Yeah, I know…some out there are muttering, “Whaddaya mean, ‘Happy’!?!?”

Yes, the economy sucks…but people who not only read the magazine Backwoods Home, but take its advice and cleave to its ethics, are going to be more ready for that than the rest.

True, we “gun folks” didn’t get the election results we wanted…but we’ve survived hostile Presidencies before. I expect we’ll do it again.

Indeed, we can anticipate attacks on firearms owners’ rights from the “change-dot-gov” folks now at the helm, who have made it abundantly clear where they stand on those issues. But we do have the landmark Heller decision from the Supreme Court of the United States that came down in mid-2008, and I think that’s gonna help.

I just got back from a post-Christmas sojourn on the west coast with my younger daughter, her husband, and my adorable granddaughter. If I’m uncharacteristically optimistic, well, so be it. I’ll just bask in those good vibes for a while.

Lots of folks think the incoming Administration will leave law-abiding gun owners alone, maybe even for a couple of years until the interim elections. God knows, they avoided the gun issue studiously enough during the campaign, and the new team will indeed have its hands full with real issues, perhaps enough so that they’ll lay off of the “gun control” that so many of them have touted for so long.

The logical side of me is still skeptical about that, though. Rumor has it that the incoming administration wants to hit the ground running hard enough to make some very deep footprints, and their powerful majority on Capitol Hill will allow them to do that.

I figured out when I was a little kid that it was better to be a pessimist than an optimist. You see, when you’re an optimist, the best that happens is that things go as you planned, and half the time you’re bitterly disappointed. But when you’re a pessimist, the worst that ever happens is that things to exactly the way you were prepared for them to go, and half the time you’re pleasantly surprised.

With the musical babble of my two-year-old granddaughter’s voice still ringing in my ears, I’ll allow myself some cautious optimism, if only because my usual pessimism has left me prepared for the worst.

I’d be interested to know what all of you out there see coming for 2009.

And I wish you all a prosperous, safe, and productive New Year!

1 COMMENT

  1. Happy New Year to you as well Mas.

    The sounds of young children certainly does brighten even the darkest days. My daughter will turn one on the 16th and her brother will be three on the 5th. They bring joy like nothing ever did before.

  2. Mas,

    Like you I am a bit of a pessimist.

    I prepare for the worst that can happen. When it happens, I’m ready for it. If it doesn’t happen, then everything is “gravy”.

    Happy New Year to you and your family. I look forward to seeing you in April.

    Biker

  3. Massad, Happy New Year to you and yours. I too believe the incomming will be too busy trying to prevent a total meltdown to worry about our 2nd amendment rights. No matter what “they” do, we will survive!

  4. I predict sales of PVC will soar as gun owners put their firearms and ammunition in large diameter plastic pipes, seal it with end caps, and bury it in an easily remembered but otherwise difficult to detect locations “Just In Case.”

  5. Happy New Year Mas ! May 2009 bring health and happiness to you and your loved ones…

    As for the nation I suspect that Mr. O has more on his plate than he expected. Blago and whole Chicago thingy. A hot war (again) with Israel and Hamas. Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan/India. Rising unrest due to the economy in China. Putin feeling his oats. The global economic situation. The looming oil crisis…e gads, did he think this was going to be easy?

    I like the old Chinese saying: May you live in interesting times. That pretty much sums up 2009 for me.

  6. I think the Congress and the President will be sorely tempted to move on gun control measures quickly. After all, bans of guns don’t really cost anything to implement. I think, also, that they like to test the resolve of the NRA and gun owners occasionally, see if they can begin chipping away at our unanimity. Right now the Fudds vs. EBR owners is an opening they wish to exploit.

  7. First Congrats “grampa” ~;-)
    With Heller on our side the Gun-Grabbers will key now on ammunition: Taxes, ID-codeing and banning “toxic lead” bullets.
    Of course the assault-rifles will be high on their list too.
    We’re gonna have to stick together pardners.

