An Open Letter To Marty Daniel And Daniel Defense
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 8 months ago
Dear Marty,
I see that you weighed in with support for the “fix-NICS” bill. I was sad to see this, so I wrote you a note that went something like this (in abbreviated form).
Sir,
I feel that this will be a huge mistake and I wish there was a way to undo this. Unfortunately, there isn’t. My readers have already sent me this information, and I was wondering if there was anything I could say to them about this?
I haven’t received a reply from you Marty, but I assume you’ve been busy, sir. I also assume you’ve heard an earful about this, because you’ve withdrawn your support.
Very well. I’m a forgiving sort of person and it’s the same position I took on Rock River Arms when they flirted with gun control in their own state, intentionally or not. I’ve made many mistakes in my life, and my aim is to learn from them all and become a better person.
But this episode requires a little bit of unpacking. You clearly demonstrated bad judgment in the initial endorsement of this bill. I know that you are a Christian and a defender of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This means a lot to me, and more than anything else will earn my trust and patronage. This is also why I recently purchased a CMMG gun – they are a Christian company too.
As a Christian, you must be wiser and more circumspect than those around you. You cannot be thrown about by the shifting tides and the changing winds. You must understand that the results of the fall in Adam and his federal headship over all mankind causes sin, and sin causes the very things that the progressives use to foist their schemes of control over others.
You must understand that firearms were ubiquitous in early schools, so much so that gun clubs were a thing. The changes wrought by society are entirely due to rejection of the very gospel that you claim to support. And no rejection of the gospel can be repaired or ameliorated by a law or new scheme of control.
Gun control is evil in all of its forms. It was Dr. Greg Bahnsen who pointed out the utter wickedness of gun control schemes.
The Bible does contain a few direct references to weapons control. There were many times throughout Israel’s history that it rebelled against God (in fact, it happened all the time). To mock His people back into submission to His Law, the Lord would often use wicked neighbors to punish Israel’s rebellion. Most notable were the Philistines and the Babylonians. 1 Samuel 13:19-22 relates the story: “Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!” So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles sharpened…So on the day of battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in this hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.” Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon also removed all of the craftsmen from Israel during the Babylonian captivity (2 Kings 24:14). Both of these administrations were considered exceedingly wicked including their acts of weapons control.
Furthermore, you must understand that the progressives are incrementalists and have been at this a very long time. They are patient in achieving their goals. Here is a perfect example.
The only way we can truly be safe and prevent further gun violence is to ban civilian ownership of all guns. That means everything. No pistols, no revolvers, no semiautomatic or automatic rifles. No bolt action. No breaking actions or falling blocks. Nothing. This is the only thing that we can possibly do to keep our children safe from both mass murder and common street violence.
Unfortunately, right now we can’t. The political will is there, but the institutions are not. Honestly, this is a good thing. If we passed a law tomorrow banning all firearms, we would have massive noncompliance. What we need to do is establish the regulatory and informational institutions first. This is how we do it. The very first thing we need is national registry. We need to know where the guns are, and who has them.
This is why a registry is the Holy Grail for the progressive. They won’t stop with their initial victories. Oh no. In fact, they’ve told you so. As for this so called “fix-NICS” bill, you must understand what while you might intend something like that for good, the state will never work it that way.
Any increase in the registry of people who cannot own guns will sweep into its chasm veterans who were diagnosed with PTSD, didn’t know they were on a prohibited list (because Obama’s VA reported them as prohibited), try to buy a gun, and then find out they have committed a felony and end up being arrested under this new bill.
Any increase in the registry will sweep into its chasm men and women who someone wanted to be on the list and [falsely] reported them as mentally defective, with the village witch doctors – or psychiatrists – employed by the state now an integral part of the process.
All of that bypasses the right of due process. One of my readers observed this about court appointed mental health professionals.
