Peaceful pro-gun rallies: A firsthand account

April 20, Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea



I'm back from a rather exhausting past couple of days. I'll have time over the next few days to catch up on what the media is saying about the Second Amendment March and the Restore the Constitution rally, but for now I just wanted to share some of what I experienced.

After a seven-hour drive, my son and I checked into the Sheraton National in Arlington. Nice digs. From our 8th-floor window we could see the Pentagon, and then across the river the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Capitol Dome...most impressive. Once settled we decided to explore the hotel, check out their gym, their roof-top pool, and an accompanying open-air balcony from where we could see Arlington National Cemetery.

We then went down to the lobby to explore other hotel amenities and found a Second Amendment March press conference already underway in one of the ballrooms. We went in and Skip Coryell was explaining to a roomful of reporters and attendees, with several cameras running, what the event was about, and then taking questions. He then introduced some of the speakers in the room, and I soon found myself disheveled and disoriented in front of a microphone. Mercifully, I was allowed to keep things brief, because I really was unprepared--the real powerful impromptu presentation (and I certainly don't mean to ignore or dismiss anyone else by saying this) came from Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers--some of the reporters seemed surprised that he was talking about the importance of all civil rights and not sparing Republican failures in the process, and you could tell for some of them it was a revelation that they weren't covering party puppets.

That evening, most of the Second Amendment March speakers went off to a group dinner, but I had other plans, a meeting with the Restore the Constitution rally speakers, so that we could go over the logistics and details of the open carry rally in Virginia. Included in that group was a freelance writer who contributes to The New York Times magazine, among others.

I got back to the room late, read over my speech one more time and then got a few hours sleep. My son and I shared a cab to the march area by the Washington Monument with Cleveland GRE Daniel White and lady friend. It was a beautiful sunny day, and there looked to be about a thousand folks already there when we arrived, and more coming in by the minute.

I found it very cool to meet people in person who I've only read about, or at most, corresponded by email with. Skip Coryell, Sheriff Richard Mack, Larry Pratt, Suzanna Hupp, Philip Van Cleave, Kenn Blanchard, Nicki Stallard, Jeff Knox, Paul Vallone...

They had to shift the speaking schedule around a bit, so I went on earlier than planned, probably around 11:00 or so. By that time the crowd looked like it had grown to about twice the size from an hour earlier. They were receptive, enthusiastic and supportive, a real pleasure to address, which was a relief, as I've never considered myself an accomplished public speaker and to do so on a stage in front of a couple thousand sets of eyes in front of the Washington Monument is surreal, to say the least.

I was interviewed by a TV reporter, I don't recall who or what station she represented, and got the expected question about doing the event on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing--it seems the media has either never heard of Patriots' Day or they just don't want to let a "good" meme go. I told her if they'd have held the rally on the 15th,like the Tea Partiers, we'd be accused of celebrating the sinking of the Titanic.

I had an encounter with another reporter, a self-absorbed and rather stiff personality who figured I must be safe since I was wearing a suit. She announced who she was, Channel X News, I truly don't recall, but her attitude told me she must be a DC fixture, and she wanted to know who was in charge. I walked her over to Skip and didn't get so much as a nod for a dismissal, let alone a thank you. My usefulness was evidently over and services no longer needed. I just thought that was telling in a way, and indicative of character.

There were the many people I met and spoke with. It was gratifying to find some folks who had a kind word for what I'd said on stage, or for the stuff I write, and it was nice to shake hands with some people I've corresponded with, or who have given me story tips, or left comments here or at my WarOnGuns blog and put a face to the screen name.

It was now about 1:00PM, and our ride to the Restore the Constitution rally at Gravelly Point had arrived.

It was a much different set-up, a smaller gathering in numbers but not in spirit. I did not make it to the "main event" at Fort Hunt Park--this was the caravan of attendees who wanted to open carry in sight of the Capitol, and it was both surreal and encouraging to see slung rifles and holstered sidearm with identifiable monuments in the background across the river. Larry Pratt was just finishing up his talk.

"These aren't patriots, these are terrorist" read a sign carried by one of the few protesters. Methinks the gentle person has no experience with real terrorists.

It was a different setup entirely--instead of a stage, there was a mike standing on the tailgate of a truck, and when I climbed up I felt like an old-time rural politician--again kind of a surreal experience, and I had to pause several times as jets taking off roared overhead.

