Assorted prohibitionists have of late become more strident in their demands that certain firearms be banned, and their owners declared felons and imprisoned if they failed to turn theirs in. Some of the most radical have suggested that such a ban, and such punishment, be applied to all firearms and their owners.
Well, let’s look at that. According to the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, “At any given time, the United States holds almost two million people in prison for felony convictions. Often overlooked, however, are more than 11 million people who cycle in and out of American jails every year for misdemeanor offenses.”
It is no secret that our correctional facilities in this country are already way overburdened, to the point that hardcore criminals are sometimes released earlier than they should be. There are at LEAST a hundred million gun owners. So, those who would stigmatize and indeed imprison that much of the population would be overloading the corrections system to the tune of something like fifty times its capacity, with all the new inmates being people so law-abiding that they were allowed to own deadly weapons until the Draconian ban passed.
Some of those prohibitionists have even polluted the Twitterverse with blood lust, suggesting smugly that after a hundred thousand or so gun owners resisted and were shot down by police, everyone else would want to turn their weapons over willingly.
My friend Larry Correia begs to differ, and he has thought it through much more deeply than those who call for bans, and mass confiscation and imprisonment. Here are his predictions.
Lessons Learned About Defense from our Little Wars, 1950 to Present
1. Small countries can keep a super power from winning by conducting guerrilla warfare.
2. Study Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and Mao Zedong’s On Guerrilla Warfare.
3. To survive against a super power, the entire population must participate in defending the country. General Vo Nguyen (pronounced “win”) Giap said, “Everyone can do something.” He successfully defended Vietnam against the Japanese in the 1940s. He won a revolution against the French in the 1950s. He survived against us militarily (he lost 1.5 million soldiers doing it), but defeated us politically in the 1960s and 1970s. For 25 years after we left, Vietnam was a poor country because Giap believed in socialism, not capitalism. So he won the war, but lost the peace.
4. Professional navies, air forces and armies are not necessary for defense. Osama bin Laden and most of the terrorists we fight are civilians. They have no ships, no planes, no helicopters and no tanks.
5. The nation must be willing to suffer great losses and hardships in order to defend itself. Do not fear death. Be ruthless.
6. Build tunnels, especially in mountains.
7. In a fight between the Jetsons and the Flintstones, the Flintstones win. That’s because, in the long run, low-tech beats high-tech. High-tech tools need to be backed up by low-tech tools. That’s why they still make bayonets.
8. Supplies are essential. Make sure your supplies are not cut off.
9. The primary weapon is the mind. The secondary weapon is the AK-47 (AKM), invented by Mikhail Kalashnikov and first manufactured in 1947.
10. Of course, America can nuke its enemies at any time and declare victory. We would be condemned by the world and accused of war crimes.
11. The most important tactic in a non-nuclear war is to cut off your enemy’s supplies. Without constant re-supply, they can’t fight even if they still want to. Of course, the media will arrive to photograph the starving children.
As Mr. Spock would say, Larry Correia’s article was, “fascinating.”
The history of prohibition reveals very few long-term success stories, though it illustrates many nauseating failures such as criminalizing average citizens, driving banned products or activities into a black market underground where there are no safety regulations, boosting the profits of expanding criminal syndicates that market the illegal items and services, and creating bloated government agencies that quickly lose control of the prohibition. America’s alcohol prohibition (1920-1933) serves as an infamous example of that kind of stupidity.
Natan Sharansky and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn both referred to the USSR as a giant prison camp with zones of different harshness. The country as a whole was “the larger zone” and then there was the “camp zone” in which there were more and less terrible camps. If you stepped out of line you wound up in a harsher zone.
It’s gratifying to see two authors that I greatly admire are friends.
I’m an old guy with an old wife that will not comply with confiscation knowing full well we could be injured, jailed or killed. There are many things worse than death. This was an excellent article. The crappy thing about what is no doubt down the road is that it takes the fun out of firearms that 99.9% of us owners really enjoy. Maybe that’s their real agenda, make us keep them in the house in a locked safe all the time and never enjoy them.
Larry’s “think piece” IS fascinating. I don’t know that I will post it on social media, but will share it privately via email.
