"And, to you tough-talking Neo-Cons with your AR-15 rifles and a few thousand rounds of ammo, here is reality: they will take your guns, and no, all your Second Amendment bluster aside, you are not going to do anything about it. You are not going to take on a platoon of Marines with state of the art automatic weapons and the best body armor you cannot buy protected by armed personnel carriers and attack helicopters unless you choose to die that day – for nothing.
You will either be in the country or out, and if you are in, you will stay in and you will comply.
That is your choice . . . for the moment."
I wrote that last year for The Dollar Vigilante in an article entitled "When They Come For Your Guns You Will Turn Them Over", and it has been republished dozens of times, often as not to vilify the very proposition and its author.
And, even after all the recent saber-rattling in response to Obama's threat to ban certain semi-automatic rifles, I still believe every word of that article. Most Americans will give up their guns when they are told do so. Not necessarily because they are afraid to die, although most are, but because they are so used to giving up what the government mandates be turned over. Guns may just be the next takeaway in a long list of takings by the State.
Others will come to the conclusion that guns no longer serve a purpose vis-à-vis protection from government tyranny because they have already given up all the rights that matter. From free speech to freedom of the press, all that which was once held sacred has been fully abridged. Even Bill Maher, a liberal's liberal, gets that irony.
From a government that once complied with the requirements of due process down to dutifully reading one's Miranda rights, we now suffer under a Leviathan that openly claims (and exercises) the right to arrest, indefinitely detain, sequester, jail, and even kill its own citizens without charges, an attorney, or a trial.
From cops who used to fear violating a citizen's rights, we have morphed law enforcement into a vast, thuggish, militarized Gestapo-like police network that share only one commonality: they don't care about the law. They care about what they want. And, if you get in the way or don't do exactly as you are told, or in some cases don't intuit what it is they want you to do, you can end up face down on the pavement like this poor bastard.
From a simple rap sheet on felons that might be available in the past, the State and all of its appendages can and do have access to your most personal information that can be used to construct vast dossiers that are widely shared through new institutions like Joint Terrorism Task Forces, fusion centers, and public-private partnerships. (That information, by the way, includes the fact that you are reading this blog online. They know. They will remember. Forever.)
Free speech that was once revered is now also in the ashcan of history. The Patriot Act, as only one example, makes it a crime for an American citizen to engage in peaceful, lawful activity on behalf of any group designated as a "terrorist organization." And who gets to define "terrorist organization"? The Secretary of State who reports directly to the President. Even organizations like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has been characterized a "terrorist threat" by government. And, of course, anarchists who by definition do not believe in aggression against others, including aggression by the State, are set aside for special condemnation as "terrorists" by the U.S. government:
“The FBI has described anarchist extremists as typically being “event driven,” meaning
they show up at political conventions, economic and financial summits, environmental meetings, and the like. They usually target symbols of Western civilization that they perceive to be the root causes of all societal ills—i.e., financial corporations, government institutions, multinational companies, and law enforcement agencies. They damage and vandalize property, riot, set fires, and perpetrate small-scale bombings. Law enforcement is also concerned about anarchist extremists who may be willing to use improvised explosives devices or improvised incendiary devices.” (Source: Congressional Research Service)
Freedom of the press has likewise been shit-canned, and now subject to the whims of government. Of course, government need not take much action against the press, not anymore, since most mainstream press organizations are merely mouthpieces of government. But in the rare event a reporter or a publication wants to expose the incestuous relationship of government and big business, to reveal the State for what it is, they are shut down under threat of law. Good example: agricultural gag laws that provide prison for reporters that reveal animal abuse in industrial agriculture are an in-your-face violation of the First Amendment, but few care anymore, even the courts.
So, what's the point? Just this: the Second Amendment which prohibits the federal government from abridging the freedom to possess firearms, a right ostensibly provided by the Founders in order to prevent government from stripping away other freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, is arguably unnecessary now, to-wit, those rights which our guns were supposed to protect have already been stripped away. Indeed, other than the right to shop and go out to eat (neither specifically mentioned in the Constitution), there are few rights that most Americans seem to care about anymore. Instead, they have been gamed by bread and circuses without firing a shot.
I would opine that under these circumstances government would care little whether Americans are armed or not. However, the Feds must suspect civil unrest is coming when the dollar collapses, and hungry people with guns probably isn't what they have in mind as an endgame, which brings us full circle back to government, per Congressional directive or Executive edict, one day going door to door asking not-so-kindly for your weapons which will leave you asking what liberties you have left worth dying for.
Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.