Archive for the 'Second Amendment' Category

News from New Mexico.

“Citizens have a right to bear arms and we cannot circumvent that right when they have not even committed a crime or even been accused of committing one,” added the Sheriff’s Association.  “We sheriffs have sworn to uphold those and other God-given rights for our citizens at all costs.”

[ … ]

In the statement from the New Mexico Sheriff’s Association, signed by the chairman, Sheriff Tony Mace, it says, “The founding fathers of our republic were patriots with firearms in their hands fighting against tyranny for the freedom and liberty of which they were denied by England. Upon their victory, they formed a new and innovative government to protect their newfound freedom to include the drafting of a Constitution with accompanying Amendments to protect their rights.”

“This created the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. It is an Amendment that has often been challenged and interpreted by the highest court of the land and to this day stands as an individual right for each law-abiding citizen to keep and bear arms,” reads the statement.

“Law-abiding citizens are guaranteed the right to freely choose to arm themselves as collectors, to hunt, to compete in shooting sports and/or recreational shooting, as well as personal and home defense,” says Sheriff Mace. “Most importantly, and should it become necessary, American citizens have the right to be armed to stand and protect the republic against a corrupt and usurping government once again as the original framers of the Constitution intended.”

He continued, “29 out of the 33 New Mexico sheriffs agree that the rush to react to violent crime and atrocities perpetrated by disturbed and/or violent offenders by proposing controls on law-abiding citizens’ guns is ill conceived and is truly a distraction to the real problems proliferating violence in our counties and in our state.”

“These sheriffs encourage the full and complete enforcement of existing gun regulations and oppose any executive order or rule that further restricts the rights of law-abiding citizens to own, possess, keep and use firearms for lawful purposes,” reads the statement.

We might note that this is a great statement except for the last part about existing gun regulations.  A bit of discussion is in order about our understanding of compromise.

Not one more inch, not one more compromise, not one more infringement.  Yes, and all of that, but would you seriously refuse to become allies with these Sheriffs?

Compromise, the way I see it, is giving something up that isn’t justified and isn’t a guaranteed right by God.  In this case, enforcement of existing laws isn’t a compromise.  Those laws are already on the books.  Undoing them is way down the road, because the gun rights community is in full retreat right now.

The “us four and no more” philosophy will get gun owners killed.  This community is going to have to learn incrementalism.  We’ve got to learn to find proper allies.  The statists have made good use of that tactic, and we are where we are because rather than ally with those closest to our views for a period of time, we sit and squander the opportunity to press forward in the war.  Politics is war.

Those Sheriffs aren’t asking you to give anything up that hasn’t already been codified in state law.  If they are serious – and that’s a big if – they are potentially putting their jobs and pensions on the line to be “constitutional Sheriffs.”

Would you refuse an ally like this and let Eric Holder take them on and destroy their careers, cast them out of office, and turn your neighborhoods against you?  Eric Holder understands incrementalism.  If you’re waiting on the perfect one, you may as well board the train now and save the state the money to hunt you down.

Again, there is nothing in that statement above that would cause a patriot to wince except the enforcement of existing laws.  That can be handled later, maybe, but certainly not if your Sheriff is Art Acevedo, or Paul Penzone (41mag will have no audience with him).  When is “a huge step in the right direction” worth your support?

And if nothing is, what’s your plan?  And don’t give me a list of all the tactical crap you’re going to do if you won’t even use your real name to comment.

If I lived in New Mexico, I’d be telling these Sheriffs to press on.  They’re doing God’s work.

Haywood County, North Carolina, is considering a second amendment sanctuary resolution.  Collectivists are everywhere, even in the mountains of North Carolina.

Sometimes when the topic of gun rights comes up, people pick a side and put blinders on. In general there seems to be no room for compromise, let alone any listening with an open mind to what someone from the opposite side has to say.

But like in so many other ways, Haywood County is a special place where people find ways to overcome obstacles and work through issues.

That was on full display Tuesday evening when the county commissioner meeting room in the Historic Courthouse was jam-packed with people — most of whom were speaking up during a public comment session to ask that Haywood become a gun sanctuary county.

This is when a state or local government body passes a resolution indicating their support for the Second Amendment. Some resolutions resolve to not enforce gun control measures county leaders perceive as violating Second Amendment rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.

