Friday, December 5, 2008

The 3%

So here we are. On the other side, are the Brady Bunch, the AHSA, Joyce, the Main Stream Media, and many others whose ultimate goal is the total disarmament of the citizens of the United States of America.

Standing against them, are a few choice and select groups. JPFO, GOA, Three Percenters (3%) and local state organizations.

In between are pragmatists (prags), hunters (fudds), and sheep.

Prags feel that there is always yet a political solution. In this age of Olufson, Heller (sure, 2nd Amendment is great...except for what we say are "reasonable" restrictions), and our new ultra-left government, prags feel that "we should use the tools the forefathers gave us"...and nothing else.

Fudds believe that as long as the government doesn't touch their bolt-action hunting rifle, all is well. Those darned "assault weapons" and handguns should be banned.

Sheep, as one pragmatist put it recently, just want to drink their Starbucks and flip the bird to the driver in front of them.

Prags want to befriend the sheep, so the sheep will vote for pro-2nd Amendment issues. To the prag, the three-percenters are scaring the sheep, sending them scattering across the fields in terror. This, unfortunately, is probably true. However, I posit that the sheep are a lost cause as far as the pro-gun community is concerned.

Here is the problem. Sheep watch CNN, MSNBC, and their local news. Most Sheep news sources are not pro-gun. To your normal person watching TV, guns are for criminals and murderers. For now, news outlets are content to paint handguns and "assault weapons" as weapons designed to kill people. And not just people, but dewey eyed students and babies, and women at the hands of their drunk, red-neck male assaulters.

It was just recently here in Dallas that a competition marksman, using a 50 caliber rifle for practice, had a round get loose (I'm still not sure how, he was on a designated range) and crash through the ceiling of a woman's trailer, 5 miles down range. When the shooter heard of the injury on the news, he immediately turned himself in to the Police - as well as apologized in person to the woman and her husband. Luckily, the round only broke the woman's arm near her wrist, and the Police seemed likely to let the injury pass as an accident. The husband, while he accepted the gentleman's apology, happily went on the news and opined that this is why 50cal weapons should be banned. The news anchor, then, naturally chimed in that 50cal weapons can pierce tanks, shoot down airplanes, and, I kid you not, "destroy" concrete bunkers". And this was our local Fox News station. Yes, Fox ain't perfect, but when a network that is usually reasonably right-leaning makes those kinds of statements, what does that leave us with?

This misleading, and in many cases outright fabricated crap is what most sheep are inundated with day in and day out. Guns don't save lives. They aren't needed tools to ensure our Republic remains intact - they are for "gun nuts" and "red necks" to prove their manliness with, right up until Billy-Bob down the street decides he needs to shoot someone else because they took his parking space. I have even had friends who were gun enthusiasts tell me that I was "asking for trouble" because I carry a legally concealed weapon.

In all reality, how do you combat that? When the general populace has been conditioned to believe something by every source that they deem credible; when they are fed a constant supply of bull$^@# day in and day out, how do you really deprogram that when you do not have access to the level of resources that our enemies do? Further, how do you counter that kind of misinformation when your opponents have been trained not in logical debate, but rather taught to yell emotional tag-lines and stuff their fingers in their ears while screaming "lalalalala" when anyone raises a counter-argument?

Comments recently by self-described prags seem to indicate that those of us who are in the 3% have completely given up on the political front and are cleaning our guns in gleeful anticipation of "going hunting". However, that could not be farther from the truth. Most of us remain dedicated to a peaceful solution. Our opponents, however, know very little except for force (war). Don't pay your taxes, guys with guns come to haul you away. Criticize your representative, guys with guns come to take your guns. Even trying to work within the system ends up in which a shoestring is declared a machinegun (yes, this has since been reversed).

Make no mistake. Heller to the contrary (but not really), and the Constitution and Bill of Rights to the contrary, our government has proven time and time again that they will do whatever they want. Apparently, it is up to us to protest and get arrested and spend millions of dollars of our own money (and another few million of our tax dollars as the government defends itself) to get a ruling from a court that has shown it is no longer really interested in what the Founders intended. In the mean time, we spend years languishing under unconstitutional laws waiting and hoping that the powers that be will deign to let us actually live in the spirit of Freedom that is supposed to be guaranteed by "that goddamned piece of paper". Compounding the problem, there is actually little to no consequences for those who architect unconstitutional legislation and get it passed. The worst they get is voted out of office, and only then if they're not in a place where they have sufficiently programmed their constituents to line up and bleat with proper deference.

Meanwhile, the Fudds sit around cleaning their bolt-action deer rifles and vote for Obama because he's only after those evil massacre inducing "assault" weapons and handguns.

Ultimately, each faction of the gun community needs the others. As Mike Vanderboegh stated here, the Prags need us as the group that could be unleashed should Politicians refuse to be reasonable and follow the Bill of Rights. We need the Prags to act as the respectable front of people who aren't into all that "militia" crap and really don't truck with "revolution". The Fudds need both of the other factions to ensure that "armor piercing" rifle ammunition and "sniper rifles" don't get banned.

Unfortunately, until the three groups truly understand their differences and learn to work together to cover each others real and perceived weaknesses, the infighting and sniping will continue unabated.

Meanwhile, Mike's original question to the Prags and Fudds goes unanswered...
Where is the line in the sand at which point you will conclude that a peaceful political solution is no longer on the table?

I believe I answered that question recently myself.
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.

4 comments:

Cheddar said...

That was a lot to read.

triptyx said...

Yes, it did end up being fairly long. Sorry about that. It's been years since I've done any kind of writing and I'm trying to find the correct mix again.

If you managed to get through the whole thing, thank you. If not, thank you for taking a look. :)

Concerned American said...

Keep writing.

Use enough words to express your thoughts.

It was a good recap of the overall situation.

Bash on.

triptyx said...

Thanks CA.

Trying to write when I have time without just making it a rehash of things on every other blog out there. ;)

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"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." – Thomas Jefferson