Let’s open with a little received wisdom:
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.” — Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
That first sentence says it all. As long as you keep on the right side of the law, you have nothing to fear from authority.
Now’s when it gets tricky, because politicians cannot resist making laws, and as the number of laws grows, so does the chance that you will fall afoul of one of them, no matter how hard you try. As one FBI agent once put it: “This is America. Nobody can go a day without breaking some law or other.” And that was said in 1998. The fact that this could be said with pride — or resignation — makes me want to reach for the tar and feathers, but that’s only my reaction to the first step. There are more.
The next step is to make transgressors into “Enemies Of The People” or (in the case of the Chinkvirus) a “Menace To Society”. In sociological terms, this is called “scapegoating” or in extreme cases, demonization. We’ve seen this in the past, of course, such as when the disgusting Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) publishes their various “hate lists” which set out to demonize as “hate groups” first the easy targets such as the KKK, and eventually the most innocuous organizations (e.g. campus-based Republican organizations). From that. it’s easy to apply the perjorative term du jour (“racist”, “Nazi”, “fascist” etc.) to whomever doesn’t agree with your position on anything.
Beyond labeling, of course, lies social shaming, “doxxing”, and the “cancel culture.” After that, the force of law. (We already have such laws on the books; murdering someone in cold blood: bad. Murdering someone and calling them a dirty nigger at the same time: somehow worse.) At some point, it will become an actual crime to say the word niggerniggernigger anywhere, even inside your own home, First Amendment be damned. And why not? seeing as racism has become punishable by law, any number of asterisks can be attached to the freedom of speech, of course.
“But the Supreme Court will intervene!” Don’t make me laugh. As an entity, the fucking Supreme Court has shown itself to be as useful as a paper-towel birdscreen on an airliner’s jet engine when it comes to protecting our rights.
Which leads us to the next Amendment, of course.
Now the Second has some issues for our wannabe-tyrants, of course, because gun owners are, well, armed (always a decent albeit drastic check on government excess). And disarmament is likely to prove difficult if not impossible, simply because even if only 1% of gun owners turn violent, that’s still a greater number than the number of law enforcement officers who would be tasked with doing the job.
There is another way to disarm gun owners, and it’s quite legal: pass a law or regulation that requires gun owners to pay a tax on some or all of their firearms, and when they refuse… ta-dah! Not only can the government use the I.R.S. to harass and prosecute, but because the refuseniks are de facto lawbreakers (refusal to pay federal taxes is a federal crime), they can be prohibited from owning firearms altogether once convicted of said crime. (Remember, trying to win a case against the I.R.S. in their own court system is 99.99% impossible, as to win, all they have to do is show that they acted properly in terms of their own regulations.)
Which is why the Socialists’ plan to tax “assault rifles” is such a pernicious act. If it ever becomes law (or a regulation under an Executive Order), we gun owners are fucked, pure and simple.
We can expect no help from the judiciary, as I noted above. We can likewise expect no help from local law enforcement refusing to enforce these un-Constitutional acts either, because the Biden Administration will just deploy federal agents (I.R.S., FBI, Fish & Wildlife, Postal inspectors — anyone they can bring to bear) and bypass your friendly sheriff’s deputies altogether.
And don’t think that there will be some kind of passive resistance from local law enforcement, either. If little Ector County in Texas (!!!) can deploy Meal Team Six just to shut down a fucking bar which stayed open defying a stupid Chinkvirus lockdown order passed by some local asshole mayor, believe me, you’re not going to be safe in your little suburban or rural bunker no matter how angry you are and how many rounds of 5.56mm ammo you have on hand.
I’m not often a doomsayer, but this is one of those occasions.
I’m also not given to issuing threats or warnings, so don’t expect some kind of challenge to come from me either. Let’s just see what happens, shall we?
Are you just teasing us?
“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.”
~ Frederick Douglass
I think Frederick & Ayn would’ve gotten on splendidly.