There were about three dozen speakers, with the vast majority urging the commissioners to become a gun sanctuary county.

But there was a moment in the meeting when views seemed to soften just a bit. All in the room gave Haywood native Natalie Henry Howell a standing ovation when she asked for consideration of two gun control measures that may have saved the life of her son, Riley, who died during a school shooting at UNC-Charlotte after tackling the shooter and saving who knows how many other lives.

Riley was shot with rounds 13 through 18 from an extended magazine by a person with diminished mental capacity who should never have been able to own a gun, Howell told the crowd.

“I just want us to give some careful thought on whether or not that’s something we want out there,” Howell said. “The other thing I’d like to give careful thought to is tighter background checks, because I’m not real sure I understand why someone who says they want responsible gun ownership wouldn’t be for background checks that are thorough.”

The Howell family has long made it clear that Riley enjoyed target practice and that their stance is not to undermine the Second Amendment.

“We are not saying no to guns. There are just some things we can and need to do better,” Howell said in an earlier interview. “I hear people say ‘This won’t help’ or ‘That won’t help’ and I say ‘Well, OK, no single measure will end this gun violence epidemic, but it’s a start and will save lives.’”

Ironically, many of the Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions adopted by state or local government bodies advocate not enforcing laws viewed as limiting gun rights in any way. The wording raises questions.

Many speaking at the commissioner meeting said the resolution simply sends a message of support for Second Amendment rights, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that — or with expanding that message to include all the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. But as always, the devil is in the details.

[ … ]

Would a sanctuary resolution raise questions about laws passed by duly elected state and federal governing bodies, but not adjudicated through the court? What about laws upheld by our court system such as prohibiting felons from owning a gun or background checks?

Messages can be sent in multiple ways. There are risks to adopting a resolution worded in a way that could put locally elected officials in a position of picking and choosing what laws to enforce, which should be downright scary to those who believe in our form of government here in the United States. Additionally, withholding county resources from enforcing certain laws, as some of the gun sanctuary resolutions suggest, could set the county up for a lawsuit.

The commissioners all voiced support for gun rights, and all of them indicated they are gun users. They also indicated they are willing to adopt something, but want to be careful of how it is worded.

Well now, this is rich in detail, yes?  I think we all needed to know these things and I see her commentary as profoundly helpful.

The Howell family’s argument is an appeal to emotion, an attempt to garner sympathy from their tragic loss, and (the way I look at it) an inappropriate appeal to the life of their son.  Riley was “shot with rounds 13 through 18 from an extended magazine by a person with diminished mental capacity who should never have been able to own a gun.”

So we might point out that Riley could have been killed with a single round, and thus there is no difference between a single shot rifle and any other.  Furthermore, it would have been better for Riley, despite his heroic actions, to have been armed.  Rather than lobbying for limitations on magazine capacity, she should have been arguing against “gun-free” zones, which are never really free of guns, just free of gun-carrying law abiding citizens.

But more to the point, this isn’t in the least related to the resolution before the County Commissioners.  It’s a misdirect.  The task before them is to adopt the second amendment sanctuary resolution or reject it.  To that issue, I’d like to make some observations (and send this to each member of the county board of commissioners).  The board is made up of Kevin Ensley, Brandon C. Rogers, J. W. “Kirk” Kirkpatrick III, Tommy Long, and Mark Pless.

This is no small matter you’re taking up.  If you’re scared of lawsuits and things not being adjudicated through the courts, you need a gut check and review of your world and life view rather than a vote on this resolution.    Passing this resolution with the thought that you’re making some sort of “symbolic statement” is not just dishonest, but dangerous.

These sorts of resolutions have been passed before in various places, only to later learn that the county wasn’t serious about them and had no intention of using assets to enforce them, with the result that county residents who believed them were taken before federal courts for violating laws governing things like ownership of suppressors without having submitted approval to the ATF.

It is the worst sort of thing you can do, to set up your constituency for failure because they believed you, when you were actually making “statements,” or worse, telling lies for the sake of convenience or reelection.  You see, this resolution is before you because your constituency knows that the second amendment is under attack.  Adjudication through the courts has helped to get us where we are today rather than stopping or slowing it.