Gun confiscation interim goals (check the boxes as each is accomplished in your community:
____#0 Teach young people that ALL guns are evil.
____#1 Make guns hard to get.
____#2 Make ammunition hard to get.
____#3 Make using and enjoying the guns hard to do.
____$4 Restrict small numbers of guns, one group at a time.
____#5 Never outlaw all guns at once, just gradually strangle them out of existence.
I don’t think those who want to mess around with the Bill of Rights understand that targeting one amendment is going to run afoul of the rest. They are too intertwined. At that point, they would lose a lot of popular support.
Lest there be any doubt what future plans Democrat Socialist prohibitionists have for the “masses” who own firearms, check out presidential candidate Cory Booker’s proposals for sweeping gun control initiatives to be enacted, post-inauguration, via executive action.
Upon reading Cory Booker’s Orwellian ideas that include weaponizing the IRS to take down the NRA, I will admit to longing for the innocent days of my youth so many decades ago, pre-GCA of 1968, when another Booker of the incredible Booker T & the MGs, cranked out memorable instrumental hits such as “Green Onions” and “Soul Limbo” on the Stax record label.
One has to wonder what inner compulsion is driving today’s modern day Marxists to pull out all the stops to enact patently tyrannical anti-gun policies that, worst case, could eventually result in civil worriers (American gun owners rightly concerned about preserving the Second Amendment) being forced to become civil warriors?
Isn’t it ironic that the aforementioned modern day Marxists, surrounded by phalanxes of heavily armed praetorian guards, seek war, while American gun owners, many of whom are veterans of military service, seek peace? Go figure.
https://www.businessinsider.com/cory-booker-unveils-new-gun-control-policy-goes-after-nra-2019-5
On those memes Larry mentions, he says: “Like most political memes, they’re taking an extremely complex situation, and providing a cartoonish, simplistic answer, which makes them look like complete dipshits to anybody with a clue, but scores them lots of Virtue Signal Points to their likewise ignorant but posturing friends.”
I was just talking with my wife this morning about that. We live in a soundbite society. Most of what you hear in the media, especially when it comes to issue or political advocacy, is wrong. Flat-out, 100% wrong. But explaining how and why it’s wrong takes longer than the 10 seconds it took to play the soundbite, and people’s attention spans have moved on by then.
Memes are just visual soundbites. Most of them are fundamentally wrong, but explaining how and why takes too long. Larry makes a fantastic case against why the prohibitionists’ totalitarian dreams won’t ever happen. His Constitutional argument is valid, his math is spot-on, and he’s far from the first person to make either point.
But it takes 10 minutes to read his piece. It takes 10 seconds to read the meme. Guess which gets more shares.
They say a lie makes it half way around the world before the truth gets its shoes on. That goes double or triple (or more!) in social media, where a meme can get 10 million shares before the opposing side can form a counter-argument.
I don’t know how to fix that. Sure, we could create our own memes showing the over-simplified version of our point of view, but that doesn’t fix the root problem: the people we’re trying to reach just don’t want to read into or learn about the issues. That takes effort, which sounds an awful lot like work, and why bother when there’s a meme that explains it all anyway? (Yes, I realize that’s circular reasoning. That’s part of the point.)
I’m open to any suggestions or insight.
How to conquer America –
Step 1 – Reeducate the children.
Step 2 – Create a culture of government dependence.
Step 3 – Legalize recreation drugs. Confiscate guns from stoners.
Step 4 – Make everyone stoners.
Step 5 – Offer free Doritos to everyone.
Sit back and let the progressive, stoned votes roll in.
We lost in Vietnam against a people who often fought with shit covered sticks.
Never underestimate the power of a determined and pissed off home team with everything to lose.
Things are getting ugly, the politicians on the extreme left they are coming out about being socialist and soon enough communist. Not to forget about China. Right now, they have a rich nation, wait until they loose what they have taken for granted. I feel this nation will be much smaller.
Cory Booker just unveiled a plan that would make buying a gun a lot like getting a driver’s license
Oh, if only that were true.
“But basically it boils down to one side making the argument: The idea of the 2nd Amendment resisting a tyrannical government is obsolete, because the federal government is too overwhelmingly powerful, and has too many advanced technologies.”