The gov’t will require all insurance companies (life, health, vehicle, business, home, etc.) to ask you if you possess firearms and that if you do possess them your insurance rates will double because of the inherent risk. Because the insurance companies will make more money they will gladly agree to it and become extensions of the tyrants.
Who tells the truth to their insurance agent? The real trouble begins when they make something illegal and then begin inferring that you possess said something. For example, anyone who has a government issued concealed carry permit can be assumed to possess a concealable firearm.
Maryland already does that by running out of state license plates through the concealed carry database. When they get a match, they pull the driver over and ask them where their gun is. If you have one (and admit to it) it’s off to jail because Maryland doesn’t recognize any out of state carry permits. (And they rarely issue in-state ones).
“Who tells the truth to their insurance agent?”
=========
People that are forced to sign a document to that effect under penalty of perjury. Don’t underestimate your enemy. I agree with the rest of your comment.
Same rationale Doctors ask in health surveys during checkups. How often do you drive faster than 5mph\hr over the speed limit? How many drinks a week do you have? Using any other medication than what is prescribed.
My latest one was “what kind of dangerous activities do you partake in?” – I asked, “such as?”. “Martial arts training, heavy weights lifting, mountain biking, backpacking, archery, using firearms, stuff like that”
My response was “None of your business – all my activities are by my choice, and mitigate any possible danger”.
We are being herded….
I just lie. Not that it matters much, in my case, as my doctor is a good ol’ Texas boy who owns more guns than I do. He’s more interested in all the shit food I eat than anything I actually do.
Even my eye doc carries a SIG P226.
“From that. it’s easy to apply the perjorative term du jour (“racist”, “Nazi”, “fascist” etc.) to whomever doesn’t agree with your position on anything.”
And from THAT, you can do anything you wish with a clear conscience. Note that Antifa equated themselves with the invasion forces on D-Day, because of course they were also fighting against Fascists. It becomes a case of “I don’t like you, so I get to decide you’re a Fascist and anything I do to you is justified because good men killed Fascists back during World War 2”.
“…deploy federal agents (I.R.S., FBI, Fish & Wildlife, Postal inspectors — anyone they can bring to bear)…”
At the time I was wondering why the Obama administration was arming F&W and the Postal Inspectors; I guess you’ve answered my question.
My problem is that, like the high school bully, the Socialist-Progressives in un-elected government bureaucracies keep pushing, harder and harder: are they waiting for a (armed) response or just using the lack of same to expand the envelope.
@boron,
They are pushing harder and harder, precisely because nobody is pushing back. The Obama administration did this quite a lot and it was surprising what they could get away with. They would push the boundaries and nobody did anything to stop them. So they would push some more.
To use a sports analogy, if the refs aren’t going to throw the flag, a team can keep committing penalties with impunity.
…especially when the refs have been bought and paid for by George Soros.
Just as a matter of record the US Postal Service Inspectors have always been armed. Some of the first Thompson Submachine Guns produced back in the early 1920’s were sold to the Post Office. That goes back to the days when large amounts of cash were sent by registered mail in mail cars. Train robbery was a favorite sport – remember the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The details were fictional but the idea was real.
Clerks who sorted and handled mail on the trains well into the 20th century were armed with Smith and Wesson and Colt revolvers. Lots of the model 1917 .45 ACP revolvers which were surplus from WW1 ended up in USPS hands. Other 1917 revolvers and surplus P17 Enfield rifles were “given” to small town banks to fight off robbers in the Bonnie and Clyde era. Many years later bankers would occasionally discover those weapons hidden away in the back of a safe.
Today issues of mail security are the concern of the Postal Police Service which protects USPS real estate and people in high crime areas, and the Inspection Service which acts as a detective bureau to investigate fraud and theft of mail. I don’t know the numbers but I would bet that there aren’t a huge number of US Postal Inspectors. Sure they’re Feds but seem to have their hands full dealing with Postal Matters.
