Western Rifle Shooters Association

Do not give in to Evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Vanderboegh: An Open Letter to the Gun Control Crowd


An Open Letter to the Gun Control Crowd

You're almost there.

Regardless of who wins the presidential election, you'll have a candidate who agrees with you on government seizure of control of the private sale of arms. (You call it "closing the gun show loophole." but not even King George III was so tyrannically grasping.) You will also probably have a veto-proof Democrat (read, "the party of gun control") majority in both houses of the federal legislature, so you think that the next order of business after that will be a real "assault weapons ban" which will force us "bitter clingers" to turn in our semiautomatic rifles of military utility. Do that, and you think you have finally overturned the Founders' system by securing a government monopoly of violence. For it is truly at government's altar that you worship and not that of God-given individual liberty.

So things could not be brighter - you're almost there. You have that old Chris Matthews' thrill running up and down your leg. Oh, you're concerned a bit about what the Supreme Court decision might be in the Heller case, but you're pretty sure (with good reason) that even if they uphold the individual right to arms those black robes will split the baby and still leave you enough wiggle room to shove your agenda forward. So for the first time in a long time, you think you're about to win.

Wrong.

Not even close.

You have extrapolated our predicted behavior from your own cowardice. You know that YOU would not have the temerity to resist a "democratically elected" government's order so you think the same applies to us. Again, you couldn't be more wrong. For forty years, since the Gun Control Act of 1968, our side has been pushed back from the free exercise of our God-given rights and each time we gave in on "reasonable" gun control it bought us nothing, for you took it as signal of our irresolution and pushed us back again.

Of course it's really our fault for we have been TOO law-abiding and we never pushed you back. Now, having backed us against the wall, you are about to give us no choice. Your nanny-state meddling with free people is about to achieve critical mass, and the explosion will be catastrophic to your plans.

Pass a ban on private sales of arms and we will defy it.

Pass a ban on semiautomatic rifles of military utility -- in effect, try to disarm us -- and we will refuse to turn them in.

Send thugs to come and take them from us and we will shoot back.

People are going to die - lots of people.

And that's only the beginning.

That's it.

That's all I have to say.

You're about to get what you have been wishing and scheming and working toward all your lives.

I hope you're happy with the unintended consequences of your "victory."

Mike Vanderboegh
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126
GeorgeMason1776@aol.com

Author's note: Feel free to distribute this far and wide. Send it to a gun-grabber. It might make their day. ;-)

19 Comments:

Blogger GunRights4US said...

Wonderful! Absolutely Wonderful! Let the gun grabbers beware.

June 10, 2008 at 4:27 PM  
Blogger Sean said...

Not a grabber, you made my day, Mike. And, as usual, you are right. What more than troubles me, is how many of my fellow citizens are willing to not only cooperate with this garbage, but are willing to sell me and you out to boot. Whatever happens, it's sure to be lots of fun. Fun, as in, if I live through it, looking back on it will be fun.

June 10, 2008 at 5:21 PM  
Blogger jon said...

semper liber.

June 10, 2008 at 5:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They won't seize current 'assault weapons' and won't strongly enforce bans on private trades - it's too fast, too strong. Rather, I predict any current black rifles will be grandfathered in, just like what happened with the effective machine gun ban. People won't complain today because no one is losing a gun they already own, and when new people come in it'll be a trickle, so their complaints will be drowned out. However, as new parts are restricted, and as the price suddenly jumps, black rifles will quickly leave general circulation and will be above general use (would you use a $10k firearm you can't get replacement parts for for your regular shooting?) And so the vast majority of people who should care won't act.

Similarly, private gun transfers will only caught up when you use your gun in self-defense. Suddenly you're not someone defending your family against an armed invader, you're a criminal using an illegal gun, and therefore you go to jail. People won't be willing to buy guns like that if there's any chance of a cop running a check on it - they won't risk it for home defense and it's not worth the hassle for just a fun shooting gun.

The libs know what they're doing. They've learned from 80 years of history. Meanwhile, people on the other side are all to happy to look no further than whether their own precious firearms are safe or not (with, of course, exceptions, yourself included). They've forgotten a most basic law of ethics; don't compromise with the devil.

June 10, 2008 at 7:20 PM  
Blogger Dixie McCoy said...

I gotta wonder if the gun control people are trying to start an uprising or if they are really that ignorant of history.

