By Doug Newman – email me here
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This is a rehash of a piece I wrote in 2004. I am reworking it because of the calls for additional gun control after the tragic shootings in Tucson on Saturday. I have heard a lot of people say something along these lines:

“I believe people should be allowed to own guns. But there HAS to be SOME control. I mean, there are so many crazy people out there. You can’t let just ANYONE have a gun.”

Herewith are four scenarios to illustrate how gun control does not stop crimes.

• You are a 23-year-old girl and you have recently broken up with your creepazoid boyfriend. He has been stalking you, so you purchase a gun for your protection, and you apply for a concealed carry permit so you can pack heat in your purse. Your application sits on some little nudenik bureaucrat’s desk awaiting his “approval”. Your ex-boyfriend follows you to the grocery store around 10:00 one night. As you exit the store, he proceeds to rape you.
• You came to America from Egypt 25 years ago. You have an MBA and a well-paying job that affords you and your family a comfortable suburban lifestyle. You have thoroughly assimilated into American culture, so much so that you have converted from Islam to Christianity and changed your name from Jamir Ali to James Oliver. There has just been another terrorist attack in American and, in its aftermath, a series of assaults on Arab-Americans. You are walking your dog one evening and four redneck punkazoids jump you, beat you to a bloody pulp and leave you to die. Your concealed carry application is sitting on the same desk as the application of the young lady in the first scenario.
• On the morning of April 20, 1999, you and 1800 other people are going about your daily business in a gun-free zone in Littleton, Colorado. Two psychopathic malcontents walk in and start spraying bullets, killing 13 people before they kill themselves. No one shoots back, because this is a “gun-free zone.”
• On the morning of September 11, 2001, you are a crew member aboard a gun-free zone that has just been commandeered by terrorists. One of them pulls out a box cutter and slits your throat. You are defenseless, as this is a gun-free zone. After these terrorists off you, they proceed to off the pilot and co-pilot, who are similarly defenseless. And then all hell really breaks loose. (1)

Each of the above stories involves crazy people and normal people. Each involves people who obeyed gun laws suffering at the hands of people who were undeterred by gun laws.

In only one of the above cases did the assailants use guns. In perpetrating their orgy or blood, Harris and Klebold broke something like 20 laws. If someone plots for over a year to undertake something as horrific as Columbine or 9/11, they are by definition not deterred by your silly-posterior gun laws.

Gun laws do not deter crime. If you are determined enough, you will use a gun anyway (Harris and Klebold) or you will find a plan B such as a knife (whoever killed Ron and Nicole), fertilizer (Tim McVeigh), a bathtub (Andrea Yates) or box cutters (according to the official 9/11 story). The only people affected by gun laws are law abiders.

In the words of an old billboard, 10 out of 10 criminals prefer their victims disarmed. Disarming crazy people does not make them less crazy or less criminal. It just leaves law-abiding people defenseless. Evil abhors a vacuum. When you disarm innocent people bad things happen.

The Second Amendment to our Constitution states:

“A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”

This Amendment does not “grant” any rights. It guarantees a “right of the people” that existed already – see Luke 22:36. It does not merely apply to defense against murderers, rapists and robbers, but to tyrants as well. The “well-regulated Militia” of which it speaks does not mean the federally armed and sponsored National Guard, but rather citizens skilled in both the use of firearms as well as teamwork in the field.

Such a militia was necessary not for the security of any old willy-nilly state, but of a “free state.” Militias played a vital part in securing this nation’s independence. The Founders understood that an armed populace was an essential counterforce against tyranny.

The history of the last century bears witness to this. Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership posts a wonderful illustration of the relationship between gun control and genocide. Various degrees of gun control – licensing, confiscation, bans on private ownership, bans on concealed carry, requiring demonstration of a “need” to own a firearm – led to genocide in Armenia, Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, Red China, Guatemala, Uganda, Cambodia and Rwanda.

The world’s worst crazies can be found in government. The sicker they are, the more power they accumulate. Show me a tyrant – Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il, Castro – who is not certifiably insane. The ultimate aim of gun control is to totally disarm the citizenry and leave them defenseless against psychopaths who pull the strings of power.

And if you believe “we should take away all the guns”, ask yourself what you mean by “we” as well as how such a “take away” shall be implemented.

If you believe “we should take away all the guns”, you had better think twice. And three or four or five times if necessary.

“But,” you ask, “what would you say if you or a loved one were a victim of gun violence?”

I don’t know what I would say. (2) And it really irks me when people claim to speak for other people. Some victims of gun violence support more gun control and some don’t. Some black people blindly support Obama and some don’t. Some military veterans support all of America’s wars and some don’t. One’s demographic does not necessarily determine one’s political views.

