Sunday, November 6, 2011

Musings on the unintended consequences of a writer's appetite for other people's liberty & property. "A tactical problem in liberty worth the risk ."


Chistopher Evans of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Not as smart as he looks, evidently.

-----Original Message-----
From: georgemason1776
To: cevans
Sent: Sun, Nov 6, 2011 10:14 am
Subject: re: Your plan for another American civil war -- it probably won't work out the way you hope.

Re: Your call for civil war entitled "NRA calls the tune and kids pay pay the price." Or, musings on the unintended consequences of your appetite for other people's liberty and property.

Mr. Evans,

Before I get to heart of your proposal, I would like to point out an egregious factual error. You say:

"The National Rifle Association, that well-funded protector of the people's right to keep and bear arms, is also a felon's best friend.

The group's zero tolerance toward gun registration or any kind of public database that records and tracks the purchase of firearms -- fueled by a paranoia that crooks, killers and rogue government agencies would use that information for evil -- has triggered the kind of collateral damage that politicians, both here and in Washington, should be condemning instead of condoning."


You, sir, have obviously not been paying attention to the headlines. The "felon's best friend" is not the NRA (though I hold no love for them per se) but rather the Obama Administration which has been empowering Mexican drug cartels and American street gangs of late by "letting the guns walk" in what has become known as the "Gunwalker Scandal." (A story that I broke at my blog, Sipsey Street Irregulars, on 28 December 2010, and a story that the Cleveland Plain Dealer has been largely ignoring in its own editorial pages.) The families of ICE agent Jaime Zapata, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the thousands of Mexican innocents who have lost family members as a result of this deliberate policy could tell you about "collateral damage" from the very people you seek to further empower, were you to get past your preconceived notions to ask them.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not recall you personally ever condemning the Obama administration for being the Mexican cartels best friend.

But now, to the important issue at hand, your solicitation of civil war:

Presumably, the weapon entered the black hole of private ownership where guns can be sold or traded without the need of a federal license. The lack of oversight and accountability for those who legally sell weapons from their homes, cars or booths at gun shows infuriates law enforcement.

"What the hell's going on here?" Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath asked in an interview.


MBV: If I may interject, what the hell that is going on here is the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, a document that Chief McGrath swore an oath to defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He seems to have forgotten that.

Last year, according to Cleveland Safety Director Marty Flask, the Cleveland Police Department requested ATF traces on a total of 1,192 firearms.

The ATF is handcuffed from releasing that information to the public, thanks to legislative restrictions backed by the NRA that were introduced by former U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, a Republican from Kansas.


MBV: Of course nothing prevents the Cleveland Police Department from running the traces themselves and using the information -- they do so every day -- so your problem apparently is that YOU, the anti-firearm rights press, cannot access the information for the purposes of propaganda. Am I wrong?

McGrath, however, will say that 80 percent of those 1,192 weapons were purchased in Ohio.

"It tells us our guns are homegrown," the chief says.


MBV: What it does not tell us is how many of these were stolen from the homes of law-abiding gun owners, which is not a question that the chief is particularly interested in asking because it doesn't fit with his citizen disarmament meme. Nor, apparently, does it with yours, sir.

It also tells us that those of our elected officials who've allowed NRA self-preservation to take precedence over public safety considerations are complicit in criminal acts of violence that target children.

Legitimate, federally licensed dealers who record purchases, do background checks and provide the ATF with the information it needs to trace guns concur with Cleveland police that private sellers should be brought under the same mandates as licensed dealers.

Until that happens, it's time to expose the NRA for what it really is: a front for illegal gun sales.


"A front for illegal gun sales"? Again, you have mistaken the NRA for the Obama Department of Justice. But let us examine the gist of your (perhaps unintended) call for civil war. Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems you are calling for the regulation of the entire civilian private sales of arms. That is, if I want to sell a weapon to my neighbor, or will my granddaddy's single barrel twelve gauge shotgun to my son, then I must get the federal government's approval before doing so. Both the seller (or donor) and the buyer (or donee) must register with the federal government, specifically with the same agencies -- the FBI and the ATF -- whose leadership has proven so corrupt and dangerous to the public safety in the Gunwalker Scandal. This IS what you are proposing is it not? Sort of like giving the fireman who has been caught setting arson fires more matches and gasoline, ain't it?