Tell that to Russia, they got their asses whooped by a bunch of rag-tag Mujahideen with small arms. Sure, it took 10 years, but not even our Military could stand up to 1 Million or more Veterans with all sorts of small arms, including anti-materiel rifles that can take down a helicopter with the right shot. Ex-Military snipers, regular soldiers, most armed and ready to defend against a Dictator Tyrant. Does he think we don’t know how to disable our own Military’s equipment? Hell, we operated and maintained it!
Anyway I doubt our Military would obey any order to turn on American Citizens, more likely there would be a Military coup against the Tyrant.
It has been estimated that even at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the various flavors of ‘IRA’ never had more than 100 active members. That number in turn managed to divert 23,000 troops from Germany at the height of the Cold War.
I’d be disappointed if you Americans couldn’t at least equal, if not exceed the ratio of troops needed to confront you 🙂
Lest you think cops and/or the military would never disarm the public if all guns were outlawed look no further than New Orleans after hurricane Katrina.
Correct. NOPD and the S.O.’s were confiscating every chance they had.
These evil government abuses can happen quite easily in a single city or state during a single emergency event (or all the time in the case of NY/CA/NJ…). In that situation, the status quo for the rest of the nation is business as usual and the confiscation/disarmament/imprisonment is a solitary case in a specific location where the emergency justifies the actions.
The difference happens when this is applied to every city and town in every state. It’s no longer a solitary case of government abuse. When this becomes a nationwide government policy, Larry Correia’s description is more accurate.
Thanks Mas and Larry Though U are prolly prichnto da qwire maybe some dickweed will pick up on it and think it thru
They know how many Stalin killed but Stalins victims didn’t know. We know!
Ayers said he’d kill 25 mill to get the rest into line but he still don’t know which way the wind blows
Another insight, and link, that we’ve grown to expect from Mas. They are both right; but, I think they are getting ahead of the process as it is more likely to unfold.
The gun controllers plan to arrest us one by one; folks like Shaneen Alan of PA who carried her handgun into NJ and looked into the depths of hell. One by one we will be offered a plea bargain. Confess to a felony and get probation. Lose your job and a big chunk of your assets.
How will we respond? Go to prison? Take up arms?
The way is already marked-out for us. Early in the 19’th Century the idea of “nullification” was introduced. This first became a serious strategy with jury nullification during alcohol Prohibition. Of late, it appeared as states adopting medical marijuana laws; then recreational pot laws. Now sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants.
Right to carry states are taking up the strategy. Illinois counties are adopting 2A sanctuary county resolutions. A few states have adopted “no more Federal gun control laws” – sadly lacking teeth. When push comes to shove, most of the geographical territory of the US will defy Washington.
When a “transfer” occurs in a sanctuary state – or might have occured in a sanctuary state – what will be the teeth in a UBC law? When a “red flagged” citizen can move to a sanctuary state what will be the teeth in a Extreme Emergency Confiscation law? When right-to-carry states give bus tickets to convicts who have served their terms, what will the blue states do? For every Federal gun control law that might be passed, gun rights states could undermine its effectiveness.
The Feds simply do not have the resources to enforce their laws against the will of the people in the several states. Jurries in some court houses will not convict. Juries in Federal courts might not convict even when raised in blue cities in red states. The Feds will always have more pressing crime to pursue than paperwork violations about guns.
Eventually, gun owners in red states will organize their local politics and take control of their elections for Federal senators. What would happen in Washington if Vermont only sends gun-rigths senators to Congress? New Mexico? Alaska? Arizona? Texas? Montana?
Let’s do the math. It takes only 41 Senators to stop most legislation dead. There are 42 right-to-carry states. If these states can manage to send half their Senate delegates to Washington to defend the 2A then voters in these states could insist on their view of the 2A. Today, they have not chosen to do so. Tomorrow is another day.