When the second amendment resolution passed in Lincoln County, the chairman of the board of commissioners said “If the state or even the federal government comes down with additional regulations, it’s gonna say that Lincoln County is not gonna come forth with that and it’s gonna be hard to take guns in Lincoln County.”  And said this: “If it comes to pass that they want to infringe upon the people’s rights to carry guns, it’s going to be a bad day for somebody.”

It sounds to me like she’s serious and knows what she believes.  Sheriff Mack, founder and president of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, had this to say about things.

“A lot of those sanctuary cities and counties across the country don’t go far enough,” said Mack. “What do you do if they still come in and try to take law abiding citizens’ guns? [The sheriffs] need to actually intervene and interpose and not let it happen.”

You see, people like this are committed.  They know that the board of county commissioners must be on the side of liberty.  They know that the Sheriff and his deputies must be in agreement, and they know that the county attorney must also be on board.  Otherwise, it’s like the opinion pages of the Greensboro News & Record, saying, “To a large degree, these resolutions are harmless. They break no laws, nor do they change any laws. If they provide some degree of comfort to local residents, more power to them. Gun violence is regularly in the news these days, and we could all use a little comforting.”

If you see yourself as passing “harmless resolutions that comfort people,” then you should stand down now.  But if you see yourselves as an essential cog in the liberty machinery of America, and are seriously committed to the fight, I commend this resolution to you.

Either way, as long as you’re being honest about things, my readers in your county will know where you stand.

UPDATE: Gaston County, N.C., is also considering a 2A resolution soon.  I just penned a letter to them, encouraging their acceptance of the resolution, but with the same stipulations of seriousness.

UPDATE #2:  Mr. Tracy Philbeck, Chairman of the Gaston County Board of Commissioners, sends this article in response.

House Bill 4168.

(4) Whenever the federal government assumes powers that the people did not grant it in the United States Constitution, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force;

(5) The several states of the United States of America respect the proper role of the federal government, but reject the proposition that such respect requires unlimited submission. If the government, created by a compact among the states, was the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers granted to it by the states through the United States Constitution, the federal government’s discretion, and not the United States Constitution, would necessarily become the measure of those powers. To the contrary, as in all other cases of compacts among powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself as to whether infractions of the compact have occurred, as well as to determine the mode and measure of redress. Although the several states have granted supremacy to laws and treaties made under the powers granted in the United States Constitution, such supremacy does not extend to various federal statutes, executive orders, administrative orders, court orders, rules, regulations, or other actions which restrict or prohibit the manufacture, ownership, and use of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition exclusively within the borders of West Virginia. All such statutes, executive orders, administrative orders, court orders, rules, regulations, and other actions exceed the powers granted to the federal government except to the extent they are necessary and proper for governing and regulating land and naval forces of the United States or for organizing, arming, and disciplining of militia forces actively employed in the service of the armed forces of the United States;

(6) The people of the several states have given Congress the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states”, but “regulating commerce” does not include the power to limit citizens’ right to keep and bear arms in defense of their families, neighbors, persons, or property, or to dictate as to what sort of arms and accessories law-abiding West Virginians may buy, sell, exchange, or otherwise possess within the borders of this state;

Of course, this is good and I applaud the representatives who sponsored this bill.  I encourage all West Virginia representatives and senators to vote in favor of this bill and make it become law.

However, just because the state is taking this stand doesn’t mean involvement in local and county politics can stand down.

The state law can be changed later, or it might not be honored.  Honoring this law would mean use of state agents and militia to interdict and stop agents of the federal government from enforcing unconstitutional gun control laws.  In fact, there are a number already on the books that are unconstitutional (namely, all of them).

So the question for the House and Senate is just this: How seriously are you going to take this, or do you see it as some sort of toothless resolution or statement of support to “send a message?”

If you see this as “sending a message,” then choose another way to do it until voters can cast you out of office and put patriots back it.

For the voters of West Virginia, you have some fisking to do, on both the state and county level.

From Wiki page.

Lots of reference URLs at the link.

Now.  The trick here isn’t just to get the resolutions passed.  The picture above is just a map, nothing more, nothing less.  That’s only the first step.  Those counties and states have the framework of the law within which to work.  The next steps are harder and will require work.

You must get the county commissioners on your side.  You must get the Sheriff and his Deputies on your side.  And you must get the county commissioners on your side.

You must make sure they see their resolutions this way.