I mingled for a few minutes afterward. That's when the Park Police helicopter showed up, flying probably 200 feet up, it circled us slowly at least three times, one of their guys seated legs hanging out of the open side door, my impression being they were taking surveillance photos. It seemed a totally unnecessary show of force and intentionally disruptive, as everything at the event had been carefully coordinated with them and they had a watchful ground presence.

But I had a long drive ahead of me to get home and it was time to leave. As we were pulling out I saw a group of people leaving, and one of them looked familiar--I'd seen that face somewhere before. Just as we passed them it hit me--that's Paul Helmke from the Brady Campaign...and he looked pretty humorless and grim. For some reason, the "Wicked Witch" theme from The Wizard of Oz popped into my head, and it seemed to keep perfect time with their steps.

Here's the thing I left with--I had just placed myself in the middle of a group of armed Americans, prone-to violence "militia extremists" if you believe what most "Authorized Journalists" will tell you. I was not threatened by them in the least. Of course, those of us who have spent time with other gun owners accept others being armed as a matter of course. Which tells me all I need to know--the ones filled with mistrust, fear, hatred and loathing are operating out of ignorance and bigotry. At least the ones who don't know any better. There are others who are counting on that as something to exploit.

I'll have more on the rallies coming up through the week and will be talking about it tomorrow on "Trigger Sports LIVE!" For now I need to get my bearings and find what's out there in the media, including videos--I have literally not had a moment to check.

UPDATE: Paul Valone shares his impressions.
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http://news.google.com/news/story?ncl=d76rgE1mQouD0yMIVEuvbVCmMQiaM&hl=en-US&ned=us

Excuse my language CSC, but, OOOO farkin Rah!!

On behalf of my countrymen, my apologies for the way the CBC is covering this. The peasants in the East control the media.

Report from a person who attended the event. He makes several valid points. The militia should have been at the event in mass instead of hiding or apologizing to the media for being militia.

Was the Second Amendment March a success?

April 20, Charlotte Gun Rights Examiner
Paul Valone



As an admittedly jaded 18-year gun rights activist, I regarded yesterday’s Second Amendment March (SAM) with a certain dread. While the efforts of Skip Coryell and the other organizers of the SAM could best be described as valiant, I regarded them as, at best, misguided: Even under the best of conditions, rallies represent huge outlays of resources yielding uncertain returns.

After organizing Washington gun rights rallies in 1994 and 1995, for example, Skip Corey of the long-defunct “Committee of 1776” delivered a speech to the next Gun Rights Policy Conference entitled, “If You Rally, Will They Come?” He stood to address his topic with essentially a single word: “No.”

Throw in the fact that Tea Party rallies (including one in Washington on Thursday) have people “rallied out,” the fact that Obama & Co. have thus far apparently been scared out of (at least overtly) pushing gun control, and the fact that the SAM was held on a working day (yes, I know it was Patriot’s Day), I feared the worst.

Were my fears confirmed? Not entirely. While the turnout of, by some estimates, 2,000 – 3,000 people was nothing to write home about, I was reminded how inspirational a rally can be for those who attend. And from a logistical perspective, it was obvious that the SAM organizers had their collective act together. From sound and stage to event security and press and VIP management, the event went smoothly. (Smoothly enough that Handgun Control’s Paul Helmke and the Violence Policy Center’s Josh Sugarmann, both of whom reportedly skulked by, won’t have anything to exploit).

INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGES

The SAM featured an array of inspiring speakers, including stalwarts such as GOA’s Larry Pratt, Sheriff Richard Mack, and victim-turned-concealed-carry-advocate-turned-legislator Suzanna Gratia Hupp. Also presenting were Tim Schmidt of the US Concealed Carry Association and Mark Walter of Armed American Radio. Especially rousing was the Reverend Kenn Blanchard, author of Black Man With a Gun, who observed: “Free men own guns; slaves do not.”

Perhaps the most educational was our own National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea, whose presentation likened the present day erosion of our freedoms to the “Intolerable Acts,” promulgated by the British, which precipitated the American Revolution. Ticking off the long list of British missteps inciting subjects to rebellion, David settled on the one which led inexorably to revolution: “…the damned fools sent out troops to confiscate arms.” (For David's account of the rally, click here.)

And the most heart-wrenching was that of Tennessee’s Nikki Goeser, whose loving husband was gunned down last year by a stalker, before her eyes, in the nightclub where they worked. Nikki is a concealed handgun permit-holder who was prevented from protecting herself and her husband by a prohibition on concealed carry in Tennessee restaurants. (Writer’s note: In North Carolina, we have twice been thwarted in passing a restaurant carry bill. Nikki has generously agreed to testify once we get one introduced again.)

