Resistance to Tyrannical State Gun Laws and The Toys for Totalitarians Campaign: The dogs that refuse to bark.

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."

Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."

Holmes: "That was the curious incident."

-- "Silver Blaze", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, 1892.

As can be seen above, 'The dog that didn't bark' is an expression from a Sherlock Holmes mystery. This by now well known observation referred to an important clue that led to identifying the criminal. The killer entered and left the estate grounds one night but without the guard dog barking an alarm at the intruder's presence as expected. From this non—event Holmes deduced that the dog must have known the perpetrator.

The odd thing about the Toys for Totalitarians campaign is the almost total absence of both press coverage and official reaction from the recipients in the four affected states and the District of Columbia. Apart from Connecticut, where there was some small coverage by the Red Queen here and here and the official response (see here and here), the silence has been bloody deafening.

Even odder is the silence from the usual suspects in the citizen disarmament lobby such as CSGV, the government-monopoly-of-force advocates, who are usually so quick to trumpet my "seditionist" and "insurrectionist" moves.

Of the media recipients, it is true, only David Gregory received his and I didn't really expect him to react. Rachel Madcow's parcel was refused and came back and Media Matters' arrived at their PO Box on 30 December and has been showing "available for pickup" since then. They really don't check their mail that often, apparently.

Yet even the so-called "gun rights" media has been ignoring the story, apart from David Codrea, Kurt Hofmann and Anthony Martin.

I wouldn't have expected the "prags" to cover it, of course. I have always made them nervous and occasionally, apoplectic. But there are others who I would have expected some coverage out of. Nada.

As far as the politicians, most of them (especially Hickenlooper) should be nervous about the local and national politics of pursuing me. Malloy's irritation evidently exceeded his national ambitions, and there is a rumor (and rumor only) that O'Malley is highly pissed at me for telling him to "kiss me arse" in Gaelic and that pursuant to his ire, a grand jury may be opened on me in Maryland next week. (Again, this is unconfirmed.)

But for the rest, the dogs simply aren't barking. Indeed, in CSGV's case they must be quite frustrated NOT being able to bark. So you have to ask yourself, why aren't they barking?

A friend of mine posited that this is because the campaign of armed civil disobedience to these latest tyrannical state laws represents something that, to use his words, "makes the gun grabbers piss their pants." He believes that they are used to the political and propaganda game and the traditional rules that govern that game. "What they can't stand . . . what they fear most . . . is that they are going to run into people who not only refuse to play the game but threaten to tip over the game board and dare them to do anything about it." Another friend commented, "They are like the Wizard of OZ and don't want anybody to pull back the curtain" to expose how ineffectual they really are when faced with the Law of Unintended Consequences that might have personal ramifications for them.

"They aren't paying attention to you publicly precisely because you scare them to death privately," said another. "They don't want anybody else to get the idea and put it (armed civil disobedience and smuggling) into practice."

So the citizen disarmament dogs aren't barking. What can be the excuse for folks who are supposed to be on our side is beyond me. It reminds me of the early days of Fast and Furious, when the same people had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the story.