Mack is founder and president of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, and gained prominence in the 1990s. He was a plaintiff in a successful lawsuit resisting requirements that law enforcement perform background checks on gun buyers as originally intended by the Clinton-era Brady Bill. He says he’s in touch with some of the sheriffs supporting Second Amendment sanctuaries today.

“A lot of those sanctuary cities and counties across the country don’t go far enough,” said Mack. “What do you do if they still come in and try to take law abiding citizens’ guns? [The sheriffs] need to actually intervene and interpose and not let it happen.”

That, combined with determined, trained, physically fit and well-armed and well-equipped militia determined and committed to the fight, should do the trick.

When agents of the state cross county lines to arrest people for state firearms violations, they are promptly arrested by militia, turned over to the county Sheriff, and thrown in jail for several months along with the drunks, abusers, thieves and murderers.  Weapons will be confiscated and split between militia and Sheriff’s department, vehicles and other equipment will be confiscated, and a permanent record of felonious criminal activity will be put on file for the state agents.

If there is a battle to be waged, let it be won.

Philadelphia Enquirer.

Because this year, on MLK Day, a gun-rights rally took place in Virginia. The kind featuring thousands of mostly white people, many of them carrying guns, some allegedly from right-wing hate groups, and all united in their fervent desire to carry weapons that kill.

I support the right to keep and bear arms. But the spectacle of a reported 22,000 people — many of them white and armed — converging on the Virginia Capitol was reminiscent of a gigantic lynch mob, and it was chilling that such a gathering took place on the only national holiday honoring a black man.

Next up, UNC Radio.

According to Devin Burghart, an expert on white nationalism and far-right paramilitary organizations, the language of some who support the sanctuary resolutions in Virginia bears unmistakeable links to anti-government movements from decades past.

Specifically, Burghart points to the visible influence of the idea of “posse comitatus,” Latin for “power of the county.”

Burghart says the “posse comitatus” theory claims that the political will of the people is at its most potent at the county level, and as such, the most important holders of public office are county sheriffs.

“An elected Sheriff answers only to the citizenry,” wrote Sheriff Scott Jenkins of Culpeper County, Virginia, in a recent Facebook post on the Sheriff’s Office page. “I will always respect the rule of law but I don’t need to wait for a court to interpret my duty for me.”

Sheriff Jenkins has been an outspoken supporter of the Virginia sanctuaries, vowing to deputize county residents to resist state laws regulating guns, should they pass.

“This notion of county supremacy and the ideas of the ‘posse comitatus’ that go all the way back to the 1970s, and the idea of the sheriff being the most important law enforcement officer in the land is one that has deep and deeply troubling roots in this country,” said Burghart, executive director of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. “The ideas originated in the racist right.”

Finally, NYT.

RICHMOND, Va. — Around 22,000 people came here on Monday to protest potential new restrictions on guns under consideration by the new Democratic majority in the General Assembly. Most of the protesters were outside the grounds of the State Capitol, and most appeared to be carrying weapons: handguns, shotguns, carbines and semiautomatic rifles. There were armed men in camouflage and military-style equipment threatening insurrection if the state’s elected representatives acted contrary to their wishes.

Walking through the crowds, I saw Gadsden flags emblazoned with “Don’t Tread on Me” and “Come and Take It” banners alongside “Blue Lives Matter” patches sewn into vests and T-shirts with oft-used quotations like Thomas Jefferson’s famous claim that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

The rhetoric may have been violent, but the overall event was calm — a “peaceful protest,” Brian Moran, the Virginia secretary of public safety, told The Washington Post. A model of democratic assembly.

But that “peace” can’t be separated from intimidation; progressive groups urged members not to go to the Capitol to avoid violent confrontation with extremists. There were no counterprotests or rival demonstrations. The Second Amendment had effectively limited the First.

[ … ]

These dynamics carried over into the creation of the United States. At its founding, the United States was a white republic whose Constitution reflected settler preoccupation with racial control. As it grew and expanded, so would Americans’ racialized understanding of rights, responsibilities, personhood and citizenship.

“Radicalized understanding.”  “Racist.”  “White supremacy.”  “Deeply troubling.”  “Lynch mob.”

So let me break all of this down for you in four words.  Let me explain what all of this is about.  This is damage control.

They wanted violence.  They wanted negligent discharges.  They wanted fights.  They wanted arrests.  They got none of that.