ADVANTAGES & DRAWBACKS OF RALLIES

Nearly two decades of running political organizations in defense of the right to keep and bear arms have taught me that rallies are an inefficient means to defend freedom. They are useful, early in a movement, to galvanize support and to create the underpinnings for new organizations, as the Tea Party has done. But in terms of direct action – legislation passed or killed, gun control-loving politicians unseated or freedoms regained – at the end of the rally, nothing has changed. Worse, people go home content and complacent for having “done something.”

On the upside, drawing like-minded people together can create long-lasting change. By collecting names of attendees to our 1994 rally at the state capitol, we created Grass Roots North Carolina, which has grown to dominate gun issues in the state.

And demonstrations are certainly useful when narrowly focused on particular targets. Our group has manipulated media in a flashlight “Truth Vigil for Sarah Brady” when she came to raise money for gun control. We have upstaged the defunct “’Million’ Mom March” when it put a couple of hundred people on the capitol steps. (Sadly for them, they staged it on the same weekend as a huge gun show from which we bused hundreds of counter-demonstrators). And our Solidarity March enabled the NRA to hold its annual meeting in Charlotte unmolested by anti-gun protestors just a year after Columbine, when such protestors shut it down in Colorado.

GUN RIGHTS DEFENDER CHECKLIST

But in a year when elections will chart not only the course of gun rights, but determine whether our nation slides further into socialist totalitarianism, Second Amendment supporters, whether or not they attended the march, should ask themselves whether they have accomplished or will accomplish the following actions:

* Have you compiled gun-related voting records for state representatives and members of your state’s congressional delegation?

* Have you created a means of letting other people know which politicians supported the right to bear arms and which undermined it?

* Have you joined or created an organization or, better yet, a political action committee to go into elections and kick the sleazebags out of office?

Just joining the NRA isn’t going to cut it, folks. Even when they get it right (which they often don’t), you can wield more power over politicians by organizing locally. To that end – and because the 2010 elections are more important than perhaps any in our history – I will be running a series entitled “Guerilla tactics for gun rights warriors” in coming weeks, leading up to the legislative seminar I will be teaching on May 14, the weekend of the NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Charlotte, NC.

Please don’t come to my seminar …

If you want to find out how to write a letter to your Congressman, don’t come. If you are looking for a cute, rosy presentation of “I’m Just a Bill,” don’t come.

But if you want to know how to kick the crap out of politicians; how the dynamics of power can be applied to create substantive change; how to manipulate the votes, money and power on which politicians feed; how to stop kowtowing to politicians and make them kowtow to you, then this is the seminar for you. Details are forthcoming in my “Guerilla tactics for gun rights warriors” series.

Like many of you, I came away from the Second Amendment March with a renewed sense of purpose. Good. Now get back to work: We have politicians to thrash and freedoms to regain.

Thanks for posting this

It's a start. 50 or so Americans willing and able to exercise their 2nd in public, and getting away with it, can only encourage larger numbers of Americans finding their balls and doing likewise.

If there is a means by which the militias could go out in public in their gear this was the event. Where were they? Won't fight. Won't work for their community... maybe to pick up the trash. Not even a protest. No wonder the enemy laughs, the militias are n.o.t.h.i.n.g. because they do n.o.t.h.i.n.g.

Myself I got in some shooting with my MBR-don't have the means to attend. I did honor the spirits of the Ancestors we don't deserve and did it in battle gear, full load of ammunition. Never have enough practice.

ConSigCor, Thanks SEMPER FI

2A rallies from one Washington to the ‘other’ suggest gun owners are growing restless

April 20, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
Dave Workman



Monday’s Second Amendment March (SAM) in Washington, D.C. was a huge success compared to the armed gathering at Virginia’s nearby Fort Hunt and Gravelly Point parks, and now gun rights activists in the ‘other’ Washington (I prefer the real Washington) are working hard to match yesterday’s events right here in the Evergreen State.


As many as 2,000 people gathered in the shadow of the Washington Monument, and about 50 at Gravelly Point and Fort Hunt parks in Virginia.


