Freedom's Last Stand
Are You Willing To Fight for Your
Guns?
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriot and tyrants".
--Thomas Jefferson
By Stephen Weaver
During the latter stages of the Rhodesian Bush war, in the late 1970's a
particularly salient tactical point was demonstrated to those with eyes to
see. Embattled Rhodesia, fighting for its very life and ostracized by virtually
the entire world, quietly adopted a policy change for its armed forces. As
a result, the selector switches on thousands of FN-FAL rifles were deliberately
switched from the full-auto mode to semi-automatic as a matter of standard
procedure. The reason was the shortage of ammunition brought about by
international sanction efforts. The effects were startling in that nothing
changed as far as battle outcome in spite of a better-armed and equipped
enemy in increasingly superior numbers penetrating Rhodesia from three fronts.
The communist-trained and supplied terrorists maintained the full auto mode
with their AK-47s right up until the end. When the final battles came the
outnumbered and outgunned Rhodesians had never lost a single encounter; rather,
their demise came at the negotiation table-which is a point for deep
reflection.
What this proves is that semi-auto fire is a match for full-auto in the hands
of determined and committed personnel fighting for home and hearth. As we
stand today with the threat of legislation banning the possession and/or
manufacture of semi-automatic weapons, we had best pause and consider this
carefully. A ban of so called assault rifles today will become a ban on your
Remington 1100 tomorrow -- bet on it. The Second Amendment has been dealt
numerous and severe infractions in multiple, localized instances over the
past half-century. But never before has it faced the broad onslaught we now
see. The avowed goal of those in our very government is to strip us of our
rights under the Second Amendment. Should this occur, however, it will ultimately
be our fault, not theirs. The reason for this is the Second Amendment. As
an American in the middle of my fourth decade in this life I, like many others,
look around in utter shock and dismay at the rapid unraveling of our culture.
I've managed to get to this point in life without running afoul of our laws
even once. I am not associated with or an adherent to any group espousing
supremacist views, Nor do I advocate the violent overthrow of the government...
at this point in time. I will confess to holding numerous politically incorrect
attitudes, however.
I've been fortunate to be able to live abroad in several countries, which
has given me a good deal of perspective from which to speak, But, I speak
as an American whose family has been in this country since before the revolution.
Now I look at the fast-approaching tomorrow when I may be legislated a criminal
for what is my legal right today. This is because I own a couple of
semi-automatic weapons. One of them was bequeathed to me by my late father
and was purchased by him in the middle 1920's -- insidious weaponry indeed!
Yet I face the possibility that I could wake up one day and be a felon unless
I immediately turn in these weapons. This is something I will not do.
Those words are not written lightly or without the awareness that someone
will read them that I would rather not have reading them. Nevertheless I
am compelled to write this, under my own name, because I cannot, in good
conscience, keep quiet on the issue. Should such legislation pass in this
country, I do expect the possibility that I might not live for any great
period of time there after. For at that point I will bear arms against the
so-called government of that day. I will do so if I have to do it alone and
I will do it forseveral very good and legal reasons.
It is legal, now, for me to write and for this to be published because we
have a First Amendment. We have that because some vestiges of the Constitution
are still intact. Right behind our freedom of speech and freedom of religion
our forefathers placed a second pillar of this republic, the right to bear
arms. In many ways it has supported and still does support the rest. I'll
not go into a long discourse about the legal basis for our Second Amendment
rights. That's been done by better legal minds than mine and is readily available
to the inquiring mind. I'll suffice to say that, in the succinct words of
a bumper sticker, "The Second Amendment ain't about duck hunting." What it
is about, is our culture, our country and our whole way of life I'll not
give that up without a fight.
The late Christian theologian Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer once made a statement
that has stuck with me for many years: "If there is no final place for civil
disobedience, then the government has been made autonomous, and as such,
it has been put in the place of the Living God." The thrust of what Dr. Schaeffer
has said here is as relevant to the secular as it is to the Christian audience
he addressed. In a nutshell, if you don't have a defensible bottom line,
you've just made the government your personal god. The context of the discourse
from which this quote was taken was the rule of law in our culture. In the
American expression of western culture the rule of law is embodied in the
Constitution of the United States, of which the Second Amendment is an integral
part. To an American, then, this is our relevant bottom line, from a secular
governmental perspective. In the words of the Constitution itself, Article
VI, Section 2: "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which
shall be made in pursuance, thereof ... shall be the supreme law of the
land."