  8. I surely hope 2009 is a bit better, I agree Mas it is better to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Many people call me “Negative” and I just reply that I am not negative but I am more of the “last boy scout”. My feeling is that the Big O will not bring undue critics early on because he is going after our guns and God and not the real problems in our country in the world. BUT it will be very easy for him to call in several friends as in Joe Biden for one who is well versed in the AWB and ask them to do the leg work. He will be able to deny spending any time on the issue but will gladly sign any documents that they draw up on their own “free time” while he is busy saving the world. Later on when it is safe spin doctors will be able to turn everything around as to the Obama Gun ban just as it was with the Clinton Gun ban and he will take the credit.

    Get ready people, it’s sure to be an interesting ride these next 12 months!

  9. My best wishes to you and yours. I have spent the last several years involving myself with public lands access rights issues. My family recreates on OHV’s ( quads and motorcycles). We have found ourselves being locked out of traditional riding areas at an alarming rate. I am a third generation Montanan and find it disturbing to lose areas that my family has hunted, fished and camped for the last forty years. I often wonder how much will be left for my grandkids to show to thier kids. Anyhow, the point to all of this is the commanality of lost access rights and gun rights. The driving force (hammer) is most always the federal government and the recepient (nail) is most always the common guy/gal. I don’t know what the new administration will do or not do, but I do believe that the common person in todays society had better be prepared for what ever comes down the pike. The federal governments track record demonstrates an amazing disregard for the traditional family values type of folks.

  10. I to am optimistic that new administration will not take on gun control but i am also a pessimist knowing that these gunriter will do all they can towater down our 2ND admimendment rights

  11. Happy new year to you and yours Mas. Interesting times indeed. the bills have been written since the last ban expired (1022 for example) The new executive antigun staff will have a pile of executive orders ready for signature on taking office. We may be able to stem the tide in congress, but those damn e-orders will be a problem. The economy”s going to suck too. Everybody’s lining up for a hand out of money the country doesn’t have. What the… interesting times indeed.

  12. A Happy and Healthy New Year to all!!
    There are enough zealots out there to attack everything on a broad front, from Prayer in Schools to Ammunition without “tags”.
    They have nothing to lose by trying it all, and right away, backing down on some stuff if it seems there is too much resistance. After all, they are only “being reasonable”.
    We shall soon see if President Obama will represent “all the people”, or the fervent Left.

  13. While I try to be an optamist most of the time I am very scared about the big O and the policies of his administration. While banning our guns won’t be his top priority I’m sure, his record shows he has never seen a gun ban he doesn’t like. I am sure he will sign whatever the zealots in the congress get to his desk.

    One thing that many don’t take into account is the huge pent up demand on the far left after 8 years of Bush. I am affraid that even if O wants to govern from the center he will have a hard time doing so.

    As I have told many friends, I have never wanted to be wrong about something so much in my life. Only time will tell.

    FredlyFX

  14. 2008 was a good year at least for the reason I found your Web site, Sir. And I was able to buy my first rifle as well. I wish all of us a happy new year and good luck every day

  15. Happy New Year!! I like your view on being a pessimist; it makes sense (Grin). I’m sorry this is gonna be a bit long. I have been thinking about “Common sense gun laws” that Obama wants to put in place and came up with this.

    President elect Barack Obama said he is “a strong supporter of the Second Amendment” and will not try take Americans’ guns away.

    “I believe it’s an individual right,” he said in an interview following a speech at [University of Nevada, Reno]. “Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear from an Obama Administration.” Obama also said, he is for “some common sense gun laws.”

    For the record I’m not in favor of ANY law that infringes on my right to bear arms or that will prevent me from defending myself, be it from common street thugs or government thugs.

    In an ideal situation the constitution would be adhered to and this whole argument will be pointless. As that is not likely to happen and Obama is pushing for “Common sense gun laws” then FINE, let’s talk about “common sense” gun laws!

    First, The focus of law should be on taking those individuals off the street who “initiate the use of force to violate the inalienable individual right to life and property of other human beings”. Any individual human being who initiates the use of force to violate the inalienable individual right of another human being, irrespective of the object or substance used, is a criminal to that extent.

