Wars, and Rumors of Wars!

Someone has apparently fired up the old rumor mill again, getting all the buzz going about the Blair Holt Act (HR45) that died a quiet death in congress earlier this year. In case you are unaware of what HR45 was, it was the bill that made our democratically-controlled government responsible for more private gun ownership than any other time in the past 150 years.

Among the many requirements of HR45:
1) A man may not possess any semi-automatic rifle with a detachable magazine (all but three of the semi-auto rifles in this house), or ANY handgun (revolver, semi-automatic, or even single-shot) without a license issued by agents working under the authority of the Attorney General of the United States. The licensing requirements aren't much different than the requirements of actually purchasing a firearm from an FFL dealer...other than the fact that you are required to provide a passport photo, a signature, a set of fingerprints, and the license fee. The Attorney General has the authority to set additional requirements of licensing. It must be renewed every five years.

2) Any sale of such a firearm must be recorded and reported to the US Att'y Gen's office. The federal law prohibiting a federal registry of firearm ownership is, by the Blair Holt Act (HR45), annulled. Agents working under the authority of the Attorney General (most likely, the BATFE) would be allowed to inspect any licensee to ensure that you had your guns in a locked cabinet, which effectively renders them useless for their intended purpose of defense of life, liberty, and property. No firearm shall be transferred between two private parties, without going through an FFL dealer with specific exemptions regarding inheritance and the like.

3) It is a crime to allow access to a firearm by a child...even your 17 year old son for the purposes of hunting a deer, and that child is involved in a COMPLETELY ACCIDENTAL shooting of another person.

Now here are the reasons why this is a bad idea, in general. First and foremost, there's the SECOND AMENDMENT. It says the RIGHT (read: RIGHT, NOT PRIVILEGE) to keep and bear arms SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED. "The People" are not "the militia", the army, the national guard, the coast guard, the air force, the marine corps, or the local police department. No, "The People" are EVERYONE NOT USING A FIREARM IN THE COURSE OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT, STUPID. If I have to pay a tax in order to possess a firearm, that "right" just became a "privilege". When it becomes a crime to possess a firearm without paying a tax, I have lost my RIGHT to possess a firearm.

Then we have left the regulatory authority in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, we have essentially handed over our rights. There is nothing in this bill that will prevent (in the name of "public safety" or "the children", of course) these unelected bureaucrats from telling us we need to have six separate gov't-issued photo ID cards, the name of our employer, the name of our ex-wife, any campaign donations, et cetera as part of our licensing requirements. There's nothing stating that they're prohibited from allowing only those who pass a $4,000 "safety class" and paying a $300 tax stamp from owning an "assault weapon" designated solely upon the basis of its cosmetics. Lest we forget, even before the Clinton-era "Assault Weapons Ban", the assault weapons listed in the law were responsible for only 2% of all firearm-related homicides.

Third, it places actual criminal liability upon people for not adequately preventing crimes against themselves. I currently keep a loaded pistol in the console of my locked vehicle (in accordance with the law, of course), for the purposes of self-defense when I am on the road. Anyone who has ever driven through Houston's 3rd Ward (or for that matter...Freeport, TX) at night understands the importance of being armed. Should someone break the windows out of my vehicle and steal everything I own inside it, including my pistol, I am facing a five-year prison term if the thief was under the age of 18 and shoots someone with it.

Thankfully, this bill died a quiet death on the floor many months ago, as it rightfully should have. Again, thankfully, people keep firing up rumors of its imminent passage. I say "thankful", because it is these same fearmongering people who spread false rumors that keep the rest of the world thinking about what Uncle Sam is trying to do to every chance they get.

Disarmament is, and has historically been, a precursor to slavery. This has been true of every tyrant nation in the history of mankind, even the United States of America when we prohibited slaves from possessing weapons out of fear of insurrection. Whilst armed, we are a nation of citizens. If we are disarmed, we become a nation of subjects to the government, regardless of whatever title our leader chooses to utilize.

Lest we forget, the Jews of Nazi-controlled Germany did not have their firearms registered by the Nazi government. It was the previous Weimar government that ordered registration of firearms, and that list was merely inherited by the Nazi government when Adolf Hitler rose to power. He then picked and chose who he wanted to remain armed, and confiscated the remaining weapons from all other "unreliable persons" who chose to follow the law.

Under the previous eight years of George W. Bush, this nation saw a rape of its constitutional rights unseen under the administration of any other American president. Everyone thought surveillance of emails, phone calls, et cetera was all good and fine if it was done by our government for the purposes of "national security", to protect us from "terrorism", et cetera.

Well, now we have Barrack Obama in office. Under the legal precedent set forth by Bush, Obama now has a ridiculous amount of power of the average American citizen...and there's nothing we can do about that now. It became legal precedent because no one stood up to stop it when it started.

What we can do now, as a nation, is to prevent further usurpation of our rights by insisting that our governmental leaders currently in power reject the notion of further intrusion of our rights under the guise of "protecting America". We can elect leaders who will repeal the legislative damage that has been done, as well as appoint judges who will not stand for unconstitutional abuses of our rights.

Get involved. Support local candidates who will raise holy hell about the abuses of our rights at ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT, whether they be from President Obama or from a lowly police chief in Clute, TX. Make your voice heard. Don't allow your voice to remain silent, as silence does not equal vigilance. Only YOU are able to allow yourself to remain free, you can count on no one else to do it for you.

Never cave in to a "slippery slope" of allowing certain freedoms to be done away with, for ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, FOR ANYONE, in the name of "safety", "security", "patriotism", or anything else of that sort. Remember the old saying..."Give 'em an inch, they'll think they are rulers!".