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Blog Entry 10 of 37 Conservative Musings
The way I see it, there’s three ways of doing things: The right way, the wrong way, and my way. All too often, the PTBs do things the wrong way, no matter what the party affiliation. I look at the world through the Conservative’s Eye and consider what, in my opinion, is good for We The People, and I share my ideas with you. As a Conservative, I believe in leaving people alone to do whatever they want, so long as they’re not violating the laws. I believe in smaller, less-intrusive government and most of all, I believe in our government following the rules of the Tenth Amendment and holding true to the intent of the Second.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~ConservativeMusings

How silly are gun owners?

Contributed by: Jeffrey Schwartz   on 12/1/2006

Have you ever listened to a gun owner who honestly believes in the Second Amendment? Take the gun owner who will tell you, in a casual conversation that the government is out to ban guns and, in the event that it happens, they'd have to pry his guns from his cold, dead fingers. This is the gun owner who will tell you that, in the event that the government attempts a gun ban, it would be the catalyst for civil war. He will tell you that millions of gun owners across the nation would rise up and fight the government.

How silly is that?

After all, it takes a disturbed person to believe that he can take on the world's most powerful army. Our military is trained to fight, whereas the individual gun owner would likely be slaughtered. He doesn't stand a chance, and the truth is, he must be mentally deranged, right?

Our Founding Fathers must have been viewed as nutcases. After all, the British military was viewed as the greatest force in the world at the time of the revolution. Our Founding Fathers were nothing more than a bunch of ragtag revolutionaries who got sick and tired of being pushed around and told what to do by a king living across the Atlantic. Our Founding Fathers had some muskets, a few cannons and a cause. It was a long and brutal war, and I think we all realize who won in 1783.

But, that was 223 years ago and the world has changed. Also, the Americans had allies to help them fight the British. Would the Americans still be successful with their hunting rifles and small arms against a British military with tanks, tracking systems, missiles, bombs and other modern methods of conducting a war?

Our military is the greatest fighting force on earth. We have the best trained men and women. We have the best and most advanced weaponry. Our soldiers are there because they want to be, not because the government conscripts our young men and women to join and serve.

That being said, one only has to open a newspaper to read stories about a bunch of ragtag "revolutionaries" who don't like a group of "invaders" and want the "infidels" from the other side of the world out. It is happening right now in Iraq. Our brave men and women, armed with sophisticated weaponry, are being killed by locals and their allies every day.The greatest fighting force on the planet is being successfully attacked with small arms, minor explosive caches and people who blend in and disappear. What the American people viewed as probably being a quick war has now dragged out to be a long and involved process.

However, gun owners are individuals. They're your neighbors. Some of them are your friends. Many of them keep their mouths shut and don't even let you know that they own guns. These are men and women that sit in an office all day long, come home, maybe hunt once or twice a year. They aren't like those crazies who dress up in fatigues and play Weekend Warrior in the woods, calling themselves a militia. Some have sons and daughters in the military. Other gun owners are police officers. The point is that there's no cohesiveness between gun owners, or is there? How silly are these gun owners to believe that they could take on the government in the event of a ban on firearms?

Most gun owners love America and relish the freedoms of our society. Many understand that the purpose of the Second Amendment has nothing to do with duck hunting or plinking at the range, or even defending oneself against a criminal. Most of these gun owners do not even want to think about what would happen in the event that private ownership of firearms was illegal. At the same time, there are a surprisingly large number of gun owners who say that they'd put their lives on the line if the government crosses it.

Just as the president is a check-and-balance for Congress, and the Supreme Court is a check-and-balance for the president, the Second Amendment is a check-and-balance for all of government. You just aren't taught that in school. However, if you read the writings of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Sam Adams, John Adams, Noah Webster, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and many of the other Founding Fathers, you'd understand just how important the idea of private firearm ownership was in order to guarantee a free society.

Should an outright ban occur, what might happen? The few gun owners who have been waiting for that day are going to go ahead and undertake whatever plans they've been cooking up for years. This might involve hiding in bunkers or running to a cabin in the middle of a national forest. The government would likely call for citizens to voluntarily turn in their arms, and, no doubt, there would be a good number of citizens who would follow orders and turn them in.

However, there would, most likely, be a larger number of citizens who wouldn't. This would mean that the police and military would have to undertake a door-to-door search, confiscating weapons and arresting those who have not followed orders. If you don't think this could happen, the citizens of New Orleans can tell you differently.

The fact is that the military and the police, in our free and open society, would not be able to take the American people by surprise. The media would catch wind of this and, not for the expressed purpose of spilling the beans but rather to sell newspapers will splash it across the front page and you'll see it in action on the 24/7 news channels. They might even interrupt The View and The Montel Williams Show to show you what's unfolding.

I can't imagine that most gun owners are going to sit idly by and wait for the government to knock on the door. How silly is that?

Granted, there will be a lot of once law-abiding citizens killed in the first few days, resisting their government and trying to fight back. The difference between what's happened in Iraq and what would happen here, however, is glowing. The military and the police are made up of our friends, our neighbors and our relatives. Do these citizens swear a blind allegiance to their employer, or are they able to think and consider by themselves? Might it not be expected that your neighbor would refuse to take up arms against you? Might it not be expected that your son or daughter refuse to arrest you? Might it not be expected that they might even join you in your fight?

How silly are gun owners?


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Showing 1 of 1 comments
Submitted By: Charmaine Robledo
posted on 12/5/2006 @ 10:41:28 AM
Rated Blog Entry
Interesting piece, Jeffrey. Thanks for putting this issue in perspective.
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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Jeffrey Schwartz

Highlands Ranch , CO

Jeffrey Schwartz has posted 37 blog entries and 50 comments since joining on 12/1/2005. Jeffrey Schwartz 's average blog rating is 4.61.
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