    By said criminal act, the initiator of force, at that moment loses the right to life or any protection under the law and may be deal with by the moral retaliatory use of force at any level essential for the intended victim to maintain his or her right to life and property inviolate against criminal aggression including lethal force.

    Second, All gun laws addressed to the ownership or use of particular type of gun should be repealed! Splitting hairs over a muzzle break, pistol grip, folding stock or any other mostly aesthetic piece of hardware is a nightmare to keep track of and in most cases causes a otherwise law abiding gun owner to break the law inadvertently. It will also do away with police scratching their heads wondering if a item is “Legal” and prevent false arrests and charges.

    Here is where First and Second compliment each other. It matters not to a victim or victims what kind of gun or whether they were injured or killed by a truck, automobile, baseball bat, coke bottle, poison or the hundreds of thousands of other objects and/or substances that can be used to cause injury or death. i.e., the focus of the law should be on the “INITIATOR”, i.e., THE CRIMINAL who initiated the use of force to commit the act of aggression against another human being!

    There are at least 250,000 household items and chemical substances other than guns that could be used by a criminal to cause injury or death… and or to commit suicide. i.e., any kitchen, bathroom, laundry room or garage has an endless variety of such objects or substances to commit murder or suicide. To license every such object or substance would create a federal, state, county and city bureaucracy many times larger than the one we now. Like trying to regulate aforementioned objects or substances, regulating every aspect of gun ownership is costing millions, is taking cops away from other duties and only hurts LAW ABIDING citizens.

    Third, All waiting periods should not apply to people already owning guns. If the person already has a gun why does he need a cooling off period? Also the waiting period should be waved during a natural disaster or other widespread crisis where the need to protect oneself is pressing and self evident.

    Forth, Magazine capacity and if the magazine is detachable should not even be considered. It interferes with the guns intended operation and it really makes little difference if the person has 4 ten round magazines or 2 twenty round ones.

    Fifth, All carry permits should be valid in all states. There should be a standard concealed carry permit like a driver’s license that would be honored in every state. Just like you don’t forget how to drive when you cross a state line, you don’t forget gun safety or how to use a gun. With the First, Second and Forth laws in place this makes perfect sense.

    Sixth, The limit on how many guns a person can buy in any given period is ridiculous. What’s the difference if he owns one or ten… armed is armed and if they already own a gun the point is really moot.

    Seventh, Mandatory trigger locks or other biometric security devices are dangerous when the gun is needed in self-defense situation. And anything with a battery is prone to failure. Even a 1% failure rate is unacceptable if your life is on the line. Security of firearms should be the owner’s choice and responsibility and not the states.
    To anyone who suggests that the United States needs more gun laws, I would suggest that we have more gun laws than we need.

    The laws should reflect commonsense rather than fear and paranoia generated laws drafted by uneducated politicians or politicians with a personal or political agenda (Carolyn McCarthy is a prime example). An hour spent on the internet will leave you astounded that we are able to carry arms at all between plethora of existing Federal and State laws. And people ask, “With all these laws why does crime continue?” And therein lies the rub. These laws don’t apply to criminals no matter how many and what types of laws are implemented. Criminals don’t buy through legitimate channels. They don’t undergo background checks. They don’t have their fingerprints reviewed by the FBI.

    Are there too many laws. Sure. And they affect the legitimate gun owner unfairly. There are 280 million firearms legitimately owned in the US. Social mores, conscience, personal responsibility, are among the reasons you don’t see any crimes committed just because people own guns. Crimes are committed with guns because of criminal intent, firearms do not cause the crime.

    We should be treated fairly. Most gun control legislation seems to assume that because we own and carry firearms, that we’re somehow predisposed to commit the violent criminal acts of rape, robbery and murder. That’s simply not the case and it goes to the center of the entire issue.