Sure they'll try and say a lot has changed in almost 250 years, but some things don't change. Among those are our rights and the tendency of governments to move ever towards tyranny unless put in check.

June 10, 2008 at 10:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

my guess is regulation, taxation,and restrictions. they will succeed with their agenda. we will be silent and a shot will never be fired.

June 11, 2008 at 2:53 AM  
Blogger Kent McManigal said...

I don't look forward to it, and I don't think I will look back on the "Last War of American Liberty" with anything other than horror. That doesn't mean I won't put my life and soul on the battle line. We who love liberty did not start it, but one way or another, we will finish it. I wish there were another way, but we tried; they lied.

June 11, 2008 at 5:00 AM  
Blogger E. David Quammen said...

Here's a nice little morsel that should help our cause:

"From among the rights retained by our policy, we have selected those of self defence or bearing arms, of conscience, and of free inquiry, for two purposes; one, to shew the vast superiority of our policy, in being able to keep natural rights necessary for liberty and happiness, out of the hands of governments; the other, to shew that this ability is the effect of its principles, and beyond the reach of Mr. Adams’s system, or of any other, unable to reserve to the people, and to withhold from governments, a variety of rights."

- John Taylor, Revolutionary Soldier and U.S. Senator, (1792 – 94, 1803, 1822 – 24). [An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States: Section the Sixth; THE GOOD MORAL PRINCIPLES OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES, (1814).]

SWEET, isn't it?

TAYLOR, John, a Senator from Virginia known as ‘John Taylor of Caroline’ to distinguish him from others of the same name; born in either Orange or Caroline County, Va., probably on December 19, 1753; educated by private tutors; studied at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., 1770-1772; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Caroline County in 1774; served in the Revolutionary War as major and colonel; member, State house of delegates 1779-1785, with the exception of 1782, and 1796-1800; retired from the practice of law and engaged in agricultural pursuits; elected in 1792 to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Richard Henry Lee; reelected in 1793 and served from October 18, 1792, until his resignation on May 11, 1794; presidential elector in 1797; appointed to the United States Senate as a Democratic Republican to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Stevens T. Mason and served from June 4 to December 7, 1803, when a successor was elected; was not a candidate for election to fill the vacancy; elected in 1822 to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Pleasants; reelected as a Crawford Republican in 1823, and served from December 18, 1822, until his death in Caroline County, Va., August 21, 1824; interment on Hazelwood farm, near Port Royal, Caroline County, Va.

- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=T000086

June 11, 2008 at 6:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is an outstanding quote from one of the Founders. Outstanding. I will use it in the near future. -- Vanderboegh

June 11, 2008 at 12:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Soc et tuum. Just how many rights are Americans supposed to give up in the name of public safety and ignorance of our history and our Constitutional guarantee? These idiotic representatives are legislating away rights under the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, state constitutions and the basic, fundamental, individual right to defend one's self and family arise from judicial activists sitting on the bench and the fools bringing them these cases. For the record, judges are supposed to interpret and follow the law and NOT legislate from the bench. It amazes me to see how people can substitute their own agenda and political philosophies to legislate what they could not pass within the state and federal legislatures. Our basic human rights have been the main casualty. Our forefathers would turn over in their graves to see the spectacle and the tragedy as a result.

June 11, 2008 at 2:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hell yeah, they can take my guns, but first they have to take the ammo, one round at a time, pointy end first, at 2800 feet per second.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!

June 11, 2008 at 3:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"In the spring, gun-grabbers come
I am happy to comply, but
You get the ammo first"

First posted at The War on Guns 6/11/08

June 11, 2008 at 6:29 PM  
Blogger chris horton said...

http://chris-horton.blogspot.com/2008/06/open-letter-to-all-gun-grabbers.html#links

Linked. Thanks!

June 11, 2008 at 9:37 PM  
Blogger Kent McManigal said...

But rights can not be legislated away, restricted, or regulated; only respected or violated.

June 12, 2008 at 12:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

E. David Quammen is a closet gun grabber. He likes to put up osts suggesting otherwise but he has a long history of equivocation on matters of the 2nd Amendment.

More than that, he's a childish punk who likes to talk big but his bravado masks a miniscule courage to back his crap up.

June 12, 2008 at 12:19 AM  
Blogger E. David Quammen said...

Anonymous - Can certainly understand why you post anonymously.

Have you always been a troll, or are you new to trolldom? Wouldn't care to attempt to back up any of your BS, would you? No, of course you wouldn't....

