On the eve of Thanksgiving, let’s give the political side a much-needed break. If I may, I’d like to focus instead on one “gun guy’s” approach to this particular holiday.
Significant Other and I will be spending the holiday at the home of some fellow “gun folks.” In such environments, you pay as much attention to your carry gun as the rest of your wardrobe. On the Day, I’ll be wearing a classic Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum that’s almost as old as I am, a reminder to be thankful for living as long as I have.
It’s a revolver I’ve written about in this blog, the “grail gun” that I had wanted since I imprinted on it as a little boy looking through his daddy’s firearms catalog at mid-Twentieth Century. That reminds me to be grateful to parents who set me on a useful life path.This revolver was a birthday gift this past summer, a gift of love that is tangibly manifested in blue steel: more cause for gratitude on the Day of Thanks.
It wears a pair of handsome hardwood stocks that I won in a shoot-off at Smith & Wesson Academy many years ago. That prods my memory to give thanks for the limited skills I have in this life.I’ll wear it in a handsome Galco rig (matching belt, holster, and cartridge pouch) that was a gift from one of my graduates. That in turn will remind me to be thankful for having been able to do some good for some folks over the years.
And now, of course, I’m writing this blog entry, to remind me to be thankful for being able to make a living doing something I love.
All at this end wish a wonderful and thoughtful Thanksgiving to you all.
The economic meltdown, the election in general…a lot of folks won’t have much to begrateful for this coming Thursday.Damn, I’m glad I just have the gun corner here at the Backwoods Home blogs.The gun stuff is enough to be worried about.
Some, on both political sides, are predicting that the new President will be too busy with real problems to bother with illusory solutions like “gun control.”If I believed that, I’d be giving thanks for it before Thanksgiving.
However, appointments announced thus far by the President-elect don’t bode well for gun owners’ civil rights. Eric Holder for US Attorney General? The guy is “anti” in the extreme.
At this writing, it has not yet been confirmed that Hillary Clinton will be our next Secretary of State, but it’s darn sure lookin’ that way.Until she tried to reinvent herself as a supporter of the Second Amendment during her failed primary campaign, Senator Clinton was extremely “anti,” indeed, the most vocally anti-gun First Lady in history.
It’ll be interesting to have a Secretary of State whose husband has received so many millions of dollars from assorted foreign countries, as donations to his library and such…
Good that the new Prez is gonna bring us change…J
For the moment, though, I give thanks that my family and friends are together and well and still have their freedoms.
“I hate to see people buying guns out of fear,” Gary Ross told me yesterday at his Trail Boss Gun Shop in Sierra Vista, Arizona, a short walk from the gates of Fort Huachuca. His sales are up as much as 40%, mostly semiautomatic firearms and high capacity magazines, and ammunition.
The national media has picked up on this. It’s happening at every gun shop in the country. The explanation is pretty simple: the party that just ensconced itself in rock-solid power in Washington has long considered firearms restriction legislation to be one of its planks. Indeed, those at the pinnacle of power seem to consider it one of their priorities.
The Obama administration transition website, “www.change.gov” boldly and blatantly posted its intent to ban semiautomatic firearms and much, much more. Early this week, that particular page disappeared from the website. However, it has been archived and you can read it HERE Scroll down to “Crime and Law Enforcement”.
We’ve heard of “hidden agendas,” but rarely do we catch politicians in the very act of literally “hiding their agenda.” It’s really worth it to go to the link and dig up what they’re trying to hide.
The term “panic buying” has been used to describe this phenomenon, which began long before the election when Obama’s lead in the polls was evident, and his history of being hostile to private ownership of firearms had long since become apparent. I think “panic” may be a strong word. It’s more a matter of reasonable fear.
The strangest explanation of the buying spurt comes from a sociologist type who says it’s all about paranoid whites reacting in fear to a black President-elect who will now be Commander-in-Chief of mighty armed forces. An interesting exercise in sophomoric thought, but how does that explain all the black people I saw buying guns in the Trail Boss shop and elsewhere, all over the country? Gun dealers have spoken of the irony of how many folks buying guns right now are wearing Obama T-shirts. One observer asked, tongue only partly in cheek, “Do they know something we don’t?”
It seems like an excellent time to join the National Rifle Association, still the strongest collective voice in the nation for gun owners’ civil rights, and Second Amendment Foundation, which in my opinion has long been the most effective of the small activist groups. I would also recommend joining your state level grass roots gun owners’ organization.
When then-President Bill Clinton triggered “panic-buying sprees” with the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, one gun industry group waggishly gave him a Gun Salesman of the Year Award. Barack Obama will clearly be in line for the next one. And, adds a friend of mine with a bullet business, “NRA Recruiter of the Year” is a possibility for Obama, too.
Sitting here a couple of days after the historic Presidential Election of 2008, and listening to the first reports of the President-Elect’s initial appointment of his right hand men – virtually all cronies of the Chi-town “Machine” ilk – I remarked to my significant other, “Sounds like he’s gonna create Chicago-on-the-Potomac.”Significant Other, a Chicagoan born and bred, looked at me in shock and said, “OMG, you’re channeling John Kass!He just used that exact same description!”