    Legislation that is supposedly aimed at reducing crime, should focus solely upon criminal possession of a firearm during a criminal act. It should be focused upon reducing the common ways in which felons obtain illegal firearms. It should be focused upon increasing penalties for crimes where the perpetrator possesses, brandishes, fires or uses the firearm to injure someone intentionally.

    Now that’s a truly common sense statement, if I’ve ever heard one. Law abiding gun owners, commit no crimes. Even for the biggest dunce among us, this is not a difficult concept to understand.

    We simply want to see laws that leave the law abiding firearm owner out of the loop of firearm related legislation aimed at reducing violent crime.

    That’s it. It’s that simple.

    Thanks for listening,
    ~Brogan

    “Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est”
    (“A sword is never a killer, it’s a tool in the killer’s hands”)
    ~Lucius Annaeus Seneca “the younger” ca. (4 BC – 65 AD)

    “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”
    — Plato(429-347 BC)

  16. Obama will probably not be overt about it and will be letting his staff carry the ball. He is already getting critized for moving to the right. “Winning” a gun control battle will cost him nothing and will win back some the liberal supporters that are not to happy right now.. it cost him nothing, no dollars needed, he has the support in both Senate and House, has Rahm Emanual to do the leg work and Eric holder to enforce it thru the BATFE now in AG instead of treasury.,
    I posted this on the forum and didn’t get a lot of response but still felt it was important to alert everyone and hope they are active in the battle to come. I believe Bryce Towsley is pretty well on target.

    ______________________________________________________

    Not sure how many of you read the Gun Digest and the Gun Guy column by Bryce Towsley. If you have a chance pick up the Jan 5, 2009 edition. his column is alarming.

    One part of it offers a gun guy version of the famous ” In Germany they first came after….” statement by Martin Neimoller.

    Towlsey’s version was:

    In America, they first came after the ” assualt rifles” and I didn’t speak up becasue I didn’t own one and thought they were scary looking.

    Then they came for the semi-auto handguns and I didn’t speak up becasue I was a bird hunter and only owned shotguns.

    Then they came after the pump-action shotguns, and I didn’t speak up becasue mine were double barrels.

    Then they came for the ammo and I didn’t speak up becasue they didn’t include birdshot.

    Then they came for my guns and by that time there was nobody left to speak.

    He forecast that the first action will be the Gun show Loop hole, then the Assualt Weapon Ban and if this is sucessful they will try to include semi auto’s and bolt action “sniper” rifles ( ike the remmington 700’s I guess) and finally Ammo bans.

    We have to stick together from beginning to end in this fight for all guns not just what you own..

  17. I think that, for Obama, gun control is an issue to be used (or not used) insofar as he finds it useful. If gun control can be used to divert attention or to shore up his power, he will raise the issue; otherwise, gun-grabbing actions will remain arrows in his quiver. Like many of the matters he has aligned himself with or against, gun control seems to be emotionally neutral to him, just a piece on the chess board. Consider his readiness to dismiss–at apparently no personal cost–longtime mentors and tenets. In some ways, such ideological vacancy on Obama’s part could be a plus for the defenders of liberty, who need only keep the political cost of disarmament higher than Obama’s need for control and popularity will account.

  18. Many years ago when I was in Law Enforcement when it came over the radio that we had an accident with injuries. I would always in my mind prepare for the worst possible case, Then when I got to the scene and it was not that bad. I was in good shape to take care of whatever was there.

    I am trying very hard to look at our incoming president the same way. I have thought about what firearms I currently have, what reloading supplies I have and what I need to get yet and what to get first and last and go from there. I have taught CCW for many years in Utah and have competed with Handguns for many years. I learned a long time ago how to use those lumpy things on the top of my guns and I perfer the revolver to the semi auto handgun and have some of both.

    I remember well when Bill Clinton went into office and the uproar and panic that went out about Clinton mandating that primers have a limited shelf life! The sales of primers went through the roof all over the entire country.