Now, as if Bloomberg sent out the message that this was an awful event that the enemy won, his apparatchiks are doing damage control.  That’s how you know Richmond was a success.

The best thing of the three commentaries was this quote.

Mack is founder and president of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, and gained prominence in the 1990s. He was a plaintiff in a successful lawsuit resisting requirements that law enforcement perform background checks on gun buyers as originally intended by the Clinton-era Brady Bill. He says he’s in touch with some of the sheriffs supporting Second Amendment sanctuaries today.

“A lot of those sanctuary cities and counties across the country don’t go far enough,” said Mack. “What do you do if they still come in and try to take law abiding citizens’ guns? [The sheriffs] need to actually intervene and interpose and not let it happen.”

Yes.  This.  And this is what I’ve been saying all along, haven’t I?

You need to fisk your local Sheriff and his deputies.  If they aren’t on board, they need to be replaced.  You need to fisk your county commissioners.  If they aren’t on board, they need to be replaced.

Then after lining up your assets, you can work your county attorney to ensure that he’s fully on board, or that he’s replaced soon enough by being fired by the very commissioners you put on the board.  The attorney is the linchpin of this whole process, because the commissioners aren’t going to do something he suggests against.  The Sheriff might (if it’s Sheriff Mack), but it would be better to fisk everyone and get all necessary parties on board.  That’s your leverage.  Understand it.  Use it.

Listen.  The second amendment sanctuary movement is a God-send.  This provides structure.  This provides the ability to turn national politics into local politics.  Bloomberg wanted to go local.  Very well.  He’s won some of the battles.  But by going local and getting everyone on board with the 2A resolutions, that affects not only local, but national politics and policy as well.

Do you understand?  This is your chance to become involved in local politics and have a national effect.

That’s why the communists are scared of the movement.  They should be.  It’s grass roots.  It’s organic.  It’s local.  Most of all, it’s righteous.

Rex explains it all.

I don’t really want to write this entry, it’s strong medicine.  If you don’t want that medicine, stop reading now.  It won’t hurt my feelings one bit.

As long as you’re here, pull up a hard back chair, grab a strong cup of coffee, and ponder what I’ve said.  Before you pound the keyboard to reply in anger, read it again, and ponder what I’ve said again.

Richmond was by my estimation a huge success.  Why I believe this will become apparent as we go along through this dose of medicine.  I’ve seen no end to the cringe-worthy throwdowns at Virginians and other attendees to the rally for doing nothing of any use, failing to end the intent to infringe on our rights, and failing to tear down the fences and burn Richmond to the ground.  Or some sort of worthless blather like that.

I warned (as did others) that this could be a setup for both false flag events and provocateurs, and while I feel certain that such things were planned, the event, the degree of control over it, and the attention to detail of the attendees made it a completely unfit atmosphere for such things.

I glad it went as well as it did.  The event has its detractors, and the objections usually fit into one of the following categories: (a) We don’t get to vote our way out of this, (b) nothing good came of it, (c) the .gov now has face recognition for all attendees, as well as car plate numbers, and probably names, of most of the attendees (i.e., anonymity has been compromised).  So let me address these items and then outline why I think we’re where we are and what comes next.  I’ll have to do so in headings.

Anonymity

No thinking man can honestly object that attendees have lost anonymity.  There was never any to be had, and even if there was, there cannot be in the future.

If you believe, after pounding the keyboard for years like you have, purchased guns and ammunition like you have, turned in tax forms like you have, and worked within the system like you have, that you have even one iota of anonymity left, you don’t understand how all of this works.  The .gov is directly tied into trunks of the internet at key locations throughout the nation, and if you don’t think the right (or wrong) folks know what you’ve been writing or saying, you don’t understand the internet as it exists today.

I know it may make you feel better to use some sort of nom de guerre, like you’re really secret and hidden from direct view, and it may make you feel empowered to be a jerk behind the screen, but it’s all an illusion.  It’s not real, and if you believe in it, you’re naive.