Control freaks love psychiatry, a means of social control with no Due Process protections. It is a system of personal opinion masquerading as science. See, e.g., Boston University Psychology Professor Margaret Hagan’s book, Whores of the Court, to see how arbitrary psychiatric illnesses are. Peter Breggin, Fred Baughman and Thomas Szasz wrote extensively about abuses of psychiatry. Liberals blame guns for violence. Conservatives blame mental illness. Neither have any causal connection to violence. The issue is criminal conduct, crime. Suggesting that persons with legal disabilities are criminals shows the nonsensical argument of this politician and his fellow control freaks. Shame on them.
And just today, another astute reader made this observation.
Just as a gun registry is a precursor to gun confiscation, a mental illness registry is a precursor to the “confiscation” of the mentally ill.
The denial of second amendment rights for a certain category of people is a precedent for the denial of any and all other rights held by people in that category.
All men have certain inalienable rights. U.S. citizens have those rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.
Denial or abridgement of those rights for any portion of the population, absent act or crime by each individual, is premised on a determination of one or the other of two things: 1) No human or citizen has any rights that may not be abridged or denied by government at will; or, 2) A certain segment of the population may be deemed to be neither citizens, nor fully human.
Our founders correctly believed that it’s never a good idea to give the state more power, or to centralize what power does exist in the state. If America is suffering from a lapse in moral constitution, it has nothing to do with the laws or lack thereof. As a Christian, you know the corrective for that problem.
Again, you must be wiser than your opponents, if indeed the controllers are your opponents. Even the so-called National Association of Evangelicals, which is anything but national or evangelical, has flirted with gun control because they want to be cool, hip, modern and progressive. You need to be better and smarter than that.
When the teachers of religion go their own way, you need to remember the Bible. When the state sings its siren song of more peace for more power, you need to remember that, as Dr. Bahnsen pointed out, all gun control is based in wickedness, and the state is always lying to you.
Please, please, please do not ever let this happen again. It will take time and hard work to rebuild trust with the gun community. Please invest the time and work to do just that.
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On March 12, 2018 at 10:08 pm, george said:
Well said, Herschel.
thank you and may God bless you and yours,
On March 13, 2018 at 8:28 am, Angus Mcthag said:
Please to be quoting section of bill which has registration.
I keep hearing this repeated and I cannot find it in the text.
On March 13, 2018 at 9:34 am, Herschel Smith said:
@Angus,
I never said that the “fix-NICS” bill was a registration of all gun owners. Not exactly. I did hint that any “improvement” or “empowerment” of said program was an open door to a registry, and that wasn’t an accident.
As I’ve said before, the mere existence of the NICS is an unconstitutional infringement. SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.
SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.
Words mean something, despite what robed tyrants say. Furthermore, I did outline some potentially other bad consequences of said bill. There are more, I just didn’t list them.
The only bill I would support is a bill to destroy all NICS records and undo the entire program.
On March 13, 2018 at 9:43 am, Fred said:
Fix-NICS doesn’t propose to control guns. This isn’t about gun control, it’s about people control.
On March 13, 2018 at 12:24 pm, Jack Crabb said:
Perhaps you are more forgiving than I am, Herschel. I struggle with forgiveness regularly, even as a Christian.
I just cannot for the life of me figure out how Marty Daniel can list the four bullet points about how sacred the 2nd Amendment is, and should be, essentially untouchable and then just above his bullet points state that this is “the best option available… to hold back the continued attacks”.
These facts are mutually exclusive. The best available option is “shall not be infringed”. It sure seems to me that Daniel holds his finger in the air to see which way the political winds are blowing.
On March 13, 2018 at 12:35 pm, Longbow said:
The best way to “hold back continual attacks”, is to go on the offensive! The Lautenberg Amendment should be repealed. The Hughes Amendment should be repealed. The GCA should be repealed. The FFA should be repealed. The NFA should be repealed.
Our propaganda in that effort should be unceasing!
On March 13, 2018 at 2:04 pm, Gryphon said:
I’ve always thought that the compromisers (like the NRA) were simply resigned to the eventuality of Gun Bans, etc. and were ‘fighting’ to delay this, by the same ‘Incrementalism’ that the bolsheviks practice against Us. Mr. Daniel, having Money at Risk, probably sees that every ‘delaying’ compromise makes Him more $hekel$ before He is (inevitably) Shut Down.