The only problem with that is that there are a number of American firearm owners who will resist this new infringement on our personal liberty and our property rights -- at the muzzles of millions of our rifles. If you point the weapons of federal law enforcement at us over such a bold plan to coerce us into giving up more of our traditional, God-given and natural liberties, we will surely return the favor. We will ignore such a law, we will defy it and we will dare anybody to do anything about it.

Thus, not long after you get your wish by such a proposed law's passage, the shots will begin. In order to enforce your diktat, the body count will be in millions, for there are millions of us and we will not go gently into your collectivist good night.

Believe me, the NRA is not your problem. They would sell their own mothers over a point of public relations. The determined minority of the armed citizenry of the United States is, however, your big problem if you get what you are advocating.

I think your basic failure of understanding is that you are interpolating from your own cowardice. You know that if the federal government ordered you to do something contrary to what you believed in that you would do it because the feared punishment from the mighty Leviathan for not doing it would be loss of your own life. You view that as a given. We, on the other hand, view it as a tactical problem in liberty worth the risk of solution. Unlike you, there are people who will not only die for their liberty and property, but will kill in defense of it too. Even if it means their own deaths.

The very real tragedies of innocents being killed by the offspring of the 60 year experiment of liberal social engineering in the cities (that you dance in the blood of in order to make your tyrannical propaganda point) would pale to insignificance in comparison.

It seems an odd way to achieve "safe streets."

My advice? Find another hobby besides advocating the theft of other people's liberty and property. When it moves from advocacy to action, some people tend to take such things personally. Besides, current opinion polls indicate that you and your citizen disarmament friends are on the wrong side of history. A majority of the American people now support more firearm liberty, not less. Not that we pay any attention to opinion polls. I mention it only because y'all are big on "democracy." Or at least you say so. Personally, I'll take the constitutional Republic crafted by our Founders, who were as suspicious of pure collectivist democracy as they were of kings. You remember the Constitution, don't you? The one with the Second Amendment?

But political philosophy aside, may I quote the old Chinese proverb that applies here?

"Be careful what you wish for, you may get it."

Most sincerely,

Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126
GeorgeMason1776@aol.com
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com



LATER: Pretty funny. I just got this response from Mr. Evans. (His computer, anyway.)

-----Original Message-----
From: CHRISTOPHER EVANS
To: georgemason1776
Sent: Sun, Nov 6, 2011 10:14 am
Subject: re: Your plan for another American civil war -- it probably won't work out the way you hope. (out of office)

I'll be out of the office until Tuesday, November 8.


I rather suspect that Mr. Evans is out of the office even when he is in the office, but that may be just me.

16 comments:

RJIII said...

Would these writers accept a license for them to run their assault rapid fire indiscriminate mouths? Didn't think so.

Very Pissed Off Hobbit said...

While we are being honest and frank, lets take it one step further. It is going to take more than we may be capable of politically to cleanse this system of republican form of government of these vermin who are nothing but bloodsuckers, leeches who attach themselves to every source of my money and suck it dry for everything it is worth. Then call us who only know the tiniest tip of the iceberg, but suspect the cultural corruption and theft runs from the white house all the way to the lowliest federal employee, we who dare to call out the theft of OUR wealth, are branded as terrorists?
Well fuck you!
Anyone who works for the government is quite simply as guilty as the worst perpetrator of this generational theft in the highest offices.
This is the worst reality of it all. The entire system relies on the little people who work in it to keep their mouths shut. And the truth is it works. These are not American's, they are the old Russian Nomenklaturer come to life today on steroids. A ponzi pyramid system of power where who belong to it belong to an elite special club. A system that grows like a beast, a behemoth, a veritable leviathan that will never give up its system of perks and largess.
But mark my words, it is a bloated Tick, for if this Constitutional republic is to survive, for if it is to bear fruit of Liberty and Rule of Law, it is going to take a purging that most involed will fight and die for on both sides.
It is the public pig trough feeders verses part of this here nation who are fed up with the ungrateful selfish bastards who expect us to keep the trough filled no matter how little is left for our labors.
It is going to end, one way or another.

Mark Matis said...

Actually, dakota5, they WOULD be fine with that. As long as the "right" people were in charge of licensing.

Anonymous said...

Haha! Get some!

Kansas Scout said...

Well said!

Robert Fowler said...