A noon rally at Olympia’s Tivoli Fountain on the Capitol Campus is scheduled this Saturday, April 24. It almost did not happen, when a local coordinator bowed out pretty much without telling anyone. Picking up the ball and running with it like stallions are two Evergreen State gun rights activists, David Del Buono and Jim Beal. Del Buono is known on a state hunting forum as “Adams” and Beal calls himself “DEROS72” on the Open Carry forum. Gun owners owe these two men immeasurable gratitude for pulling this event together; for some people, doing the impossible just takes a little longer.

This may be a “be there or be square” event. As one member of the Open Carry Forum, who identifies himself as “Squeak” put it, “I'm getting really tired of some that are taking this event as (if) it doesn't mean anything. They have to mow the lawn or change the oil in the car. These are the same people that will whine big time if their rights are lost…”

The Washington Monument SAM, initiated by my colleague Skip Coryell, drew an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people, according to the Washington Post, and that newspaper is not known to be generous when estimating crowd sizes at conservative-oriented events. Meanwhile, on the Virginia side of the Potomac, less than 100 turned out for a gun-totin’ event where people openly carried handguns and rifles.


Jason Brown, 34, a bank security guard from Vancouver, Wash., said he traveled to the nation's capital for the first time because no other cause is as important to him as defending the Second Amendment right to bear arms.--Washington Post



My colleague Paul Valone weighs in on these events here and, after some deliberation, considers them successes because they drew attention to firearms ownership as a constitutionally-protected civil right. He gave high marks to our mutual colleague David Codrea, who spoke at the event and shares his impressions here.

Coverage of these events tended to focus on the smaller Virginia affair only because it attracted gun-carriers, while the Washington Monument event was much larger, but no guns were in sight. Readers can judge coverage of the event by their own standards, including stories in the Los AngelesTimes, Huffington Post, CNN and even Al Jazeera.

Conflicting with this Saturday’s event is the monthly Puyallup gun show, sponsored by the Washington Arms Collectors at the fairgrounds. My suggestion: Hit them both. That’s what I’ll be doing.

One may ask “Why is this important?” After all, the past few years have seen far more advances than setbacks for gun rights, not the least of which was the 2008 Heller ruling at the Supreme Court. Here in Washington, no serious anti-gun bill has made it out of committee for the past couple of years.

Simply put, firearms owners want to keep it that way. This week’s gatherings in both Washingtons serve as reminders to lawmakers that gun owners are essentially out there in the tall grass. Gun prohibitionists have, as I predicted here and here, demonized these gatherings, and they are mounting a counter effort in print.


A woman just walked through the crowd of pro gun protesters screaming "treason" while walking her two dogs on a leash. Eventually a group of reporters surrounded her and asked what she was doing. She responded that she was defending the Obama administration from it's critics.—Huffington Post



These demonstrations fan the flames of violence, intimidate state and federal government, and send the message that armed Americans should challenge and defy our sense of public order and the rule of law.—Cathie Whittenburg, director of New England Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence


Valone noted that Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke and the Violence Policy Center’s Josh Sugarmann apparently “skulked by” the SAM event. It may be a long shot, but maybe Washington CeaseFire’s Ralph Fascitelli will show up near Saturday’s rally; he’s rather hoplophobic, as was demonstrated earlier this year by his conduct at a hearing on a gun ban bill, which I wrote about here.

Far too many armchair gun rights “advocates” will blow off this Saturday’s event. Put this in perspective. Those who find some excuse to stay away are not letting Beal or Del Buono down, they’re letting themselves down. Their absence will speak volumes about gun owner apathy; the kind of apathy that the other side will use against them. Vancouver's Jason Brown went all the way to Washington, D.C. to be part of Monday's march. Olympia is a lot closer, so what will your excuse be?

Where would we be, as a nation and as a people, if the Minutemen had opted to cut grass or play golf?

I and three other members of the Georgia Militia arrived in Virginia Saturday evening. On Sunday we met up with Daniel and about twenty other volunteers for a pre-event recon of route and both sites. Since the four of us in the Georgia Militia had brought our gear which included IFAK and comm, we volunteered to be positioned in separate areas of the event.

The event went off without a hitch. Only four counter demonstrators showed up. One of them thanked me for my service, so I said thank you. I didn't know she was a protester, and she didn't know I was militia. If you see pics of them, she is the one with the "they are terrorists, not patriots" poster.

I took position in the parking lot and moved to the rear as more cars arrived. It gave me a chance to talk to many people who had no idea what was going on. I would say that 80% of the comments were positive. One woman with her child immediately called her husband and brother-in-law to come down. The husband showed up in a Nobama tee-shirt and brought a really nice AR.