On March 13, 2018 at 2:54 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
Re: “The best way to “hold back continual attacks”, is to go on the offensive! The Lautenberg Amendment should be repealed. The Hughes Amendment should be repealed. The GCA should be repealed. The FFA should be repealed. The NFA should be repealed.”
Telling that the NRA has not called for these actions, isn’t it? The blunt fact of the matter is that this organization is placing its own self-interest head of that of the people. By calling for a more-substantial roll-back of firearms regulations and laws, the NRA obviously feels that such an action would jeopardize its future relevancy and its bottom line – so it is not done so.
‘Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.’ – Eric Hoffer
On March 13, 2018 at 6:19 pm, Henry said:
So Daniel was gulled into believing that Fix NICS was all upside with no downside (which is, let’s not forget, the official party line at the NRA).
Hey, I’ve occasionally been gullible too. Hell, as a younger man I actually used to send money to HCI. I got over it. I don’t have a problem with forgiveness.
What impresses me is that Daniel makes a cogent, rational, PUBLIC apology for having made a mistake. You know, we don’t get those nearly as often as you might think, and we need to cherish the ones we do get.
Every year or two, we hear a story about some celebrity who routinely lent her name to gun control efforts, until she found herself helpless and intimately soiled after a violent event that occurred in her personal vicinity, after which she bought her first gun. But never an apology to all her past victims who had their rights infringed due to some law she stumped for in the past; never an admission that she now thinks differently than before, WHEN SHE USED TO BE WRONG. Heck, she may even continue to militate against your right to own guns in exactly the same way that she does (*cough*Whoopi*cough). I agree that these people are maggots, and deserve to be dropped into some pit of hell, right next to the Dick’s management team and all the LA-riots-era liberals who flocked to gun stores asking, “What do you mean, I have to wait ten days?!”
Even Charlton Heston — the president of the freakin’ NRA — never apologized to us for his 1968 public advocacy of “stiff gun control.” Never.
We shouldn’t toss an ally willing to proffer a sincere apology that he was wrong. Doing that would lose us valuable activists like Paxton Quigley, scholars like Wright and Rossi, and plenty more.
On March 13, 2018 at 9:46 pm, Ned said:
Great post, Herschel.
On March 13, 2018 at 9:49 pm, Equilibrist said:
@ Fred — March 13, 2018 at 9:43 am,
On the nosey, Fred.
On March 14, 2018 at 3:53 am, cincinnatifunk said:
Dear Daniel Defense.
I get it, we all make mistakes. This political mess we are in is quite disgusting. Your apology is definitely appreciated. However we all know that actions speak louder than words. Politicians talk, keyboard commandos speculate, people give their forty cents worth and much head-flapping ensues. But at the end of the day, those of us who have been in this game for a long time, those who are wise or maybe educated. We know that the battle rifle is the last line of defense to our freedoms. It may go tyrannical, it may not, it may go civil war, it may not. The future of this storm could bring anything. Wise men know this and don’t need to spout it on every forum. Mr. Daniel all I offer to you, is that if you are truly apologetic toward your brothers and you truly made a mistake. A suggestion for good action for you would be to continue to build the best tools you can build. If this situation gets much more out of control. Our brothers will need every quality tool they can get to defend lady liberty. Build a gun that my liberty loving eyes cannot look away from. Lots of people trash talk America becuase of our “gun” problem. That’s made up trash. THIS IS AMERICA. THIS IS OUR AMERICA. So let fools talk, and let money walk, but build something American. That’s how you earn forgiveness.
On March 14, 2018 at 5:17 pm, DAN III said:
For me a Daniel Defense product never provided the “bang for the buck” it cost to buy a DD weapon. I could never justify Daniel’s prices vs, for instance, a Bravo Company Manufacturing AR-malite platform.
If you bought a DD product you may feel cheated after the hypocrisy of Daniel. DD now joins the hypocrites of Springfield Armory and Rock River. The best one can do is boycott these scoundrels and support companies like Bravo Company and American Defense Manufacturing along with many other good Freedom believing companies.
Seems every day I have another justification to my cynicism meter nearing the breaking point. Basically, who does one trust anymore ?