Moreover, the founders risked their lives, families, fortunes and honor to found a new country.  If you don’t understand that, you don’t even understand what it means to be a patriot, much less are you in the game.  If you’re not in the game yet, go ahead and keep pounding the keyboard like it means something, and stop reading this now.  If you try to do any of the things I’ve suggested so far to press forward with the recovery of our heritage, like approaching your CLEO for a meeting about what it means to him to be a sanctuary county, and try to hide or conceal your name, please send me a note and tell me how that goes.  Introduce yourself to your local Sheriff as “Brutus Maximus the keyboard warrior,” and then try to fisk his ideas on God-given rights.  Tell me how long the meeting lasts.  It will be nothing but a joke.

The things I’m saying about anonymity are directed at both military (esp. former SpecOps) and non-military, cops and politicians, professionals and blue collar workers.  No one is exempt, and all of your commitment will be required to make it through what’s coming.  If you want to pound the keyboard in angry reply to this, go ahead, but I’ll just laugh when I read your nom de guerre while I use my real name.  You’re committed or not, but don’t be a pretender.  Pretenders aren’t serious people.

Politics

There is no voting our way out of this.  Well no, not at the moment.  Not as the voting public is currently constituted.  As a nation we lost our way a very long time ago.

We (Americans, and I point my finger particularly at the church and Christians) watched the soul-polluting garbage that comes from Hollywood; we sent children to public schools for indoctrination into communism; we allowed the communists to infiltrate the halls of academia and take control of the academy; we looked the other way when the communists infiltrated the seminaries to teach social justice and lies rather than the incarnation, justification and the doctrines of grace; we kept giving to the churches when they sent their money to those dens of the Satan; we trusted the FedGov when they said that the judiciary would be unbiased and they could be allowed to control the law schools and judicial nominees; we shrugged when corrupt politicians ensconced in that pit of vipers, Washington D.C.

We were too busy wearing the jerseys of our favorite thug who desecrated the Lord’s day sabbath, or hunting, or sleeping, or trying to make a fortune in business, to pay attention to the fact that Bolsheviks were increasingly running things.  Virginians, in droves, stayed home on election day, and those who did show up lacked the world and life view necessary to vote intelligently.

Now they are paying the price for it.  You see, politics is war.  If you don’t understand that, your mind is empty and your ideas vapid.  It may not be shooting (or it may be, if you refuse to dishonor your God-given rights and receive a visit from the local police for it), but it is war nonetheless.  It is a war of ideas and world views, and while it may be at one end of the spectrum, it is still war.  Politics is war.  Always remember that.  Loss of that war may mean the end of your wealth, honor, dignity, families, fortunes, and even lives.

I have a friend who was once interviewed for a position as a professor of philosophy.  His team of interviewers asked him to outline the branches of philosophy, and he responded, “(1) Ontology / Metaphysics, (2) Epistemology, and (3) Ethics.”  Then he added, “Sometimes ethics is called and categorized as politics.”  His idiot team didn’t even know the categories themselves, but he got the job.

One student in a particular class complained about his instruction on the differences in world and life views, and he had the students re-seat and leave a row of chairs in the middle of the class empty.  He then knocked over that entire row (like dominoes), and said, “That is the gulf between Christianity and paganism.”  You’re one or the other, but not both, and choosing no side is not an option.

My friend got it.  When God created us, He made us to take dominion of His creation, to claim it for His glory, in its entirety.  That means the arts, sciences, government, business, engineering, and everything.  Telling me that you don’t care about politics is the same thing as telling me that you don’t think God has anything to say about how men live together, and that you don’t care about ethics.  We are in the very position we are because of our failure to engage ethics and politics, our failure to teach our children, our failure to hold fellow men accountable, our failure to hold our society accountable.

Thus, Hollywood promotes homosexuality, government steals from us, the public turns to the state as god, and 70 million babies have been murdered.  Don’t believe for one second that the country can do this and avoid the wrath and judgment of the Almighty.  You may (falsely) find yourself blameless in all of this.  Yes, I too home schooled my children and taught them, read the Bible to them, and tried my best to hold my public officials accountable.  But I could have done more.  So could you.  Either way, God’s judgment is not just personal, but corporate, and entire peoples get caught up in the entirety of His righteous judgment upon men and countries.  I am a theonomist and Christian reconstructionist, and believe in having a Christian republic.  We’ve come a long way from that, if we ever had it to begin with.

So don’t give me that tripe any more about how you care nothing for politics, while you go back to fondling your rifle.  If that’s your attitude, you’ve done nothing but harm the cause, and your rifle won’t save you.  No, we can’t vote our way out of this.  Voting is the end of the process of teaching and training a people, not the beginning of it.  Get the right order and get clear-headed about this thing.

