Hypothetical My Ass!!!

I am trying very hard to restrain my words. Forgive me for any impolite lapses.

In New Orleans they are going door to door stealing weapons. This would be the cops. Not just locals. There are rumors that Federal agents & National Guard troops among them.

Livid: Door to Door Gun Confiscations From Law Abiding Citizens In NOLA... from Geek With A .45. Be sure to look at the video clip where you see the stupid sonsuvbitches going in people's homes. Let me reiterate; cops & possibly federal agents are entering people's home with weapons drawn & taking away any & all firearms they find.

Pressing the Reset Button? from The Smallest Minority.

Oh Cool! We Don't Have To Worry About The Second Amendment Anymore! from Libercontrarian.

Constitutions and Emergencies from The Volokh Conspiracy.

My reaction?

It'll take me three tanks of gas to get down there. It's roughly 1,400 miles from me. Gas here is running at $3.10 a gallon (high estimate to work with). That'd be around $112 to get down there. I wouldn't worry about coming back. It's roughly a 22 hour drive. I can't do that in one day. If I left at 5 a.m. local time I wouldn't make it there till around 11 a.m. local time on Saturday. That's with a 5 hour nap & some food between sprints.

I won't go. But damn if I'm not tempted. Plus I feel ashamed that I won't go. Those are my countrymen down there being disarmed & threatened by agents of government – possibly some federal agents to boot if what I hear is accurate. If it was happening in NC I would probably go. If it happened in Colorado I'd probably go. I know there's some pragmatic rationale behind me not going there now, but every time I see the video of that NG kid saying he hates doing it - as he does it freaking anyway! - & I see the "tactical" assholes making those slow motion "dynamic entries" into the homes of Americans - of Southerners - I become torn between an insatiable anger & an impassable sadness. I won’t go for pragmatic reasons. This makes me ashamed of myself because I’m sure some fellows in Lexington & Concord had some very compelling pragmatic reasons to stay home that day in 1774, but thankfully they didn’t succumb to them.

So whoever is visiting from a .gov domain in D.C. you can slack off a little today; I won't be going. However I guaran-damn-teeya there's going to be enough folks who think like I do that this lawless immoral action on the part of the local & possibly state & federal government will not be without cost.

Hugh Hewitt talked about "self help" not being a valid option in our society. A caller asked him if he'd feel the same if the cops went door to door rounding up guns. His reply was to the effect that it was hypothetical & it would never happen so he wasn't going to waste his time on it. Well Mr. Hewitt, I have no joy in saying this, but as the title points out - hypothetical my ass! It's happened here & there before in this country but usually in isolated cases. Now they are going door to door to round up the guns on a much more visible plane.

Let me be clear - it may not be just local cops doing this. According to Johnny Yuma in this post & again in this post on a pertinent thread at The High Road there are federal agents involved.

In a Southern State federal agents may be accompanying the locals & they may be accompanied by the National Guard in breaking into people's homes & stealing their firearms. In a Southern city undergoing reconstruction federal agents may be disarming the locals.

What I want to know is where will Compass (the Chief of the New Orleans Police Thug Department) be held till his trial? Where will Nagin be arraigned at? Will they prosecute over the state constitution's prohibition on interfering with the Right to Arms, or will they take it to the federal level, or both?

Where are my Senators amongst the line of elected representatives decrying this invasion? Where are my representatives in that same line? What has Bush said he'd do about the matter since we all know he's pro-gun & pro-2nd amendment?

How many cops & soldiers refused to comply with their orders to steal the people's arms? How many drew arms on their fellow cops &/or soldiers who didn't refuse to comply? Talk I always heard was a good percentage of Law Enforcement Officers would refuse to obey an order to disarm an American citizen. So how many are left in the NOPTD? How about the Marshall’s office? How many Guardsmen have left their units?

Not a damn one. They're “doing their jobs” while giving lip service to it being distasteful, but doing it any damn way. The politicians are not saying a damn word (yet, though I doubt anyone other than Rep. Paul, Rep. Hupp & Rep. Musgrave & possible ex-Sen. Miller & Sen. Craig will be justifiably outraged). Bush? He can go to hell unless he gets off his "assault weapons" ban supporting ass & orders the federal troops to cease this abominable activity. Nagin & Compass? They can go to hell. They damn sure best not come up to Colorado as I do believe Colorado's citizen arrest statute would cover their actions.

The media? Don't try to make me laugh. If & I repeat if they report anything it'll be a "human drama" not a constitutional crisis. They'll show a disarmed man saying something pithy like "the cops were jealous cause our guns were bigger" not a man saying "I am a Louisianan & an American & these thugs stole my weapons in violation of the 2nd article of the bill of rights".

& I really, really want someone to tell me that "congressional hearings would be the appropriate way to find out if any rights were violated".

