspect that the guns that were buried were not on any “registration” list.

Limmuel says that none of the confiscated guns were ever returned to their owners, even though the confiscation was supposed to be “temporary” at the time. Limmuel clearly remembers living under martial law, with a 10 pm curfew for all activities. He says that checkpoints were very common, that vehicles were often searched, but that bribery was also common and that a small bribe would relieve you of the inconvenience of the search.

No two countries are exactly alike, but the Philippines has a long history of association with the United States. Limmuel believes that a current push for gun control in the Philippines results from an emulation of U.S. policies.

As a further cautionary tale, after a number of years, Limmuel’s father tried to retrieve the firearms that he had buried. But couldn’t remember their exact location. They remain buried to this day, a find for future treasure hunters or archaeologists.

I told Limmuel that if he didn’t wish to have his guns confiscated, that he could (still) buy them privately in the United States and then the government wouldn’t know that he had them. “I know”, he said. “I have”. He also said that there are ongoing negotiations between the communist rebels and the government of the Philippines. The government, he says, insists that the rebels disarm.  The rebels, he says, will never give up their guns.

Maybe it isn’t a coincidence that the Philippines has become a world leader in the production of sophisticated guns in small, semi-clandestine workshops.

©2013 by Dean Weingarten of the Gun Watch Blog: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

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55 COMMENTS

  1. Yes it can happen here, but the price I will secure for my firearms are the lives of thoes demanding them.

    • Is better to keep such comments in the privacy of your own mind. As long as they don’t know who will truly stand up and who will kneel, will add another barrier against it happening here.

      And it isn’t just there. Latin America is riddle with these laws and yet crime is rampant. When we lived near Detroit my parents gave a weird remark “my this reminds me of home”… take it for what it is.

      • Just like the sunrise predates the sunset, or as everything that goes up eventually comes down; gun confiscation always comes after gun registration.

        I know, math and history are two absolutes…although the latter has some missing pieces but regardless of place. You can tell who is a bad leader if they aim to disarm the people they represent while escorted by trained killers.

      • He’s referencing that Australian “study” that concluded that gun owners are racists and usually white racists. The non-white gun owner in the picture destroys their propaganda.

    • Mr Burke is a mutant subspecies called “Homo Igoramus.” Scientists theorize their concentrations are in areas like San Fransisco California.Unfortunately we cannot confirm that, because like a black hole, the laws of reason break down beyond our understanding there.

      • Sarcasm truly doesn’t translate well through the written English… Or in this case, I believe it could be considered facetiousness.

      • I believe he is using sarcasm to point out that Limmuel is (yet another) example of a gun owner who does not fit the white, ignorant, redneck stereotype that the gun grabbers are so fond of pushing.

    • I’m extremely camera-shy but I would gladly show my ugly mug to the aussies just to show them what the average asian-american gun owner looks like.

  4. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it cannot happen here,but if the US is to capitulate to the Bradys, it won’t be like that.

    House to house searches are culturally problematic.Even hardcore anti gun liberals find the idea of police taking private property troubling.Rather, our trip down the rabbit hole would be much more subtle.

    First everything would be registered and taxed,as the ,4473s are too problematic to document logistically.After five odd years when folks get used to the new regs, start jacking up the taxes so that only Bill Gates can afford to renew a Federal permit.
    Next, ban everything and set up a debt-funded buyback scheme. Right now buying back 300 million guns is way too much to fund, but that’s what the licensing process does-the fewer guns documented ,the fewer have to be compensated after a total ban.

    The endgame is realized when every student, teacher, lawyer, and government employee is culturally indoctrinated to hate guns by default.Without lawful gun owners to counter the anti agitprop, the new “normal” defaults to hoplophobia.That’s the point of no return,where the electorate accepts being disarmed becausr they know no different way of life.