What Richmond Accomplished

Richmond was a morale-booster for patriots.  It showed that they can come together on fairly short notice and focus on and achieve unity of action.  Whether it did anything to dissuade the communists from pursuing their goals isn’t the point.  I couldn’t care any less about that.  “Can a leopard change its spots?”  What it did do is give patriots the moral high ground.

It took many years of deliberations, thousand upon thousands of letters, endless debates, and numerous local meetings to send word back to the continental congress, to achieve unity of action for the war of independence.  What makes anyone think that recovery of the liberties we squandered will be any easier?  But it gave the continental congress the moral high ground.  That brought the people along with them.

The founders needed the moral high ground.  Without it, and without unity of action, it would have been anarchy.  Anarchy is bad.  It means, in today’s parlance, Bosnia on steroids.  No one wins.  Your family won’t survive, you won’t survive, and if anything comes of it, the .gov will pick patriots off one by one.

The moral high ground for Virginians was attained on Monday.  That’s good for the psyche of patriots, for the planning stages for going forward from here, and for implanting the knowledge that they’ve once again told the planners, “This is the last warning – we won’t live be these edicts.”  To be sure, Virginians were asleep at the wheel, like a lot of us, but they are awake now, and they don’t need our bitching, griping, moaning and complaining about what they did or didn’t do.  They need ideas.  With that in mind, I’d like to propose a few starters to get the ball rolling.  I’ll pose it in the form of questions / comments.

Practical Suggestions

Where are you going to shoot now?  You know you need to engage in the shooting sports with your children, wife, colleagues and co-patriots, but you also know that the state is going after your ranges.  Where do you go now?  Do you have land?  Do you know like-minded people who have land?  Are you partnered with anyone who is like-minded?

Do you think it’s impressive to show up at the rally so fat that your tactical vests cannot even contain the fat rolls?  Is that the image you want to present, and how intimidating do you think that is?  Do you understand the bad optics of that sort of presentation?  How useful would it have been to show up with 6% body fat, muscular, fit and trim, wearing kit that becomes you, carrying impressive weaponry (more on that in a moment)?

I was reading Tom Ricks some time ago (whom I dislike), and was reminded of something that happened in Mogadishu.  History will show that the Marines were in Mogadishu before the Rangers / Delta.  The warlords there saw the Marines, their unity of action, their intent, their heavy kit, and the desire for a fight, and told their people to stand down.  Besides, if 20 Marines would have been killed, based on their history, they would have sent 20,000 to take their revenge.  That’s just how they are.

I won’t go into too much detail, but having a son who was a Marine, I know the Corps to be almost sociopaths and literally paranoid, individually and institutionally.  It’s incorrect to say that the Marines aren’t scared.  They’re scared of everything, including (and most of all) that the institution won’t exist.  The thing they are most scared of is their own NCOs.  They fear them more than they do the enemy, whomever that is determined to be.  Optics, optics, optics, optics, optics.  It’s more important than you know.

I’m not claiming that the Marines were capable or trained to do the things that Delta was, that would be nonsense.  I’m claiming that the warlords wanted nothing to do with people who hold bitter, eternal grudges (and pass those grudges down through their history) and present themselves as wanting to fight, and willing to stupidly sacrifice innumerable lives to recover reputation.  It was only after the Marines left that the warlords took on U.S. troops.

You may disagree with the use of this as an example of optics, but I know many more from my son’s time in Fallujah.  I know of battles they never had to fight because of presentation.  He cleared many rooms and shot many rounds in Fallujah, but the Marines would rather avoid the fight and stand the enemy down with optics.  Wrong presentation can have the effect of emboldening the enemy.

A point about weaponry (I said I would come back to this).  I don’t mean any disrespect for readers and their financial capabilities, because God knows I’ve got my own issues.  But my question for you is do you have a rack/budget AR-15, or have you saved your money to get a Daniel Defense, Rock River Arms, BCM or LaRue Tactical?  There’s a difference, and you know it’s true.  If you purchased a rack AR because that’s all you can afford, my respect goes out to you.  If you did so because your wife wants to go to the beach this summer, it may be time to tell your wife that you’ve got other priorities at the moment.  This is true especially if you live in Virginia.  Do you have a sling, good optics, and a good tactical light for that rifle?  Have you trained with it lately?