The Second Amendment is a part of the Constitution and is not in the authority
of Congress to alter save by an amending process as submitted to the states.
No 51-49 vote can legally supersede it. All powers in our Constitution are
delegated at three levels: Federal, State and the People. This is where our
Second Amendment rights lay, with the people. Very simply, Congress would
be breaking the supreme law if it infringed on our Second Amendment right.
It does not have that legal power and never has. Neither do the courts. Banning
semi-autos is a clear infringement in the same way I would handle it when
encountered in the form of some dirtball on the street. I'm not in the habit
of handing over my guns to any criminal, regardless of title or elected
office.
This too is an American attitude older than our Republic. It was essentially
a British gun-grabbing attempt that ignited our Revolution. The lessons of
Lexington and the conviction of Concord are sorely needed in out time. The
Declaration of Independence has a lot to say about the reasons to dispose
of government. And none of them are to be taken lightly. In this writer's
opinion we are far beyond the of tyranny, which the minds of Jefferson,
Washington and Madison decided was their bottom line. If we are not now on
the verge of a similar point, with similar actions presenting themselves
as strong possibilities, then we have tacitly declared Jefferson and company
criminals, and their subsequent government illegitimate. But history has
shown this is decidedly not the case; the greatest experimentation in government
has not been a complete failure. We've just let our elected government and
its bureaucracies slip from the "chains" that Mr. Jefferson knew were the
proper abode for all government.
It is not time to scrap our Constitution, it is time to reinstate it as the
lawful rule in thiscountry. That is best done with the Constitution itself.
Either we take the preamble of our Constitution seriously or we submit to
the illegitimate and illegal actions of our elected officials as god in our
lives. Our forefathers gave us a great gift: "We the People in Order to ...secure
the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity [that's us] do ordain
and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." The Founders
are gone, but what they gave us is still alive enough to save the "blessings
of Liberty" if we've the courage to use it. It is to this point that I write
these words and sign them with the intent of pledging my life, any other
free Americans left who will do likewise?
There are those who will honestly question the need to draw such a line at
this point. In rebuttal to that I'll point to the example of Rhodesia and
the great concern of our founders over standing armies with the need to have
an equally armed Militia. We cannot hope to prevail against a tyrannical
government armed with fully automatic weapons when we are reduced to bolt
actions or worse. We can prevail with our semi's, and they know it -- from
behind every tree and rock, in a wholly American expression of "don't tread
on me." You see, it is not street crime driving the anti-gunners, it is the
complete disarmament of the American populace. If they've taken our semi's,
they'll eventually get the rest without risk. Do I know what I'm suggesting
here? Yes, I do.
I am speaking of the specter of civil war while adamantly hoping it can be
avoided. It is true that one shot could ignite a civil war under such a scenario
but if so, as a Lexington, it would be a "shot heard round the world". Because
if it were to occur our goal ought to be the reinstitution of the Constitution
and the rule of law in our unraveling society. Further, it should be taken
to the doors of those instigating such illegal acts that might precipitate
a civil war; their vote for such a bill will mean they are to be put on trial
for treason and conspiracy to violate our civil rights. This would include
the president who signs it and perhaps the newspaper columnists and broadcast
media who rail for its passage.
In the words of Sir Winston Churchill, whose mother incidentally was an American,
"Still if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without
bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so
costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the
odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be
a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because
it is better to perish than to live as slaves.' To those who would consider
burying their semi's in the backyard, I suggest a careful consideration of
these words. We are nearly at a critical crossroads in the course of this
nation. What we bequeath to our children (our posterity) should be no less
than what was given us, the chance to live as free men and women. Will you
act when this critical moment arrives, or bow at the feet of your newfound
god-feet that would soon be found to be wearing jackboots when they come
to kick in your unprotected door?