Gee whiz, Mas. Wasn’t it about a week or thereabouts ago when you were telling us little people ( that is, all the non-LEOs in this country )to not resist the efforts of the Po-po if they show up and want to confiscate our guns under a so-called Red Flag law? That we would end up being shot to death? You did NOT take the opportunity to DEMAND of those who are sworn that they REFUSE to enforce “laws” that are clearly unconstitutional. Here in the world outside the Blue Bubble, there are even a few Sheriffs who have publicly proclaimed that their Deputies will not enforce such. Hard to believe that nobody called you out on that- or did you simply not allow the dissent to be shown on your site?
Since you seem to be new here, “thinkingman,” you’ve apparently missed all the times I’ve written that cops swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, and that I believe mass confiscation orders would be resisted by police unions and other law enforcement entities. Trade your snark for a little research…
Definitely NOT new here… I’ve had humble contributions disappear into the electron pool of unwelcome comments before and expected no better this time, but as you snap at my pant leg … I read your stuff as it is amusing to me that you attempt to come down squarely on all sides of some things, just as you are doing here. Saying how you believe that police unions would resist mass confiscation orders is, in fact, NOT the same as refusing to carry out confiscation orders targeting individuals, one at a time. THERE, well, I stand by my previous comment. I know you are still badge blind to the extent that you sidestep comment on some police shootings,( which likely explains your attitude that police are ready to shoot EVERYONE they meet, excepting other cops. Such barely restrained impulses do not exactly point to emotional stability, no self control) while depending on your echo chamber for back up on others ( a couple of shootings by cops in Arizona come to mind, and after the female officer in the more recent of the two I have in mind was FINALLY fired by her department, and actually CHARGED for the murder of her upstairs neighbor, you apparently lost much interest in further comment there) coming up with all sorts of pap that the currently badged may use as their justification some day. The more it happens, the less ordinary people trust LEOs whose jobs are the driving force in their existence- an existence that many of them will and do lie, cheat and steal to maintain. A look up on line of Arizona’s DPS gives the impression that no one who is a weapons instructor there can resist the temptation to loot the place of guns and related items, including ammunition, magazines, flash-bang grenades and other such items. I would go on, but I really don’t need to tell a man like you what goes on; you know. Your challenge rings hollow, as does your declaration. You know darn well that there have been too many cops recorded declaring that they don’t want to here about somebody’s rights, or how the cop will light somebody up, or how they demonstrate how they can fearlessly repeated punch a subject in the face and head while he is cuffed and surrounded by multiple other cops, who DO NOTHING to stop the violent assault. YouTube is likely still full of such- there are literally too many to take down all at once. I had more respect for you as a name on a book cover.
Going in order:
If any of your comments were deleted here, they were mouth-foaming insanity, attacks on fellow posters, advocating murdering cops, or full of f-bombs because that’s all that doesn’t make it through.
Glad YOU can understand the difference between mass confiscation based on “malum prohibitum” and red flag orders, which if the laws are properly drafted enable cops to perform the routine task of defanging dangerous “malum in se” snakes. Or do you? As I’ve explained, we gun folks were the ones who said “we need criminal control, not gun control.” We just want it to be written and enforced responsibly.
Sorry you couldn’t grasp what really happened in the Brailsford case. As to the female officer in Texas, if you were really a regular here you’d know that this blog doesn’t pass judgment on people whose side of the issue has not yet been heard.
You need more research and less YouTube and Twitter, methinks.
As the old bumper stickers say, “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.”
Many resistant gun owners will be imprisoned or killed to make examples of them, but hopefully the majority will keep their firearms, maybe even share them and continue to fight using proven hit and run guerilla tactics in a war of attrition. “Wolverines!”
The Left has lost this battle. At least, in the here and now. I can’t speak to the distant future. The fact that so many, like Cory Booker, now openly advocate for oppressive, unconstitutional firearm-prohibition laws is a clear sign of their failure (for those who can see clearly).
For years, the Left has hid their true goals, with lies, and pushed a campaign of incremental firearms-prohibition. For the last few decades, the plan was to make firearms ownership increasingly onerous, difficult and expensive. The plan was to gradually reduce the number of privately-owned firearms to the point where gun-owners were such a minority, they could just be steamrolled into complete prohibition. In a few deep Blue States (CA, NY, NJ, IL, etc.), the strategy was at least partly successful.