June 12, 2008 at 6:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As a member of this great country's military, I have this to say we take an oath to Support and Defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. We have gone over the Katrina fiasco in Constitutionality and found many problems. Very few of us serving will actually take guns(thats the ATF folks). As for some of us we'll be in the trenches with you. now praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

June 22, 2008 at 8:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"NEVER PICK A FIGHT WITH AN OLD MAN.
IF HE CAN'T FIGHT, HE'LL JUST KILL YOU!"

June 22, 2008 at 10:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's a column I wrote a while back that covers the same ground...

“When you come for my guns…”
by
Larry Simoneaux

I guess I’m just tired of it all.

Tired of the bogus definitions (see: “assault weapons” or “assault rifles”) and the slanted statistics I’ve seen in reports on “gun violence.”

Tired of the endless attempts to find a “stealth” method to do away with all firearms – most recently by the use of lawsuits aimed at bankrupting firearms manufacturers by holding them responsible for what some morally bankrupt criminal does with their product.

Tired of the skewed reporting and glaring omissions in “news” stories.

Bet you didn’t know that, in the Appalachian Law School shooting of several years ago, the incident ended when two students got their guns and subdued the killer without firing a shot.

If you missed it, it’s not your fault. You see, in more than 200 reports, that little factoid was “conveniently” left out.

I’m tired of gun owners being portrayed as ignorant, gap-toothed simpletons whose only source of amusement is shooting anything that moves.

I’d be willing to stand a cross-section of gun owners up against any of the anti-gun crowd and bet hard money on which end of the IQ pool would be deepest. You see, I’ve sat around too many campfires listening to doctors, judges, airline pilots, business owners, teachers, and just plain hard working people talk. Most times, I decided to keep my mouth shut so as not to lower the level of discussion.

I’m tired of being told that the Constitution guarantees such things as abortions (nowhere mentioned), but does not recognize an individual’s right to “keep and bear” arms - even though those words can be read by all who care to do so.

I’m tired of hearing that we need just one more “reasonable gun law” when there are already thousands on the books that seem to be carefully forgotten.

I’m tired of finding that most - if not all - of such proposed laws are nothing more than dishonest attempts aimed at the eventual confiscation of all firearms.

I’m tired of being told that I should take moral guidance on this issue from the likes of Ted Kennedy and others of his ilk. Sorry, I’ll have to check with Mary Jo Kopechne and get back to you on that one.

I’m tired of seeing concrete and obvious examples ignored.

Washington, D.C. and New York City have some of the toughest gun laws on the books. Their crime rates have been repeatedly shown to be (guess which) higher/lower than cities wherein gun ownership is less restricted.

I’m tired of being told that guns are the problem when, on any given day, I can turn on the news and hear about the latest atrocity we – as a society – have suffered. Therein, I inevitably find that: (1) it’s been perpetrated by some useless accretion of carbon with a “rap” sheet thicker than a telephone directory; and (2) said individual was still on the street because of a justice system that’s become more “system” than justice.

I’m a father, a former little league coach, an honorably discharged veteran, and a past president of the local PTA. I’ve been married to the same woman for 35 years. I’ve never been arrested and my last run-in with the law was a speeding ticket back in the mid-70’s.

I vote in every election. I give blood regularly. I have a degree in English Literature and another in Marine Biology. I spent a year in a Benedictine monastery studying to be a priest. However - because I choose to own firearms - to the major networks, liberal politicians everywhere, and the likes of Sarah Brady, I’m nothing more than a “gun nut.”

I’ve finally accepted that there’s never going to be a balanced presentation of “my” side of the argument and I’m tired of that, too.

I guess I’ve finally reached the point where I’ve decided I will no longer be “reasonable” while the other side has never accorded me the same courtesy. Therefore, I have a message for the anti-gun zealots out there. It’s from someone who’s perfectly normal and is basically your next door neighbor.

There used to be a bumper sticker that said: “You’ll get my gun when you pry my cold, dead fingers from the trigger.”

You made fun of it and derided those who believed in the spirit of the idea it propounded.

Unfortunately, it’s not readily available any longer. Because of this, I’ve often thought about making up one of my own.

It would say: “When you come for my guns, bring yours. You’ll be needing them.”

Bet that one would drive certain people up the wall.

(Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds, WA. Comments can be sent to: larrysim@clearwire.net)

October 6, 2008 at 3:19 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home