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Weekly Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country
of West Texas
Opinion
Friday, January 11, 2008
Sage Views
By Smokey Briggs
When guns are
outlawed, what then?
What are we going to do then?
As the presidential nomination process moves forward, I hear this question more and more from fellow gun owners and lovers of freedom.
"Then" is when we elect a Clinton or Obama to the presidency, although I remind my friends that Romney, McCain, Guiliani and Huckabee are no friends of the Constitution either.
I suspect, and their records prove, that they have no understanding or respect for the Constitution. Don't expect them to be any better than their Democratic counterparts.
But, my friends' questions are relevant, no matter which political whore we eventually install as president, What do we do then?
Of course, what they really mean by "then" is when the president, either through special order or with Congress cooperating, declares that all or some firearms are too dangerous to leave in the unlicensed possession of mere citizens.
I suspect I will live to see that day.
I also suspect that rather than try and eat the whole elephant in a single bite, they will outlaw a class of weapons, or a couple.
"Hunting is a great American tradition," President X will say, "but these evil assault rifles have to go, so that our streets may be safe."
Of course, the Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting, and everything to do with protecting God-granted freedom from governments gone wild.
The only legitimate reason for owning a gun is to prepare to kill people to protect your life, your family and your freedom.
That is the gun ownership that the Second Amendment was written to protect.
What President X will mean when he or she says "assault rifles" is any rifle useful in opposing a government gone wild.
Technically, an assault rifle is capable of automatic fire. Those who detest freedom define assault rifles as just about any gun capable of semi-automatic fire.
And, semi-automatic rifles are the rifles that armed citizens could effectively use to oppose a tyrannical government.
Facing the armed wrath of our government with semi-automatic rifles would be bad enough.
Facing the armed forces of government with double-barrel shotguns and Winchester carbines verges on a joke, except the results won't be funny.
So, "then" is when the government decides to neuter the citizenry and make sure that no effective resistance could be mounted, no matter how despicable the government becomes in the future.
If you do not believe such a thing can happen in America, you really should take a moment with a history book and look up what happened to the Cambodians, Jews, Russians, Turks, Chinese, Mayan Indians and Christian Ugandans, after their governments confiscated firearms in the name of public safety.
These are just some of the more notable incidents, and in these incidences alone more than 50 million people were exterminated by their governments.
The rest of history is filled with more of the same.
So, what do we do, "then?"
The answer is simple if you have any notion of patriotism or care one whit for freedom - you fight.
On that day, you start hunting government agents - local, state and federal - who support the unconstitutional and illegal order to confiscate or register firearms.
They have no excuse for their actions.
The Constitution is written in plain English, and no pension or paycheck is worth defiling the freedoms written into it.
Any man or woman who is willing to do so for money is a traitor to his or her country and his or her countrymen, and deserves his or her fate.
That is what you do, "then."
You kill them where you find them until they kill you.
As we so often like to note on the Fourth of July, freedom is not free.
And, the cost is more than a moment of silence at a memorial, a yellow ribbon on a car, or a hand over your heart when they run Old Glory up the pole.
Sometimes, it costs your life so that your children can live free.
Countless numbers of our ancestors had the fortitude to take that chance. That is why we live free today.
I pray to my Maker every night that when "then" comes, he will grant me the courage to stand and be counted "then."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Smokey Briggs is the editor and publisher of the Pecos Enterprise. He can be emailed at: smokey@pecos.net
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York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
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