    • Most likely. Another possible path (if they do manage to grab control of the healthcare system) is that you are allowed to keep guns in your house, but your health care costs will be 5 times higher if you do (and you must submit to a search of your house to get health care for your family). Control control control. Or, if they wanted to get fast and nasty, they could send in troops to “protect” the water and utilities plants from “domestic terrorists” and black out whole grids until people submit to searches or turn in their guns (“for our own protection,” in an “emergency”). Or they could do an analogous thing with blocking distribution of food (starvation was Stalin’s favorite weapon, I believe).

    • The endgame is realized when every student, teacher, lawyer, and government employee is culturally indoctrinated to hate guns

      No, nuh-uh. They are being trained to hate us, not guns. This isn’t a war on guns. It’s a war on culture.

      • Ain’t that the truth. If you believe in the fundamental principles on which this country was founded, you are slated for “re-education” or liquidation. If the Progs get their way, that is.

    • “Even hardcore anti gun liberals find the idea of police taking private property troubling.”

      I disagree. Hardcore anti-gun liberals would be thrilled to hear that the police were confiscating private property in the form of firearms.

    • In NYS the S.A.F.E. Act prohibits passing certain guns to your heirs. You are required to register them and when you die they must be surrendered to be destroyed. Is this confiscation? Does it matter if the end result is the same?

  6. It’s not going to happen here. We’re winning. After Newtown they couldn’t even get a UBC passed. It’s going to be like the Berlin Wall. We’re so used to fighting this battle and take it as a natural part of our lives that when the other side collapses it will seem to be sudden and overnight.

    The only way a major gun grab is going to happen here is if barry or someone like him attempts to install themselves as dictator. They can’t succeed without the militaries support and as long as citizens are armed. That’s their Catch 22. They can’t grab the guns until they grab the power. They can’t grab the power until they grab the guns.

  7. A “president” issuing the same orders under some “presidential order” making all civilian ownership and possession of firearms illegal would not surprise me. By the time it got through the courts (provided there was not a civil war over the issue) all firearms turned in would have been melted down. Then what?

  8. The local police, purged in a way quite similar to the way the Gestapo purged the German police will not arrive at your door step alone, they will have your family members lined-up in front of them.

    • The likeliest of scenarios. I got some family members that better pray the cops ain’t using them as sheilds.

  9. I’ve been contemplating replacing my mid-1980s Philippine-made Squires-Bingham .22 lr semiautomatic Model 20 rifle with something else. But this post reminds me that all the guns in my collection should tell a story. Now, my little plinker can tell a personal and a historical one.

  11. I lived in the Philippines for almost a year. I saw an original WWII 1911 that had been hidden away along with a few rifles. Some guy in the mountains had an M16 that he would walk around the village with. The Marcos gun ban didn’t get them all!

  12. Don’t forget the “shoot to kill” orders of Marcos. The disappearances of critics. The assassination of Aquino.

    Ask those Japanese who are still alive from the WWII era if stuff can’t happen here. Ask blacks who lived in the South prior to 1960 if it can’t happen here (Read “Negroes With Guns” by Robert Williams). Read about the Native Americans for the last 500 years.

    I love this nation but realize that we are NOT immune from the evils of mankind. For fun, read the Matthew Bracken trilogy “Enemies Foreign and Domestic”. It will scare the crap out of you.

  13. I can’t believe how far this has come. How far the war has progressed on Americans who want to live by the foundations set out in our Constitution.
    But I know it is simply a power hungry attempt at control. The ways the education system has been turned into an anti-American progressive education tool still boggles my mind. At times I wonder why our side has not had the same success. But then I realize that most of the people who love the Country and its founding principles aren’t power hungry control freaks who seek to oppress anyone who could possibly be self reliant, not dependent on the Government or simply does not agree with any progressive agenda. And who are also decent normal individuals who desire nothing other that equal peaceful interference free lives. Race, religion, and who you stick your pipe in, I could care less. All I ask is that I am afforded the same courtesy. Me and my family can live our lives as wee see fit, within the limits our Constitution sets out for us. Why must these morons interfere with the people who just want to be left alone? Again, because all they seek is control, power. I keep forgetting how much smarter than me they are and how I should just let them show me the light, or reeducate me. So sick of this..so sick of being labeled a monster because I choose to be able to defend my self, and not depend on others.
    Anyways, just ranting. Progressive Morons..where did they come from?