Let me try to impress this upon you: while certain rights may be suspended in an emergency, those rights have to be explicitly or at minimum implicitly enumerated. They have to spell out in the applicable constitutions which rights can be suspended, or which sets of right can be suspended in times if emergency. A mere law saying that in an emergency the state can suspend rights is not constitutionally valid. The constitution takes precedence & it takes amending a constitution to alter it, even temporarily.

Cops have been taped entering people's homes with weapons drawn. These are M4's being held at the shoulder with fingers on or near the trigger. That is a direct threat of force. This is occurring on private property without a warrant or probable cause of wrongdoing. They are pointing loaded weapons at American citizens. At Louisiana's citizens. They are explicitly taking actions that show a threat to those citizens' lives. They are doing this in an effort to infringe upon those citizens' Right to keep & bear arms as outlined by the federal constitution as well as the Louisiana constitution.

Before I was sympathetic as hell to the cops & soldiers down in New Orleans. Now every time I hear another "looter" was shot I will hope in all earnestness that the cop or soldier who shot him received tenfold in return. Why? Why am I taking the side of the “looter” now when a few days ago I was arguing that shooting them out of hand was not that objectionable? Because the media will label any homeowner who tries to protect their property & their rights as "looters".

Remember what the media does to gun owners? They demonize us. They usually try to spin it in whatever bad light they can. The Davidians were "child molesters/abusers" remember? The Weavers were "white supremacists" remember? Well the patriots in New Orleans tonight will be called "looters" if they effectively resist the jack booted thuggery that's going on down there.

Nicki, my former co-blogger is down there with the Virginia National Guard. I know Nicki pretty well. She won't be a part of this, though she may be a part of trying to stop this. Look for stories of a "deserter" or "NG soldier who refused to follow orders relating to a person's rescue". That'll be her as portrayed by the media.

We're gun owners. We will be subject to this kind of treatment. It's not going to go away. It'll happen in spurts, sometimes more viciously than others.

We're also too spread out. When anything happens it's usually a handful of us being surrounded by a superior (numerically; only numerically) force. We are also human beings & have a disdain for shooting anyone if we can avoid it. So when the feds come around we try to reason with them. I mean we're all Americans right?

Bullshit. The agents of government who are carrying out these unconstitutional & immoral orders bear no resemblance to the description of "American" I have imprinted in my mind. They are more reminiscent of German's from the 1930's & early 1940'2. They remind me somewhat of the Russians in the 30's & 40's. They do favor the Chinese of the 1940's & 50's a might. Americans? No. They should never be called such again. Nor should their presence ever be tolerated again in polite & civilized company.

Let me be clear before the comments start flying – I do not support any person who shoots at a cop, soldier or citizen for what I would consider to be unjustifiable reasons. Stealing from others, causing general mayhem or simple cold blooded murder are unacceptable reasons. Defending your home, property & Rights are acceptable reasons. I do not wish any harm on anyone down in New Orleans as long as they do not attempt to do unjustifiable harm to others. Stealing someone’s arms in this manner is unjustifiable harm, both to the victim & to our Constitutions. Therefore I wish harm on any person no matter his job title or description that would take arms from a person by force despite that person having not done anything to justify such actions. If it’s a burglar in the middle of the night or a cop in the middle of the day I hope that the potential victim of the attempted crime is able to successfully repel any such actions. I would not care if the perpetrator came to harm while trying to rob someone.

Make no mistake though; any citizen of Louisiana who does try to repel an attack geared towards disarming him will be in grave danger. It's likely he will be shot & probably that he will die. For that reason I am saddened by this turn of events. I know there are folks like me down there & therefore folks that will die at the hand of the government. I am also saddened by what this will do to the federal constitution. Both of them together are causes for weeping, but also of anger.

Watch New Orleans. This may be where you see the last trace of hope for the 2nd amendment perish, for if we cannot defend it from harm by the police & military (who have forsaken it for a paycheck), then what purpose does it serve?

I'll leave you with words more eloquent than mine:

"No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law. He simply follows the eleventh commandment" - R A Heinlein

"A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims" - Ayn Rand

"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." -Jeff Cooper

"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government" - Alexander Hamilton

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government" - Edward Abbey

"It is reported that the Governor has said, that he has Three Things in Command from the Ministry, more grievous to the People, than any Thing hitherto made known. It is conjectured 1st, that the Inhabitants of this Province are to be disarmed." — "ABC" (PSEUD., SAMUEL ADAMS)

"The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the high powers" delegated directly to the citizen, and `is excepted out of the general powers of government.' A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power." [Cockrum v. State, 24 Tex. 394, at 401-402 (1859)]

"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of." — Representative Suzanna Gratia Hupp (TX)

"To disarm the people [is] the best and most effectual way to enslave them." George Mason

Posted by Publicola at September 9, 2005 07:15 AM | TrackBack