Mr. Zumbo where have you been?
Barry Bright
March 1, 2007
The controversy that has caused you so much consternation was a few days old before I found out anything about it. So yes, it can be hard to keep up on all that’s going on. In the process I realized I had been out of touch because I was surprised by the number of ‘pro-gun rights’ blogs out there.
It seems there once were only ‘websites’ such as the one I used to run: Free Kentucky News. I’ve mostly depended on Gun Owners of America, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership and a few independents to keep me informed on the activities of our enemies.
But sir, the assault weapons ban was first passed in 1994. Even then, many began to prepare for what some say is still inevitable.
Sir I have hunted all my life. I haven’t deer hunted for the last couple of years but I have a squirrel dog, a Norwegian Elkhound, as much to honor what my ancestors did to survive as to enjoy the exercise and the biscuits and squirrel gravy I was raised on.
But my ancestors didn’t have the same kind of dog I do. They had family mutts, most of whom would ‘tree a squirrel’ as my older relatives have told me. They didn’t have the same kinds of weapons either, from the muzzle loading rifle that Daniel Boone supposedly used to ‘bark’ squirrels off a limb, by hitting the limb and letting the concussion kill the prey, to my grandfather’s single shot 12 gauge, the only gun he ever owned, mostly for squirrels and chicken eating predators.
But we live in different times. Some of the hunting shows make it look too easy. Who can miss a grazing deer from 300 yards with a 7mm Magnum and a telescopic site? That gun is too outrageous, you should have to use a spear and the ancient stalk, not a deer stand and feeder.
As a kid growing up on our Kentucky family farm in the 1970s I cut my political teeth on Outdoor Life articles about anti-hunters. I knew then that gun control was wrong but thought we could tolerate it like we tolerate socialism in our once free land. Bill Clinton proved me wrong.
In your apology on The Cody Enterprise website you write: “…there have been flurries of bills to outlaw guns.”
Sir do you not see that there is no ‘flurry’ of activity by our home grown enemies? They have been constant and determined in their actions for decades. “Three steps forward, two steps back’ has been their mantra. Any ground gained is good ground to them.
“Demand more than you expect, settle for less, and you have achieved your goal,” is their SOP. All they have to do is promise a check or a job and millions vote for them. All this is as they planned.
Then sir, you claim you were tired and called people who hunt with ‘assault weapons’ terrorists, or the next thing to it. A 14th century bureaucrat known for his manual on government had something to say about this:
Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society. - Niccolo Machiavelli
The number of ‘right wing’ blogs out there have increased with the number of keyboard commandos among us. I can’t criticize them too much having been one for years. But for a while I was something else. Not just the Marine Reservist who was called up and followed orders blindly for some shallow official form of ‘patriotism’ that amounts to little more than what any soldier has done ‘for his country’ when the leaders decide it’s time to war.
“Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” -- Hermann Goering
For three years I served in the Kentucky State Militia, to share some of my very basic infantry knowledge imparted to me by Uncle Sugar’s camping club. Now let your eyes finish rolling and your snicker die down and try to engage your brain sir.
Surely you heard of what happened in New Orleans and the laws several states have passed to prevent it from happening again? Those people who were just trying to defend their homes, property and lives, would have been in the right to have shot those National Guardsmen and other law enforcement down when they demanded they turn over their ‘Liberty teeth.’
“But they were just doing their jobs.” You are old enough to know where that idea came from aren’t you?
Don’t say “Oh that’s awful.” We send ignorant 19-year-olds over seas to kill other ignorant 19-year-olds all the time so we can keep burning oil and go on our hunting trips. That’s what our wars are about. Freedom, Liberty, is economic. It always has been.
Ultimately the question is do you have a line sir? Do we have a line? Or do we have imaginary promises in political and emotional sands? Do we really believe that train loads of disarmed and cowardly government victims could never roll across our plains? If so we should turn our guns in now.
The wise man does at once what the fool does finally. - Niccolo Machiavelli
We should be proud of the keyboard commandos who cost you your jobs. But do we sir, have the resolve to tell our enemies ‘No’ and mean it? If not you need to take up golf, until the eco-wackos decide it’s too hard on the environment.
“I have seen an American general and his officers, without pay, and almost without clothes, living on roots and drinking water; and all for LIBERTY! What chance have we against such men!” -- young British officer to Colonel Watson describing the American militia rebels in Georgetown, SC [Source: 'Marion, The Life of Gen. Francis Marion' by M. L. Weems, Ch.18]
This is the cause they serve, control of all resources and every aspect of our lives. Ignoring that will be our deadly mistake. The NRA should be arming, training and positioning the militias for the inevitable, even if we could prove the inevitable will never come. For the Second Amendment is not about hunting that trophy deer on your wall. You don’t need to hunt anyway, we have grocery stores.
And all of our “Sportsman’s’ magazines should be posting articles on how hunters can hit running “Liberals” and other forms of authoritarians at great distances as a team, and many teams it will take, because that is the hunt that may really matter some day.
“Why should freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes to be right allow itself to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns. Why should any man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinion calculated to embarrass the government?” - Nikolai Lenin 1920
Common Law Copyright by Barry Bright March 2007
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