Executive Orders & Lampposts

Day by Day.

In my email in-box is this story about MagPul, "One Million AR-15 Magazines On Backorder." And those, my friends, are just MagPuls. How many 30 round AR mags of all types are floating about in private hands is anyone's guess -- tens of millions certainly. How, then, will these soon-to-be-forbidden items be recovered by government forces if DiFi's law passes? It will be impossible without violence, of course. As I've observed in the past, it is more than passingly ironic that people who claim to be worried about "gun violence" intend to stack up millions of bodies in pursuance of that chimera.

While on the road in the sticks of western Alabama today, I heard the audio of Joe Biden's promise that "Obama Considering 'Executive Orders' to Deal With Guns."

"The president is going to act," said Biden, giving some comments to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence. "There are executive orders, there's executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet. But we're compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required."

Biden said that this is a moral issue and that "it's critically important that we act."

Biden talked also about taking responsible action. "As the president said, if your actions result in only saving one life, they're worth taking. But I'm convinced we can affect the well-being of millions of Americans and take thousands of people out of harm's way if we act responsibly."

Biden, as he himself noted, helped write the Brady bill.

Eric Holder was scheduled to be at the meeting that's currently taking place at the White House.

Not surprisingly, when I returned home, I had a lot of outraged email, all reflecting in different words and phrases this sentiment from another freedom activist: "What Biden proposed today is rank, wicked lawlessness. I will not stand for any such thing, under any circumstances."

And, although he specified, along with his anger, his willingness to await events and not become proactive, I replied in agreement:

Keep your patience and your powder dry. Most importantly do not become the evil we purport to fight. Events will dictate our legitimate response and it is not weakness to await the first blows from the dark side, but is in fact the Founders' wisdom who also found themselves sorely provoked by atrocities of the King's men.

Since I have done my level best to offer myself as one of those first targets, I do not believe, as one person chided me, that I was "willing to patient until half of our people are dead before responding." I am willing to be the tripwire myself. That is a trade I reconciled myself to back in the 90s.

So, my accuser is wrong, that is not the case. Nor is it the case that it is okay to commence hostilities now based upon previous outrages such as Ruby Ridge and Waco, or upon mere announced tyrannical intentions. As I pointed out, the Founders also had to suffer a "train of abuses" before responding with defensive violence. That of course happened during a British gun raid on Lexington and Concord, though the memory of that reality, and the irony, is apparently lost upon the Joe Biden's of the world.

We must now be more patient than ever, more watchful, more diligent in our training and preparations. This is not weakness, but wisdom, just as the Founders were wise. We must be like the Founders -- Await the first blows and then respond, and win.

There will be plenty of time for lampposts later.