In the main, however, this long-term, incremental approach has been a colossal failure because most Americans, especially in the Red States, have resisted being herded. In fact, whenever the gun-grabbers do get their man into office (Example: President Obama), then gun sales go through the roof. President Obama proved to be one of the finest gun salesman to have ever lived. S&W and Ruger should have bought him a new SUV, as a Thank-You present, when he left office. Lord knows, he was good for their bottom line.
So, the Left is becoming frustrated that their strategy of incremental firearms-prohibition is a failure even after decades of effort. Many Leftists are now willing to abandon incrementalism in favor of a direct assault upon the 2nd Amendment. They, seemingly, believe that, with the collusion of their power-base in the Administrative State and their lapdogs in the Anti-American Media, they now have the power to FORCE direct firearms confiscation. They cling to the Australia Model and dream about making something similar (but even stronger!) happen here in the USA.
However, that is simply the action of a drowning man who clutches at straws. As the linked article points out, gun-owners are too numerous and still own far, far, far too many firearms for a direct assault on our 2nd Amendment Freedoms to work. While it is disputed, there is a quote, attributed to Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, that says: “You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass”. Whether Admiral Yamamoto actually said this or not, it would certainly be true if “invade” was replaced with “seize the firearms of”.
The anti-gunners, who fantasize about seizing all the guns, are just as deluded as the Trump Derangement Syndrome crowd who fantasize about impeaching President Trump and then throwing him into prison for life. In both cases, it’s not happening. Both ideas spring from the minds of lunatics who are howling at the moon!
I like your way of thinking TN_MAN. It would be a lot easier for us in the interim if more gun owners would realize that their D votes are votes in favor of confiscation and eradication of the 2A. Not saying all R’s are perfect. Not by a long stretch. However, the D national platform is all anti-gun, anti-baby (pro-kitten) and pro-mob rule. Whether you like the big bad Orange Man or not, or whether you lean toward the social compassion that most people (wrongfully) associate with the D party, those are incidental compared to the big issues of taking guns away, stomping on freedom of speech and expression and taxpayer-funded abortion in any and every case (even after unintended live birth). If the pro-freedom and pro-gun community would step up and support strong candidates and vote like it, this whole conversation about confiscation would be over with in one or two election cycles.
Here’s an earlier article by Eric S. Raymond, breaking it down by the numbers:
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8053
The very first meme shown in Larry’s post (which I had read before, but Larry is usually good for a re-read or five) made me laugh out loud.
“Yes, it’s true, Uncle Sam *does* have a fleet of Blackhawks. And the chick that pilots them? She’s on *my* team.”
(Like, no, seriously, had lunch with a friend who is a Blackhawk pilot on Monday. Once she retires in a few years, she’s going to teach me how to fly helos, too. 😀 )
I just cannot grasp why these delusional morons think that the people they constantly vilify as racists and murderers are going to be on *their* side when some asshat President tries to flex his EO muscles and declare guns illegal. Yes, I realize I am probably giving them far too much benefit of the doubt by using the word “think” in that last sentence.
As a follow-up to my previous comment, above, about the Left losing their battle for oppressive firearms prohibition laws, I note that the Florida Governor just signed into law their bill that allows the option for some Florida teachers to carry in schools. See this link:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/florida-governor-signs-bill-allowing-more-armed-teachers-n1003676
As this link also shows, the Anti-American Media is whining and moaning about this outcome. In this story, they trotted out the usual gun-grabber suspects, including David “Camera” Hogg, to denounce it.
Florida is the State that started the “Shall Issue” movement for Concealed Carry. Who knows, maybe this Florida Law will also become a model for “Teacher Carry” across the U.S.A?
Lots of information on how to defend yourself from mad government can be had from present and past combat troops. One important detail that I have learned is the superior threshold of power of the 30-06 round. “Utopian” politicians who plan to murder patriotic Minutemen and Sheepdogs need to remember the old adage that “what goes a round, comes a round.”