    When the Brady and the Assualt Weapons ban went into effect. Well for the past several years we have been able to buy them again. Handgun sales went ballistic during that time as well. I just hope that as a country we can survive the socialist president we have gotten and as long as we continue to prepare ourselves mentaly as well as physically for the worst we can expect then when ever comes down or happens we will be ready for it .

    Wish you all a very good new year and Keep your powder dry!
    Gene

  19. A most happy new year to all, and to you as well, Mr. Ayoob.
    I do not know if I am being optimistic, or pessimistic here, but I do not find any way through 2009 without seeing it as a difficult year.
    President Obama will not move for gun control unless he sees political advantage in doing so. He is a very cool and calculating politician, and he knows that if he leans too hard toward a Clinton style ban he will feel the push back, and his presidency will be one of unfulfilled promises. This I believe from watching him.
    Thus, the question is-is there political advantage for him to do so? My suspicion is that others in his administration will want to test the waters, however I do not believe the country will simply embrace new gun control legislation.
    Those who would ban guns are not so concerned with their presidency. The president seems to understand that he will need more than two years to get his plan moving. In my opinion he will have to have two terms to accomplish the kind of changes he has proposed. A smart man, and President Obama is a very smart man, will not want to draw any more battle lines than he must in order to move his agenda forward.
    In ebony magazine, our new president said he did not favor any more gun control laws.
    For now, I will take him at his word.

  20. I forsee a lot of Democrats throwing off their wool coats and going raving liberal rabid.

    I forsee a lot of limp wristed McCain Republicans espousing their own ability to “see both sides of the issue”.

    I’m hoping enough Republicans will get enough wool jerked out of their eyes to result in total and complete grid lock for 2, 4, 8, shall we dare hope? Forever?

    “When ever congress is in session, freedom is in danger.”

  21. I do so hope your right, but I think he already has his list of “executive orders” that are just waiting for January 21st for him to sign into law.

    I’m just glad I got to vote for one Democrate in this last election that had a A+ NRA rating and that I know does support Gun rights and didn’t vote either time for that damned bailouts. Hope full there are still enough ‘pro’ gun democrates like him that will keep this at bay.

    I know the brady bunch really trying their best to get their nose into the local case here in PA with the ‘soccer Mom’

  22. I would say it is wise to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

    For the past year or so, I’ve found myself drawn to the writings of our founding fathers. Partially because in our present age as a country, so many people have so many different ideas on just what the words in our founding documents really mean and what the founders really intended.

    I’d like to share a few quotes with you that are, in my humble opinion, timeless, and advice we should adhere to.

    “…for it is a truth, which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly most in danger when the means of ensuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion.” — Alexander Hamilton

    “Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it
    is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is
    unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around
    us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of
    the law” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so
    when it violates the rights of the individual.” — Thomas Jefferson in
    a letter to Isaac H. Tiffany (1819).

    “Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful
    limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and
    enforce only our natural rights… and to take none of them from us.
    No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights
    of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain
    him… and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into society
    we give up any natural right.” — Thomas Jefferson in a letter to
    Francis W. Gilmer (June 27, 1816); The Writings of Thomas Jefferson edited by Ford, vol. 10, p. 32.

    “Resistance to sudden violence, for the preservation not only of my person, my limbs, and life, but of my property, is an indisputable right of nature which I have never surrendered to the public by the compact of society, and which perhaps, I could not surrender if I would.” — John Adams, Boston Gazette, Sept. 5, 1763,reprinted in 3 The Works of John Adams 438 (Charles F. Adams ed., 1851)

    “If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” — Samuel Adams 1776

    “…What country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify if a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure….” — Thomas Jefferson: Letter to Colonel Smith, Nov. 13, 1787

    “The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by rule of construction be conceived to give Congress the power to disarm the people. Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general pretense by a state legislature. But if in blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both.” — William Rawle, 1825; considered academically to be an expert commentator on the Constitution. He was offered the position of the first Attorney General of the United States, by President Washington

    “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent . . . the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.” — Justice Louis Brandeis — Olmstead vs. United States, United States Supreme Court, 1928