Kass, my favorite Chicago Tribune columnist, is a voice of practical reason and therefore a good channel to dial into.Chicago, you’ll remember, banned private ownership of handguns within the city limits, and also sales of any firearms, many years ago.Obama is on record as vehemently opposing private citizens’ rights to carry concealed handguns in public, and according to NRA, supports a 500% tax on all ordinary firearms and ammunition.So, you’ll understand the concern of our reader Long Island Mike, who wrote the following after reading my blog entry “Oh, Bummer”:
Mas
I respect you tremendously as a man who has a foot in the LE world and is an American. So I have a question for you. Now understand that I am building a scenario here of an extreme situation. If the worst of the worst happens and Mr. O, Ms. P and Mr. R all turn against the gun owners and the Feds pass a really tough AWB. Then they appoint a Supreme Court justice that tips the scales on Heller 180 degrees. What will the reaction of LE be if they start even a limited confiscation?
Mike, your question is a legitimate one.A few very experienced voices in the fight for gun owners’ civil rights believe that Obama and company may tread lightly on the gun issue, for fear of squandering the huge political capital he’s now bringing to his party, on what is essentially a culture war against firearms owners.However, the President-Elect’s history in this area – and that of the Chicago Machine culture that he seems to be so strongly building on during his administration’s formative days after the victory – makes me more than a little pessimistic.
To answer your question, I think a sweeping national confiscation of property that was lawfully purchased and responsibly owned would probably die in its nest before it could spread its wings. Even before our nation’s police were given the order to confiscate in that hypothetical situation, the execution of that order would be restrained by the courts.I’ve long believed that the Fourth Amendment is a stronger barrier to confiscation than the Second.Even if Obama appoints as US Attorney General a vehemently anti-gun personality such as Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich or, God help us, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, I suspect that the same Supreme Court of the United States that recently gave us the landmark Heller decision would follow the law, which means, our side would win.
Yes, anti-gun Supreme Court nominees will be put forward by an Obama White House, but let’s remember that most of the aging Justices due to be replaced are among the four who dissented in Heller, not from the five who concurred in the armed citizenry’s victorious Heller majority. (The new President’s ability to appoint Federal judges at a lower but still lofty level is something more important to worry about right now, IMHO.)
At the ground level, I see two strong barriers to enforcement of an unconstitutional confiscation order. At the executive level, CLEOs (Chief Law Enforcement Officers) do not like being sued. They will run such an order by their city attorney/county attorney/state attorney general before ordering enforcement.And I suspect those wise lawyers will, for the most part, say, “Don’t do it yet! Look how the Second Amendment Foundation and the National Rifle Association humiliated the New Orleans Police Department with court decisions after the Hurricane Katrina situation, and forced the confiscated guns to be given back! The precedents are against you and your officers…and, Chief, you are personally in the line of vicarious liability from such lawsuits! Wait until it’s sorted out by the higher court(s)!”
The other barrier at the ground level, I predict, would come from the street cops themselves, through their unions and fraternal organizations. “We all remember what happened in Waco and Ruby Ridge, and how the lawmen who did what they were ordered to do got dumped on. And now, you want us to do that, to the power of ten? Gonna ask our own brother and sister officers to take souvenir military rifles from their own parents and grandparents, and shoot them if they don’t turn them over? Naw…we, the police labor organizations, are filing suit to keep our officers from being ordered to carry out what appears to be an illegal, unconstitutional order.”
Long answer to a short question, Long Island Mike, but that’s what I believe would really happen in that scenario.
It looks as if we’re about to experience four years under a Chief Executive who is more inimical to the civil rights of gun owners than any of his predecessors.He’ll have as handmaidens a Vice-President and a Speaker of the House who are perhaps even more vehemently opposed to private firearms ownership than he.
I’m glad Grant Park stayed quiet. Secret Service was on the ball, and Chicago PD was out in huge numbers, riot gear handy, assisted by a reported 73 other law enforcement agencies. Turnout was less than a quarter of what the mayor invited and, probably most important, the attendees got what they wanted.
It’s a relief that, at least, this damn election is over. The pundits are saying, “It was the economy!”Uh, yeah, right.That’s why the electorate rejected the candidate who flew to Washington to work on the emergency fix, and elected the one who flew to California to party with Hollywood stars while that was going on.Yup, I got it … sorta…
Maybe Bob Hope had it right all those years ago, when he said this.
But, hey, I don’t wanna bash Democrats here. Hell, I’m an Independent, and on my local ballot, I voted for as many Democrats as Republicans. It ain’t a Party thing…it’s a “where this country is going” thing.
In the current (November/December 2008) issue of Backwoods Home magazine, editor and friend Dave Duffy wrote, “It doesn’t matter worth a damn who becomes President.”
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