I had the opportunity to talk to many of the LEOs there. One SWAT officer I spoke at length with told me that he spent a lot of time telling the beat cops that we were very professional and presented no danger. As a side note, if you want to get a SWAT officer to really talk to you, start out by asking him what firearm he normally carries.

I was very disappointed at the turn out, but I can understand that many feared some sort of violence could have taken place. I did meet a whole bunch of great people. Everyone on the security detail were johnny-on-the-spot with both eyes open. We identified several plain clothes officers which was confirmed after talking to the individuals. Many of the reporters said they were happy because they knew their cars would not get broken into during the event.

I had several interviews with reporters. The international reporters were especially interested in talking about militias in the US. It gave me the opportunity to try to dispel some myths that are perpetuated in the US media.

In all, I am very happy with how the event turned out. It was nice to get a chance to actually use the training and the gear I have acquired while in the Georgia Militia.

Xzuatl

Thanks for the field report and Thank you for being there and representing the militia in a positive manner.

There should have been thousands more there supporting you.

BTW...have some video footage of you I'll be posting asap.

Thanks CSC, we did our best. As for any video of me, post away. I gave so many interviews my head hurts.

Gun-toting protesters voice violent thoughts peacefully

By Dana Milbank

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

They came in camouflage and ammunition vests, carrying AK-47s slung over their shoulders and pistols in their hip holsters. They were in Northern Virginia, on the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, to stand on federal land and to voice violent thoughts.

They did this in a strictly nonviolent fashion, naturally.

"Let me hang out my shingle," Mike Vanderboegh shouted to the 75 armed men and women at Fort Hunt Park in Alexandria on Monday morning. Vanderboegh, leader of the "Three Percent" movement, a gun-owners' rights group, slammed down a brick on the stage bearing the Roman numeral III.

This was a reference to his call for his followers to "break the windows of hundreds, thousands of Democrat Party headquarters" after health-care legislation passed. Some of them did as they were told.

"I was trying to get the attention of people who are pushing this country toward civil war, that they should stop before somebody gets hurt," Vanderboegh said of his brick-throwing campaign. He then read the philosopher John Locke's words that there comes a time when people are "absolved from any further obedience" to their government.

The armed citizenry cheered. "This is what the other side doesn't understand!" Vanderboegh shouted. "We are done backing up! Done! Not one more inch!"

The 19th of April has acquired a unique mythology of resistance and violence: the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943, the sacking of the Branch Davidian compound in 1993, the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Now the date has a new significance as the moment when the militia movement went from the blogs and the backwoods, mustered across the river from the capital, and invited the world's media to come in and hear its warnings.

In a sense, it was good news: Better for militia leaders and activists in the "patriot" movement to be participating in a peaceful political protest than plotting in their basements over an issue of Soldier of Fortune. And the participation was weak; by the time the rally moved from Fort Hunt to Gravelly Point Park near National Airport in the afternoon, the 75 gun carriers were easily outnumbered by a journalistic mob that included representatives from Switzerland, France and Ireland. On the other hand, the event was a sign of just how confident the militia leaders are that their cause has moved, for the first time, from the fringe to the mainstream.

The Pew Research Center just released the results of a poll showing that 77 percent of Americans are frustrated or angry with the federal government. One manifestation of that is the 363 new patriot groups in 2009 -- a 244 percent increase from the previous year -- documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center. As militia leader Bob Wright from New Mexico put it to the crowd: "Two years ago, most of us were screaming at the TV, and our wives wondered why we didn't just shut up. . . . We've seen an entire change in our country."

The demonstrators brought their guns to Virginia from New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida and elsewhere. Among the group was Tim Hammond, who carried two pistols, a rifle and plenty of ammunition as part of an all-black outfit that included a black tricorn hat. Hammond, who said he flew in from California, told another demonstrator he believes that President Obama is the antichrist.

"If he's not the antichrist, he's pretty close," the second man concurred.

"We're definitely in the end times," Hammond continued. "The rapture, in my opinion, has to be sometime this fall."

Soon after this, event organizers whisked Hammond off to make sure he had met the rules for participation, including the use of a "chamber flag" to show that the rifle wasn't loaded; those in compliance were given a yellow armband.