Tom Mauser, who lost a son at Columbine, has advocated for more gun control. Darryl Scott, who lost a daughter at Columbine, has been very vocal saying Columbine was a result of moral breakdown, and that more gun laws are not the answer.

I leave you with this interview with John Green, whose nine-year-old daughter was so tragically killed on Saturday morning. At the 1:40 mark, he states that “we don’t need any more restrictions on our society.”

Indeed we don’t. Let us not succumb to the emotions of the moment. Liberty is a lot easier to surrender than it is to get back.

(1)  This is not a 9/11 truth post. I respect the truth movement and I have several doubts about the official story. However, this is about gun control. Any 9/11 truth comments WILL be deleted.
(2) I lost a friend, Gordon Cowden, in the Aurora theater shooting of July 20, 2012. Even so, I stand foursquare in opposition to any gun control.

It really upsets me the way we tell kids to go overseas to fight for our freedom. And when they come home they are beaten almost to death for exercising their most basic freedoms.

I know James personally. This is a true story.

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Email me with any comments at dougnewman@juno.com.

By Doug Newman

December 23, 2010

Originally posted at the Fountain of the Truth.

“Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them;
and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
– Frederick Douglass

On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, when we were all scurrying about like so many headless chickens, an old friend in Arizona sent an absolutely prophetic email. The subject line read: “They want you to panic…”

The body of the email started: “… so don’t.”

I quote the email in part:

“I know this is going to sound horrifically insensitive, but the fact that what amounted to — militarily speaking — a strategic pinprick can bring a nation’s people to a state of disarray we’re seeing unfold (even as I type this initial response) gravely concerns me. As terrible as this may sound, ultimately, it is the financial blow — both real and perceived — that will concern you and yours. I have even greater concerns…

“Yes, pray for the dead, the dying, the injured and their loved ones, but NEVER lose sight of the fact that many more people gave their lives over the past 226 years to make sure you live and breathe in Freedom — relative Freedom though it may be these days. Do NOT go off the deep end and cry for ‘more security’ at the cost of your basic Liberty. Believe me — there are powerful men who will willingly accommodate you at ANY cost.”

This is not about what happened on 9/11 (1), but rather about the inability of what may well be a majority of Americans to grasp what Uncle Sam is doing as a response to these horrible crimes. Also, it is about the willingness of what may well be a majority of Americans, to surrender their most fundamental God-given liberties in the name of some sense of “security.”

To begin with, 9/11 was not an attack on our freedom. It could not have been. The 19 hijackers are DEAD! And you cannot take over a country, impose Shari’a law, force everyone to speak Arabic and force women to wear burqas, when you are – I will say this one more time – DEAD!

The proper, moral, and constitutional response to 9/11 would have been a letter of Marque and Reprisal. This is a sort of warrant to go after the specific perpetrators of things like piracy and terrorism. There were no doubt people still alive who had a hand in planning and financing the attacks who needed to be brought to justice and punished severely.

There was no reason to launch a war on anyone who could hypothetically, theoretically engage in a vaguely defined tactic. And there was no reason to curtail civil liberties domestically.

Even so, the American people have gladly accepted endless war abroad as well as numerous previously unthinkable predations on their liberty here at home.

First came the Patriot Act in October 2001. This 300-page bill, which legislators were given 15 minutes to read, authorized warrantless searches, spying and wiretaps as a means of fighting terrorism. Fourth Amendment concerns were recklessly disregarded. Both the sellers and the buyers of the Patriot Act sang the same song: “If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.”

After all, it was to go after those people over there. You know, those scary looking guys with funny names, diapers on their heads and bad attitudes. Those guys, not us.

I just don’t think most people got it.

Then airport security was nationalized with the implementation of the TSA. For a time there, you could not carry nail clippers on board a plane. And the fondling of naughty bits is nothing new.

And I just don’t think most people got it.

Then some dweeb couldn’t even blow up his own shoe on a flight from Paris to Miami. So then we had to take off our shoes before going through airport security.

And I just don’t think most people got it.

Then a few goobers in Britain supposedly tried to put explosives in water and shampoo bottles and blow up planes over the Atlantic. (They were all acquitted by the way.) Then we couldn’t carry water bottles through security. Nor could anyone take any liquid container over three ounces through security.

And I just don’t think most people got it.

Then some nudenik couldn’t even blow up his whitey-tighties on a plane bound for Detroit. Enter the porno scanners and full-body pat downs replete with fondling of the naughty bits.

And I just don’t think most people got it.

If you will tolerate having yourself and your family photographed in all their glory with very possibly cancer-causing X-rays and/or having yourself and your family groped from head to toe – naughty bits included – in the name of “national security” what won’t you tolerate?

(The silence from most Christians on this issue is particularly appalling. What should I expect, though? So many of them have no problem with evil “if it produces a good result.” Never mind that this runs contrary to Romans 3:5-8.)

