Found this at the D.C. Clothesline today, and it was too good not to repost –
I was asked a simple question on one of the message boards/ social networks/ forums I frequent. “Are you willing to die to protect your guns?” What an absurd question; why would anyone be willing to die? Diane Feinstein claims she is for hunters rights. She does not get it. Even though I am a Hunter I do not own a gun so I can hunt. I do not need you Ms Feinstein to protect my hunting rights; I can do that on my own.
During the entirety of Bush’s Presidency I heard from the left how much they feared that man and what evil he may do. How he was a fascist, a tyrant, evil, antichrist, and so on. How he was a puppet and wanting to take over the world. If you really believe this, if you really believe that we had a President that did not care about your rights and was hell bent on conquering; why would you not want a way to protect your family from such an evil tyrant? Is it because you now have a sympathetic ear in the White House? A man that thinks the way you do? How long do you think he will be President? How long before there is another EVIL Conservative in the Oval Office? Are you willing to bet your family that no President will ever try and seize power? I’m not.
I am not angry; I am not clinging to my gun in some desperate act. I own a gun(s) because it is my Constitutional right to do so. I own a gun(s) because I am not willing to bet my family that some elected official isn’t going to try and seize control. I own a gun so YOU do not have to bet your family on the same thing. I own a gun(s) so you do not have to if you do not want to. I own a gun(s) to protect the rights of those that want to take mine away.
I really do not think that this President is trying to take over the world. I do not believe that he is an evil man. I may be wrong so, I am not willing to bet my family on it. Franklin said “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” What was he really saying? What Franklin was talking about was that giving up freedom when you feel safe will rob you of safety and freedom later. Are you 100% positive that the US will never have a tyrant for a President? You thought Bush was a tyrant so you have to believe the American right is capable of electing a worse one. Are you willing to bet the freedom and lives of your children that no man will ever try and conquer them? Are you willing to enslave your grandchildren for the “necessity” of a false safety?
Our Founding Fathers were very cautious men. They knew that eventually a Tyrant will rise (one always does) and they knew the people had to have a way to protect themselves from said tyrant. That is why they are quoted as saying things like:
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” George Washington.
“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” William Pitt. “One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.” “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms… disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” Thomas Jefferson. “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive.” Noah Webster.
That brings me to the answer of that simple question: “Are you willing to die to protect your guns?” My answer is no. I am not willing to die to protect my guns, for they do not need protection. I am willing to dissent. I am willing to stand up against, I am willing to protest, I am willing to defend, I am willing to fight, and if need be I am willing to kill albeit reluctantly to protect what great men long dead started; I am willing to do all these things and more in order to keep our children and their children, and their children’s children free. I am willing to sacrifice myself so that you do not have to own a gun.
This is what Ms. Feinstein does not understand. I don’t think she is smart enough to understand it. We American gun owners are not holding on to guns to hunt, or out of anger. We hold on to our guns just in case we ever need them. I own a gun(s) praying I never have to use it.
-Dan Diaz
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IMHO, Dan is spot on, from his particular perspective…regardless of your ‘political persuasion’, we can all agree that a true tyrant taking control of a nation as large and powerful as these United States is an awesome and horrible prospect. As citizens of the various states, we have an obligation to ensure this never happens, and this is the root of our inviolate right and duty to keep and bear arms.
Every right is an obligation, folks, and this is perhaps the biggest – “the right to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” because we are under the absolute obligation to never, ever allow a tyrant to assume command of our country, our military, our economy, and/or our culture.
In witness to that purpose and objective of our natural and G_D given right to bear arms, we must resist every proposition of surrender in this most essential matter, no matter how small; for if we surrender ‘but a little’ in each generation, then a generation will surely come wherein Americans will need the full power of arms to unseat a tyrant here upon our own shores, and we will have permitted his ascent by our incremental surrenders. The greater our surrender, the more arduous will be our battle against tyranny, when it comes.
It will not be our right to resist, it will be our obligation to rise against such tyranny and remove him/them entirely, regardless of the odds against us – that obligation is not only to ourselves, but to the rest of the world, as well. for though we will have surrendered as individuals and by small degrees, our final defeat will still come in one fell swoop, as a nation and a world, for in a single generation a tyrant in possession of the might of the US could, and likely would usurp the rightful governments of the entire world, inflicting greater death and despair than all previous tyrants throughout recorded history, combined.
Should that ever occur, it would be the plain, simple fault of every one of us, in every generation, who had surrendered ‘but a little’ of our ability to fulfill that most grave obligation. G_D will not hold us guiltless, should we grant such evil control over His creation. As Bonhoeffer stated so clearly, “not to speak is to speak; not to act is to act.”
Being born as Americans, we all reap what we have not sown. We are sent to gather in what our forefathers worked, and bled, and died for. Our privilege is surely our obligation also, for “to whom much is given, of him shall much be required”.
So in the end, the choice isn’t about guns – it’s about duty and honor, and so my answer to the absurd question is that “I will do whatever I must, to fulfill my duty to G_D and my country”. I will speak out against any disarmament of American citizens, regardless how small. I will oppose it by my every choice and deed. Should these measures fail, then I will actively resist it by any profitable means. I will kill if I am forced to, and I will die with honor if duty requires it of me.
If I possess any honor at all, then I can do no less; for this contest is about more than my life – it affects my ever-lasting soul, and thus the matter is decided by where I put my hope and my faith. My faith is in G_D, not in government; it lives in the dignity of every individual man, not in some faceless, soul-less ‘collective’. Neither my faith nor my resolve are negotiable – they are rooted in the same rock upon which our forefathers chose to build this nation – that rock of ages, to which so many have clung before, in times harder even that those which come to us now. Being thus rooted, my resolve may be impinged neither by sharp wit, nor strong rhetoric, nor deep emotion, nor any other manifestation of this world. And even should I die at the hand of the wicked, my enemy still will not have shaken the foundations upon which I stand.
THUS YOU JEALOUS HATERS OF LIBERTY HAVE BEEN WARNED –
MY HONOR IS WORTH FAR MORE THAN MY OWN LIFE,
AND CERTAINLY FAR MORE THAN YOURS.
MEN LIKE ME DO NOT START WARS, WE FINISH THEM;
AND IT IS YOUR MOVE, ISN’T IT?
LT
~Those who abuse Liberty, sentence themselves to Death!
Well said.