Though their words were ominous and menacing, the participants went out of their way to demonstrate their peaceful intent (a new law, signed by Obama, allows them to carry weapons openly on federal parkland). Wright brought his young granddaughter, Alyssa, who wore yellow hair ribbons and sang the national anthem for the crowd.

Vanderboegh said some participants were "pretty disappointed at how few people turned out here," but then likened them to another "determined minority," the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto.

He recounted for the crowd his successful calls for bricks to be thrown into Democrats' offices. "I hope to make them understand that the situation was coming to a fundamental break when people innocent and guilty alike were going to begin dying for their own stupid failure to comprehend the real situation that we are all in," he warned.

He then led the crowd in chanting what he called a Southern "battle cry" of "Oh hell no!" Explained the Alabaman: "When you hear it, where I come from, you know that somebody's going to get beat, stabbed or shot, and the guy that takes the beating, the knife blade, or the bullet undoubtedly deserves it."

"Oh, HELL No!" -- My speech at Fort Hunt Park, 19 April 2010.

To paraphrase George Patton, I thought I'd stand up here and give y'all a chance to see if I'm as big and bad a "mad dog militia terrorist" as Rachel Madcow, Chris Matthews, Jonah Goldberg, Michael Medved and Billy Jeff Clinton say that I am.

You know I'm grateful to them for all the free publicity, especially from ole Billy Jeff. You know, when you're denounced by a serial perjuror that has special meaning, and you know that you have arrived. But there's one thing I want to straighten out right here and now. Billy Jeff says that we are, we Three Percenters, are "unhinged and disgruntled." But that's not true. You see this? (Holds up a small gate hinge) Here's my hinge. All right? So I am not "unhinged." I have my hinge. You notice? There's three holes in each side.

Now as far as being "disgruntled," I am reliably informed that in the Commonwealth of Virginia it is illegal to show your "gruntle" in public. That being the case, and if it's true in Virginia it must be true in Alabama, and I intend to go back to Alabama and live my life in peace for as long as God gives me, you ain't gonna see my "gruntle." That's between me and Rosey, my beautiful wife, so I don't care what Bill Clinton says.

Now as they said, my name is Mike Vanderboegh and I'm a Three Percenter. George Washington was a Three Percenter. Three percent of the population of the American colonies took the field against the King in the American Revolution. They were actively supported by another ten percent of the population with another twenty percent for the Revolution but willing to do no more than just say "rah, rah." Another third of the population supported the King. In fact, by the end of the war there were more American colonists in the forces of the King than there were in the forces of the Revolution. And the other third of the population blew with the wind and took what came. Kind of like today.

As I say, my name is Mike Vanderboegh but lately I could be mistaken for Emmanuel Goldstein of the "Two Minute Hate" in George Orwell's 1984. Everybody I think wants to hate me. I think it's because across the political spectrum I scare them. I don't know why. I mean, I'm just a fat old scribbler who's got congestive heart failure and diabetic feet. Maybe it's the cane.

But, no, seriously I understand why. I understand why I scare them. I understand why YOU scare 'em. And understand that -- YOU. SCARE. THEM. The people who put up the "We Are Everywhere" stickers. The people who threw some Three Percent bricks through some local political party windows. They scare them. They scare the bejeezus out of 'em. And I'll tell you why.

My call to break the windows of local Democrat party headquarters, even though it was answered by just a few people across the country from New York to Alaska, caused the talking heads to begin denouncing me in prime time, and I started receiving death threats by phone and email, and some fellow from Virginia claiming to be Dick Cheney sent me a powdery substance in an Easter card. . . You know there must be a special place in Hell for people who profane Easter cards.

But the fact that I called on folks to start pushing back -- pushing back against the last 75 years where it is WE who have been pushed back from the natural exercise of our liberties -- of our God-given, inalienable, natural liberties. . . It scared these political mandarins. It scared these elitists. They believe that they know what's best for us.

But it is in fact our own fault that we are in this situation. Each time these revolutionists of gradualism cut another piece off of the Founders' Republic, off of the Constitution, each time we backed up, grumbling, but we didn't shove back. We have not shoved back. So, why should we expect that they're going to quit shoving?

By calling for this limited campaign against the windows of local political offices, I hoped to make them understand that this situation was coming to a fundamental break where people -- the guilty and innocent alike -- were going to begin dying for their own stupid failure to comprehend the real situation that we are all in.