“Meal Team Six” – good one!
KIm,
We all know how this ends. Essentially, just like Rwanda.
Identity politics is a cancer.
The problem with establishing what are essentially “tribes”, is that all members of the tribe are considered fair game by the other tribe- If one is harmed by Bill, and can’t get at Bill to retaliate, he harms Joe’s son Mike, because they are all from the same tribe.
Kim, they already have made so many laws they can imprison anyone they to if they are motivated enough. Someone even wrote a book about it:
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229
“I’d rather die on my feet, than live on my knees.”
– Emiliano Zapata.
At some point, there will be an incident. One where government acts outrageously. And we shall see how Americans react. In 1775, it was the British forces marching on Lexington and Concord to seize the local armories. In 2021+, what will it be?
And will Americans take up arms? Where will local law enforcement fall? All interesting questions, and I don’t pretend to know the answer. In 1775, the revolution was fought with a significant minority (supposedly the “3%ers” though I don’t pretend to know the historically accuracy of that number). What percentage will resist this time? And will those who do not actively resist assist the resistors passively by simply staying silent to authorities? Will political agents of the oppressive state, and their propaganda mouthpieces, be legitimate targets; i.e. “rule .308?” We shall see.
It’s time to establish those operational linkages. Quietly. Off the radar.
Government? You mean like ATF and FBI and who knows who else, burning men, women, and children alive? You mean like US Marshals and that pesky ATF shooting a 14 yr old child in the back, shooting his mother in the face while she was holding a baby in her arms? How about financially destroying a FFL holder and his family after his WIFE tipped off the ATF about possible straw purchases of firearms? You mean like state and local police officers digitally penetrating females and males on the shoulder of a highway? You mean like forcing a man to undergo not one, not two, but three colonoscopies in search of non existent drugs? You mean like confiscating money, vehicles and other property without charges, just on the basis of some vague “suspicion”? You mean molesting men women and children in public under the guise of “public safety”? You mean forcing businesses to close and forcing healthy people to wear masks and limiting freedom of association, violating pretty much every one of the rights enumerated in the BoR? You mean like blatantly committing massive election fraud, then telling anyone who calls it out, that they are crazy? At some point? Where have you been for the last 30 years?
“There is another way to disarm gun owners, and it’s quite legal: pass a law or regulation that requires gun owners to pay a tax on some or all of their firearms …”
Of course, this is how the NFA was implemented way back when. Congress understood that they could not ban outright certain firearms (machine guns, short barrel shotguns/rifles) on account of the Second Amendment. But they could require registration and then tax such items. That’s why ATF was originally part of the Department of Revenue.
At the time the $200 transfer tax was quite high compared to the price of the guns being regulated, which cost a mere fraction of that to purchase at retail.
The idea, of course, was to discourage people from buying machine guns and short barrel shotguns/rifles.
That will be one of the paths that they will go down. At some point they will get a comprehensive registration scheme in place. That will include a yearly fee per gun, just like for a car. The explanation is that the fee is to offset the costs of the system. Other steps will be regulation: zoning restrictions on shooting ranges, excessive regulations for noise, air quality, environmental, staffing and supervision, more. Maybe ban lead in bullets? Taxes and storage/quantity restrictions on components?
I don’t know if they have realized yet that they do not have to get rid of the Second Amendment. They can regulate the shooting sports and firearm ownership to death, and courts will back them up. If they take the Chinese view and work for the long term result, at some point a firearm will become an expensive wallhanger that costs too much to shoot, assuming that you could find a place to shoot it.
Yeah, I’m just a bundle of joy and happiness tonight, aren’t I?
Lead bullets are already banned in parts of California that are considered California Condor country. The reason is supposedly the Condors are getting lead poisoning from the gut piles the hunters leave after dressing deer, so they die.
This environmental consideration can easily be expanded, just as lead shot and waterfowl hunting has been expanded.