    • Actually that does make me feel a little better… I am sure the centrally planned, uber-expensive gun registration database, built by foreign companies, would go just swimmingly with out a single “glitch” and never, never turn into a “debacle”.

  15. Marcos was a douche canoe. Too bad the Imperial Japanese didn’t get him in the arse with a bayonet.

    Ultimate confiscation is exactly what the likes of Diane Feinstink, HCI, The Brady Bunch, Eric with-Holder and Barry envision. That is why they are interested in data bases.

  16. Door to door firearms confiscation equals door to door death of police/military in this STILL great nation.

  17. What the US supplies that’s missing from the equation in so many other places is simply size and numbers. You couldn’t accomplish house by house searches here in months, maybe years. That means that there is time to organize a resistance. The more effective and dense the resistance, the slower the pace of confiscation, thus the greater number of arms available for the resistance.

    It’s got nothing to do with a homeowner fighting it out, though that would get the message out. It’s really about what happens when the confiscators arrive at the next neighborhood or town and face the fire chief, the chief of police and scores of armed citizens at a road block.

    It’s also about the sniping, the IEDs and the reprisal killings. It’s all about knowing what water is safe and what’s not, what to eat and what not to, which roads to drive on and which ones not to and which gas will actually run an engine and which one will destroy it. It’s about knowing where to camp and who knows you’ve camped there.

    There simply aren’t enough federal personnel to pull off such an operation instantly, it would take a long and increasingly longer time while federal ‘non locals’ contend with an extremely hostile environment. The more bogged down they become and the fewer personnel they have the longer it takes while the more citizens they kill and the longer it disrupts and gets reported the greater the resistance becomes.

    Door to door confiscation in the US is both the surest way to induce a revolt and likely isn’t possible at all, rather resulting in desertion, wounding and death of anyone foolish enough to pursue it on the ground. It’s also apt to result in a virtual no travel no appearance situation for those responsible since the rule of law and civil society no longer apply and any enemy target would be a legitimate one.

    The difference between confiscation in the US and in the Philippines is our communication, our singularity of purpose and the sheer distances and numbers involved. It’s a fools errand at best, because it’s not likely possible through force of arms. Watch instead for incremental laws that degrade access to ammunition. Millions of empty guns are no threat at all.

  19. Asides from the tendency of Filipinos to emulate what goes on in the United States rightly or wrongly. I suspect that the recent push for gun control in the Philippines has something to do with receiving aid from the current United States government as well as from the UN, in light of bullying from China. To think that the current president is supposedly pro gun, I shudder to imagine how things would be under an anti-gun president.

  20. It has and will happen here if WE allow it. During WWII Japanese Americans were placed in the Internment camps. NJ, CA, NY, …….. They(You Know who they are) will if given the chance will take your rights and your arms away. Any compromise will lead to the afore mentioned LOSS.

  21. I was stationed in the PI during the Marcos regime and he was a POS (so was his wife). He claimed to be a rebel leader during WWII but was actually a murderer who spent time in prison. The only way you could get anything done outside the base was with bribe money.

  22. Well it did happen here. ALL THE WAY DOWN THE SLIPPERY SLOPE: GUN PROHIBITION IN ENGLAND AND SOME LESSONS FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES IN AMERICA by Joseph E. Olson and David B. Kopel. Don’t think for a moment that the “special relationship” between Britain and the United States is only cooperation between the NSA and GCHQ. The innumerable ties of family, culture, heritage and modern communications insure that if Britain gets a cold America sneezes.

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