For wars are always started by people who think they won't start, that they can't start. They are started, usually by clueless, arrogant, grasping people, people with a hunger for power, no matter how they cloak it in good intentions -- people who believe they have a right to tell other folks how to live, what to buy, where to go, how to act and insist that they pay for the privilege, that WE pay for the privilege, and that WE like it or lump it. They start the wars, these wannabe tyrants, because they think they can get away with it, they think that they will not be opposed, or that the opposition will be minimal. They start them because they think that in starting them there will be no PERSONAL consequences for them for starting it.

This is what i was trying to accomplish with my call to break a few windows. I was trying to get the attention of people -- who are pushing this country toward civil war -- that they should stop before somebody gets hurt.

This is also the theme of my novel, Absolved. It is titled after this quote from John Locke that the Founders embraced:

“Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.”


Writing about the fictional run-up to a civil war, I am trying to avoid a real one. I hope people will read Absolved and class it as a "useful dire warning" as David Brin calls the genre. By warning folks of the unintended consequences of their actions, I hope to avoid them myself.

And, oh, by the way, for those of you who have been flogging me about when Absolved will be done -- here it is. (Holds up a thumb drive.) My part is done, and it will be sent off to the editor and publisher next week.

But whatever I have written over the past few years -- including my call to adopt the tactics of the Sons of Liberty of old and break windows -- this is my motive: I want to avoid a civil war -- the worst of all wars -- because I know from history what one looks like and they are the sum of all evils.

For this is what the other side does not understand. This is what the forces of the King of England did not understand on 19th of April 1775.

WE ARE DONE BACKING UP.

Done!

Not one more inch!

You know, years ago I was a civil war re-enactor and one Sunday coming back from an event, two friends and I stopped at a gas station in a little Mississippi town.

When we pulled up, there was a big guy there, missing a few teeth, who was whipping a dog with a busted fan belt. (And it wasn't even his dog.) All the poor dog could do was cringe and yelp. I was driving and I pulled up to the pump. We didn't know it but someone inside the station -- not wanting to get personally involved -- had called the cops, but it was Sunday and the nearest Sheriff's car was miles away. In fact, they didn't get there while were there. They told us. They thanked us. But they didn't want to get involved.

We hadn't been stopped for more than a few seconds when my buddy Chris, who was about half the size of the dog-whipper, took it all in with a glance and said, to no one in particular, "Oh, HELL NO!"

Any of you from the South, you probably know what that means. "Oh, HELL NO!."

Just three words: "Oh, HELL NO!." It was an observation. It was an announcement. It was a battle cry. And without further ado Chris launched himself across that parking lot -- and he's only about half the size of this toothless fellow -- and he stripped that broken fan belt out of his hand and he commenced to whaling on the guy. Of course, the two of us were looking pretty rough from a weekend and it's Sunday -- all grizzled and dirty and dressed in funny clothes -- and we go to back him up. When this fellow starts to recover -- and he decides, "Hey, I'm bigger than this guy, I'm gonna beat him" -- and then he sees the two of us coming up, he decides that he's had enough and he jumped in car and drove off.

Now this is a quintessentially Southern thing, this "Oh, HELL NO!." All right? You gotta say it just like that. Let's practice it. "Oh, HELL NO!." The accent's on the "HELL!"

All right?

It is indeed a uniquely AMERICAN thing. When you here it -- where I come from -- you know that somebody's gonna get beat, stabbed or shot. And the guy who takes the beating, the knife blade or the bullet undoubtedly deserves it.

"Oh, HELL NO!."

For you can push Americans only so far.

There is a great truth in the movie Michael Collins, where the Irish freedom fighter, played by Liam Neeson, is speaking to an election crowd in 1918. He tells them, in part:

"They can jail us. They can shoot us. . . BUT . . . we have a weapon more powerful than any in the whole arsenal of the British Empire! That weapon is our refusal! Our refusal to bow to any order but our own! Any institution but our own!"


This is a great truth, this is an enduring truth. For no one can be enslaved without giving his permission. Whether out of fear, out of cowardice, out of a desire to not be "confrontational" -- the slave gives his assent to his master.

But we are AMERICANS.

We are the folks who say, "Oh, HELL NO!."

This is something that the enemies of the Founders' Republic do not understand. They extrapolate from their own cowardice and, knowing that they themselves have no principles for which they are willing to die -- life being the most important thing to them -- they cannot fathom that there are other people who are certainly willing to die for a principle. And i think I see some of them here today.