The most significant and immediate effect of the new communist laws will be on FFLs.  Have you purchased all you need to purchase?  What about ammunition?  What are your plans for going out of state to make your procurement in the future?  Have you considered the logistics of this thing?  Do you know how to spot a poser who wants to arrest you as your cross the state lines back to Virginia with your ammunition, and how to avoid him?  You know that ammunition is next in line if the communists have their way.

Are you meeting with like-minded patriots in your community?  Do you even know who they are?

Have you made plans to sit with your CLEO and fisk his intentions concerning being a sanctuary county?  Is he prepared to arrest agents of the state who come into the county to enforce state laws? Why is this important?  Unity of action.  You don’t need the CLEO as an enemy while you’re working to retain recognition of your rights.  I don’t care how you feel about cops.

Have you made plans to sit with your county commissioners and fisk their intentions concerning being a sanctuary county?  If either the CLEO or commissioner claims that it was merely a “symbolic act,” they need to be replaced via politics.  Yes, you may have to engage in politics.

If your CLEO and commissioners don’t really intend to honor the sanctuary resolutions they passed, do you have any plans when agents of the state enter your county to enforce state laws?

Have you put on a ruck lately and climbed any mountains?  You have plenty of good ones in your state.  Make use of them.  I include lots of photographs of hills I climb and trails I ride with my bike.  Do you think it’s because I’m so narcissistic that I want you to look at me?  I’m rarely if ever in those pictures.  I’m trying to be an encouragement.  If a 60-year old man with severe RA can lose the weight, add muscle and get into shape, you can do it.  My oldest son had awful back surgery several years ago.  He worked through the pain and his favorite exercise now is dead lift.  It can be done.  Do you spend time in the gym?  Do you go backpacking regularly?

At some point in the future, you may need a fire for cooking and warmth, without being detected by silhouette.  Have you practiced making a Dakota Fire Hole?

How capable are you of integrating into a team?  If you’re like me, you don’t like taking orders from anyone because you’re smarter than they are.  But the commenters over this and other web sites are so dis-aggregated and disagreeable that they couldn’t concur on the color of the grass.  What makes you think that anyone will team with you to protect life and liberty if you’re that way?

What does your local preacher say about all of this?  Is he focused on social justice, or does he understand the importance of God-given rights?  You may need to find a new church, as he is teaching your family.  Don’t forget the role that religious instruction played in the war of independence and the thousands of sermons preached about it.  The English parliament knew that war as the “Presbyterian Rebellion.”  For good reason.

Do you have proper control over your own family?  Just how stable, educated and aware are your loved ones?  If your family life isn’t stable, you are subject to red flag law home invasions.  If you don’t have your family life in order, drop everything else, including guns, ammunition and politics, and tend to the spiritual life of your family.

Last, how spiritually squared away are you?  I’m “preaching to the choir” here, because we can all do better.  Your family life can’t be squared away if you’re not.

Conclusion

I won’t go on with the next-step practical tips, pointers and suggestions.  I’m an idiot (as I’m sure most readers will agree), and I can come up with a number of things that may be helpful.  Readers are smarter, and can add to this list.  I don’t intend this to be a clearinghouse or repository for tips or next steps.  The point is to get you thinking about this.

And the point is also that if you dislike what I said, that’s okay with me.  Go back to your nom de guerre like it protects you, and pound your keyboard in anger like it’s going to change anything. But doing that is helping the communists along, and the patriots are the ones who need our help.  The fact that they’re not perfect isn’t a reason to moan, bitch and complain.  You aren’t perfect either.  Just have compassion on your fellow patriots and be helpful for a change.

This Facebook link is a video of the speeches at the Richmond rally.  The speeches begin at about 2:09 (that’s two hours and nine minutes into the video).  Before that it shows helicopter video surveying the scene, along with rooftop snipers.

Rooftop snipers.  How ridiculous.

Sheriff Sheriff Scott Jenkins of Culpepper County speaks.  To him, it appears that his promise to deputize thousands means they get to keep their firearms because they are now LEOs, not because he might need them to keep agents of the state from infringing on the rights of citizens in his county.

I suggest that someone in Culpepper County take him out for coffee and have a long conversation with him.