Legitimate, federally licensed dealers who record purchases, do background checks and provide the ATF with the information it needs to trace guns concur with Cleveland police that private sellers should be brought under the same mandates as licensed dealers.

Oh? None of the dealers I know of are for this. Including myself. What private citizens do with their property is none of mine or the governments business.

MechaRogers said...

Clinton's ROE, anyone?

Sgt K, 31B20

Ramsey A. Bear said...

It's shame this authorized journalist didn't think to ask the safety director some journalistic questions:

Was every trace connected with a crime? (found or recovered stolen property)

Was there any multiple traces for any firearm?

Can the police trace a firearm BATFE if no crime occurs?

Were any of the firearms traced property of or associated with a Police Dept.?

And last but not least;

Where any of the traced guns reported stolen prior to a trace on them? (read that bypassing any log book or 4473)

Anonymous said...

If our right to own firearms were surrendered to government, that would mean that all the firearms would be owned and controlled by our government.


In all of history, is there a government that hasn't turned the weapons of state against its own people?

Is there a government that has not used martial coercion to suppress dissenters?

Democratically elected governments have done more harm to the common man than all the plagues recorded. Governments have stolen more rights than they've ever conveyed. No right stolen was ever returned without overthrowing the government that stole them away.

Such is the lesson of history.

I personally can see no greater need to own firearms than to protect my life, my property and my freedoms from the usurpations of my government.

If my right to own firearms were ever restricted and denied, it would signal that undeniable truth that the rest of my God given rights were also to be restricted and denied. What ever rights remaining would be lent to us only through favor or service to government until such time that government no longer needed our service.

We should never relinquish responsibility for our self protection and our liberty to a government of men. History has taught us what they will do.

My liberty and my property belong to me and me alone. Ownership is not negotiable. I cannot accept or abide by any notion otherwise. Those who are willing to surrender their liberties and their property to government, do so at their own peril.

Those who willingly surrender their liberties and lives to government deserve neither. Nor do they deserve the protections of this Republic paid for in blood by our forefathers.

Those who advocate for government usurpations of liberty and property by government have already surrendered their sovereignty. We can see plainly where they stand and they become the fodder and fertilizer for liberties tree unbowed.

kenlowder said...

Careful mike, that troll mr anon from NYC bad cops might report you too to the police for advocating civil war too. Lol

To mister pissed off hobbit, no not all who want to work for the government are leaches. I worked for the government for twenty years. Bm2 USCG,ret. when I showed up in my rescue boat and said, hi, I'm from the government. I'm here to help. I meant it. That's twenty years doing search and rescue, law enforcement, oil and hazmat response, and more. All the time I remembered and kept my oath. I still remember it and I will keep against all enemies foreign and domestic.

Ken Lowder, III% and oath keeper.

Ted Lindblad III said...

VPOH said...

"This is the worst reality of it all. The entire system relies on the little people who work in it to keep their mouths shut. And the truth is it works. These are not American's, they are the old Russian Nomenklaturer come to life today on steroids."

Certainly terrible, but is not the worst realization some 50% or more of our "countrymen" actually desire the continuation of the system?

God have mercy...

Anonymous said...

Lets all send our regards to this prick with some sort of ditto and a link to this article, and get as many others to do so as well.
I'm going to right now.

III more than them said...

Ken, a hat tip to you. Absolutes are absolutely a pain in the ass, and that's true even when applied to the government at large. There are good guys there, some damned very well good guys in fact. I think hobbit is expressing near total frustration at the injustices that government can foist upon us without meaningful recourse.

There's goo, bad and ugly. Sometimes the ugly so whacks our vision as to just say, fuck it, and paint them all as bad.

Keep your oath, and continue teaching others to do the same. We need the good ones to BREED others...

AZVick said...

That punk exploited the death of a poor, beautiful child for his own gain. It made me sick.

Thank you for having the class to leave it out of your column.

Anonymous said...

"Gun free zones are killing fields for mass murderers."
- Ted Nugent
Member, NRA Board of Directors

Those who favor more gun control, especially those who like gun-free zones, should pay heed to the above statement. Its logic is undeniable.
I carry everywhere there isn't a metal detector and/or a patdown.
To Hell with gun-free zones!

A_Nobody said...

Great article. @kenlowder - I know many others, including myself, who remember the oath and won't back away from it.