And so, because they cannot understand folks who have an entirely different worldview from them, folks who do not believe that the government should have the supreme power over the people -- folks who believe like the Founders that government should be small, safe and limited -- because they cannot understand us, they call us names, they try to marginalize us, and they think that we are merely posturing, that we will never seriously push back against their infringements of our liberty.

Which brings us to today. What is it about law-abiding American citizens, exercising their God-given and inalienable right to arms, announcing their adherence to the ancient concept of righteous self defense -- folks who believe that a right un-exercised is a right that has been lost -- what is it that so excites our opponents to condemn us, to vilify us, to try to marginalize us, indeed, to seek to disarm us?

It is this. . .

It is only CITIZENS who have arms.

Serfs, indentured servants and slaves do not. Bearing arms is the mark of a citizen, and the elitists who run the various parties, as one corrupt administration follows another, find citizens extremely inconvenient to their plans. You must CONVINCE citizens -- by force of argument, by appeals to reason or fact or even emotion -- but you must CONVINCE them. You cannot order them about as serfs.

For CITIZENS have arms, and citizens can say, and after a long train of abuses and usurpations, "Oh, HELL NO!."

AND WATCH OUT WHEN THEY DO.

Gentlemen and ladies and Nancy Pelosi too.

WATCH OUT WHEN WE DO.

The ability to say "No!" is the difference between a free man or free woman and a slave. Slaves cannot say "No!" and remain slaves. Indeed, over the long span of history, this is how slaves ennobled themselves and freed themselves -- by saying "No!" and meaning it -- regardless of all dangers, regardless even if it meant their deaths. They said "No!" and became free, even if for an instant. Finally, throwing off their yokes, they died as Spartacus and his followers, as free men and free women.

It's a funny thing about this word "no." The collectivists have taken to calling the GOP, "the party of no." Probably because they never heard a Southener say, "Oh, HELL NO!."

I don't know where they've been these past fifteen years, but in my experience the GOP is the party of "well, you know, you'd better not do that, but if you insist, then well, okay, we'll just catch up in the next election cycle."

Pat Buchanan had at least this much right: the two dominant political parties have acted as two wings of the same bird of prey.

And so it has fallen to the people, to the Tea Parties, to the Open Carry movement, and all the other manifestations of righteous resistance to cumulative tyranny to say, "Oh, HELL NO!."

You can say that, right? "Oh, HELL NO?."

"Oh, HELL NO!."

That's getting better.

You'll have to work on it, though.

This is as the Founders intended it. It is why they left us the Second Amendment. Not that we derive our natural, God-given rights from a piece of paper, however much revered. That piece of paper merely codifies that which cannot be taken away without our consent. They may change what it says on the piece of paper, but that does not change the eternal truth of liberty.

And it sure doesn't prevent men and women -- free men and free women -- from saying, "Oh, HELL NO!."

And that exclamation point is important. If you say "no" softly, tentatively, apologetically, some people -- obtuse, arrogant, greedy, evil people people -- take it as a "maybe." Some of them take it as a "yes."

You know the anti-rape activists have popularized the saying of "No means no" -- as if chanting it like a mantra somehow provides potential rape victims with magical powers. But I tell you, when someone says "No means no" and says it while packing a firearm to back up the sentiment, the argument is OVER.

So we who intend to remain free must say it -- as I think we are all saying it here today -- Loudly. Proudly. Emphatically.

"NO!"

We must say it as the Spartans did at Thermopylae.

"NO!"

We must say it as did the Jews at Masada.

"NO!"

We must shout it as the Texans did in defiance at the Alamo and in triumph at San Jacinto.

"NO!"

We must scream it as the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto did 67 years ago today.

"NO!"

We must say it calmly but forcefully like the veterans of the Deacons for Defense and Justice said it to the Klan when they guarded the advocates of non-violence -- with the muzzles of their MILITARY rifles and their MILITARY pistols that they brought home from their service in America's wars -- and said to the Klan.

"NO! You will not kill today!"

We must shout it as the veterans of McMinn County, Tennessee said it in 1946, as they prevented a corrupt political machine and its bully-boy sheriff from stealing another election in the "Battle of Athens."

"NO!"

We must say it as the Founders did at Lexington and Concord and on the long, bloody road strewn with dead King's men back into Boston.

"NO!"

We must be stubborn if we wish to remain free.

We must emulate the Founders.

We must be resolute.

We must be defiant.

We must be AMERICANS.

We must say, gentlemen and ladies, "NO!"

And not just "NO!" but "HELL NO!"

And I thank you for your time.