Friends:
I will weigh in on this again. I am home with a sick 2nd grader, so I have a few moments.
Anecdote:
Growing up in Dallas in the late '60's, early '70's, my soccer coach was a man named Mike J. Mr. J. had a long string of blue numbers tattoed on his left forearm. Fascinated me. I asked him once "what are those tattoos". He grimaced in reply: "My inventory control number". Found out later that he was an Auschwitz survivor. Stuck with me quite a while. Like, to this very day.
In Jr. High, I was friends with his daughter, and visited their house on occasion. He and I talked about life before and during the war. I asked "why didnt yall fight when the Geheime Staatspolizei came for you?" I remember him looking at me for a long time before he responded, in heavily accented English :
"Ve hatt no ARMS! "
I remembered that.
Deb and I were playing ping-pong one evening and I wound up stepping on the loose ball. The spares were in the game room closet, and I was asked to get a spare ball. When I opened the closet, I noticed in the back corner was a military rifle. Being a 14 year old "gun-guy", I readily identified it as Mauser Kar 98. On the shelf next to the ping-pong balls was a box stock GI .45 auto, very much like the Government Model my Dad kept in his sock drawer. Next to the pistol were 2 boxes of ammo- 8mm and .45 ACP.
I wonder why this Jewish guy, who didnt hunt or fish or target shoot, kept a Mauser and a .45 in his closet? Maybe he didnt like the idea of : " Ve hatt no ARMS!"
End of anecdote.
To some folks this is just a meaningless story. Would the genocide have occurred had the Jews of Germany and East Europe been armed? Who knows. But it sure is more difficult for the Einsatztrüppen to carry out their activities if the objects of their attention shoot back. And even if their efforts are unsuccessful , the Untermensch could at least die like men, and not like cattle.
I dont look for black helicopters, and I believe that vigorous political activity will preserve our freedom, as it has in the past. I hold fast to the rights guaranteed me under the Constitution, and when well-meaning foreigners suggest to me that those rights are really fungible, I truly can say: "ya'll ain't from around here". To the citizenry of this republic who think rights derive from some royal largesse, I suggest that they re-read the Federalist Papers and take a remedial 8th grade civics class. The whole genesis of this American polity is based on the idea that some rights are natural, and do not depend on the State or Crown for their existence. Unfortunately, this is the way the English think - there are no rights in England which do not exist unless Parliament says so, and they exist only as long as Parliament thinks they are a good idea. See the English Bill of Rights of 1689. It got incovenient, and was repealed. Now they debate whether trial by jury should be repealed.
I am sorry certain folks find my black rifle troubling. Hmm... on second thought, no I dont. Freedom is uncomfortable, and the only folks who think the world can be one giant Kum-ba-ya group hug is Al Gore and the Europeans.
I guess I'll keep my black rifle and my other guns. The neat thing about a right is that I dont have to justify it to anyone. And any time I might be tempted to waffle, or to slide down that slippery slope of: "just give up some of your rights and we promise... promise... promise to respect you in the morning..." , I remember my soccer coach with the tatooed numbers on his forearm "Ve hat no ARMS!"
Regards
GKT