Million dollar helicopter vs sand? In Vietnam we sent million dollar fighter jet against starving people with ammo on a bike. It collapses under it’s own weight. Frankly after thirty years of studying this problem, both sides live in a fantasy world. Study up on the Boers and their struggle. Like the Boer we will not receive any outside support. We will have to deal with being defeated by our own ego, and the resulting bad tactics. Both sides will suffer from bad tactics and being over weight and out of shape. In stage two it will get really messy because the tactics will have evolved as the cannon fodder on both sides has left a learning curve that both sides will understand how to fight. Not saying it can not be done, just saying it is not as easy as people want to make it sound… YMMV
What if I told you that not everyone on the left is against the 2nd amendment?
How scary a thought that is to the so-called “right” AND the so-called “left” is a most telling thing; scary to more than a few on both sides. Why is it scary? It’s scary because it means that there is a silent but growing faction that is thinking for themselves. That’s anathema to both “sides”.
These labels, “left” and “right”, that we have been indoctrinated into using against each other are exactly that “labels to use against each other”. Think about that for a moment. Free-think about THAT. Yeah, free-think, don’t rely on anything you’ve been told about either side and use your free will to think for yourself for just a moment.
“Labels to use against each other.”
“Labels”, manufactured and propagated by parties whose agendas are furthered by turning us “against each other”.
It’s time to wake up and see the truth. This “left” and “right” nonsense is the most successfully developed propagandist tool of division so far in the 21st century but it’s not working on a small minority who have chosen to be free thinkers. The majority in this country, however, are not free thinkers. Not yet. The majority still listen and accept their lock-step marching orders without question, slavishly lapping up divisive propaganda like it’s truth; but it’s not truth, not even close.
Hear, hear!
See you still have not urged your currently badged brethren to refuse to uphold unconstitutional laws, and yes, I did grasp that in the Brailsford case; I saw the body cam footage, and heard the screamed commands which constituted a perverse game of “Simon Says” that the terrified suspect was apparently calculated to loose. With two officers present, there was in that case, NO reason why both subjects ( at police gunpoint ) could not have been proned out and cuffed, each in turn. Instead, the woman was allowed to come to where the largely unseen officer to the left of the shooter was, and there we cannot know what was done with her; there was no reason she could not have been cuffed and prone at that time, either . The claim by the shooter that the suspect was reaching behind his back rang hollow- from where the shooter stood, he had a clear view of the victim’s back as he crawled on the floor begging not to be killed; he could clearly see the loose, baggy shorts the victim wore being pulled off by his crawling, tying his legs together, as he tried desperately to comply with the screaming gunman. I saw MUCH from that body cam footage. The claim that everything the shooter did was consistent with his training, only points out how poor training has become,, and how badly it needs to be revised, or scrapped, and rebuilt. We won’t even go into the frame of mind of the shooter, who needed to accessorize his personnel rifle with the now infamous “You’re F**ked” emblem bearing ejection port cover installed thereon, befitting the taste and attitude of the shooter. You remember how the jury was NOT allowed to know about that, because it seemed at least callous. Yes, I gasp what happened in that case, and it stands as a travesty, IMHO . Yes, you HAVE deleted things I have submitted here, and in none of them did I attack another party posting, nor advocate murdering LEOs. I will say I was not surprised by you having to resort to a backhanded personal attack as a red herring to avoid addressing the real point,, which I opened with in this retort. P.S.- seems that the thing LEOs hate most about Facebook and other places of that nature on line is that LEOs cannot control the info shared there; it’s all about the truth, and who controls it. Contrary to what LEOs may think, the public can pick the wheat from the chaff , and the truth is not always flattering to cops.
You come here insulting people, and then whimper about getting “a backhanded personal attack”? LOL. If you got anything deleted here, as explained before, it was from attacking other commenters, over-using F-bombs, or being a general butthole.
My brothers and sisters who’ve worked in law enforcement don’t need your You-Tube-worshipping encouragement to support the Constitution. They don’t need mine, either.
That article and Mas’ responses to thinkingman are F**n spectacular!( See, I self edited for you Dear Uncle!)
Of course, other libtards I hear from at work all day keep talking about how there will not need to be a confiscation when the EMP’s/microwave weapons are used to fry our brains and keep us from getting away in our gas guzzling, carbon creating 4×4 Pickups!
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