In any other context this would constitute child pornography, child molestation and sexual assault. (2) Someone somewhere has coined the term “gate rape”. Lew Rockwell has said that the United States just may be the very first country in the world whose government has claimed the right to feel up its subjects.

And if your response to this is “then just don’t fly”, YOU DON’T GET IT!

To begin with, if a terrorist really wanted to kill a lot of people and disrupt aviation, he wouldn’t need to go to the trouble of smuggling a bomb on board a plane. All he would have to do is walk into a terminal – e.g. O’Hare or Atlanta – on a Monday morning and let it rip right there.

Second, TSA has already announced plans to station its crotch-fondling flunkies in railroad and subway stations. They have just started doing random bag checks on the DC Metro subway system. They have already set up checkpoints at bus stations. And in late September, just west of Atlanta on I-20, TSA set up a roadblock to inspect trucks in the name of “counter-terrorism.” Remember: it is called the TRANSPORTATION Security Administration.

Third, the possibility exists that scary looking guys with funny names, diapers on their heads and bad attitudes could attack shopping malls, office buildings, stadiums, etc. Are you willing to submit to nudie cams and crotch-fondling there too?

And how about schools? I mean, you never know where a terrorist could strike next. Will you tolerate nudie cams and crotch-fondling there too? Again, what will you NOT accept? (2)

Will you put up with national security roadblocks too? Will you be okay when a routine trip to the grocery store turns into an all-day event replete with TSA blueshirts rummaging through every item in your car and performing cavity checks on you and your kids? If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about, right?

And if you so much as roll your eyes at the blueshirts about how ridiculous it all is, will you be okay with being hauled off and detained indefinitely without formal charges or the ability to obtain legal counsel? You did say, didn’t you, that you were willing to give up your freedom in the name of security?

How “secure” will you “feel” in a society where you cannot travel freely? How “secure” will you “feel” in a society where you are constantly presumed guilty until proven innocent?

People ridicule me for fussing about “my rights” in this age of terrorism.  I just don’t think most people get it. It is exactly during times of crisis – real or imagined – that governments look to take away rights. Moreover, this is also when people panic and give away their rights.

And if you will give up some of your rights to have more security, why not give up all your rights in order to have total security?

Thomas Jefferson once remarked that, “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” The likelihood that you or I will ever be the victim of terrorism is microscopic and in no way worth the price of the securitopia for which so many millions of Americans pine. (3)

Be careful what you ask for. North Korea has the world’s most comprehensive national security apparatus.

And, to be sure, they have no terrorism problem.

They also have no immigration problem.

What will it take before most people get it?

(1) No 9/11 truth posts please. I respect the truth movement and I have numerous doubts about the official story, but that is not what this is about.

(2) Great article: “The TSA: America’s Real Child Pornography/Molestation Machine”.
I have linked to this twice for a reason: TSA has YOUR CHILDREN in its crosshairs.

(3) I am also not at all fearful of “global jihad” as it has been several centuries since a Muslim country conquered a non-Muslim country. Moreover, terrorism is not a philosophy of government, but rather a tactic. Terrorists do not even control the government of Yemen. Hence, I am not afraid of them taking over America. And, as Pat Buchanan points out, other countries have solved their terrorism problems.

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Complete archive of my older blog articles.

This page exists because I just need to move into the twenty-first century. My old blog page, The Fountain of Truth, is still very much a going concern. However, its graphics and structure are, to understate, Amish.

Like The Fountain of Truth, Food for the Thinkers exists because people are down on what they are not up on. When people do not accept certain things, it is not necessarily out of stupidity or hostility. Rather, it is because they lack information, or they have been alienated by an improper presentation of this information. As a Christian and a Libertarian, I am all too aware of this. This is unfortunate, because both Christianity and libertarianism have such positive messages.

Many libertarians reject Christianity because they have been led to believe that Christian faith cannot be grounded in reason or secular evidence, or that Christianity is a means of coercion and social control.

Many Christians reject libertarianism because they have been led to believe that God mandates a socialist economic regime, or that those behaviors which the Bible condemns must therefore be prohibited by the secular state.

Food for the Thinkers exists to dispel the many myths which surround Christianity and libertarianism. This page will be updated regularly with new material by yours truly, Doug Newman, as well as relevant resources from around the internet. This page may not always tell you want you want to hear, but it will tell you what you need to know.

I close with two quotations. The first comes from a very active Libertarian, who once remarked that, “There may be two libertarians in the world who agree on everything, but I am certainly not one of them.” The second is the denominational motto of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church: “In the essentials unity, in the nonessentials liberty, and in all things charity.”

I am not arrogant enough to think that I speak for either the entire libertarian movement, or for all Christians.

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“The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”
— Numbers 6:24-26