The following was sent to me with the request that I post it. I tend to agree with the substance so I agreed. I don’t think the topic is quite as clear cut as Fred makes it out to be. I can see the other side of the coin too. And just because you are “out of the closet“ as I like to say about being a gun owner doesn’t mean that you have to be so open as to give the government all the serial numbers of your guns. That’s just plain “asking for it“. After debating the issue with myself some I decided I could be more effective in the fight for our freedom by being in the open. I have twice been a speaker at the Gun Rights Policy Conference. I run the boomershoot. I’m a firearms instructor. I am the webmaster for numerous progun websites. I have concealed carry licenses for several states. I wear pro-gun clothing. I am very, very, “out of the closet“ about being a gun owner and an advocate for freedom. On the other hand I pay cash for all my guns, training, and a fair amount of my ammo. I have never had a NICS check on any of my firearms purchases. And I can see how some other people might be better able to serve the cause for freedom by staying in the closet. I think that at this particular point on the “repression curve“ nearly all people will better serve freedom by being out of the closet. You have to decide that for yourself.
I hope Fred gives you something more to think about as you engage in that decision making process.
Dear Fred:
Those of us who choose not to join the NRA using the “excuse” of not wishing to be on a list, do so because many of us believe the first ones to have their weaponry confiscated will be the ones who are members of the NRA and other organizations like it. I belong to no organization, I’m purposely off their “Radar Screen” so I can have the weapon(s) to help free people like you who will be the first to lose everything when the big day comes. We’re not dolts who don’t CARE, we’re just CAREFUL.
Regards,
JM, emailJM, how many of those guys who showed up on April 19, 1775 were being careful?
“Careful” and “fighting” are, for most people, the opposite ends of the risk spectrum. Not for the Rifleman, though, because he fights carefully, generally staying 300 to 500 yards out, beyond the foreign invader’s effective small arms fire.
Sometimes, you can get lost, if you don’t keep certain basics in front of you.
First: your belief that fundamental to your life is not the location of the nearest Walmart or the latest music video, but your freedom, and the fact that it is under attack by the liberals and – sometimes – the law and order country-club Republicans.
Add to that the notion that freedom is something worth fighting for, even dying for.
If it’s not, there’s gonna be a lot of disappointed people amongst those who came before us. Like the guys of ’75, the ones who showed up on Battle Day – the first WTSHTF Day.
In fighting, the only way defense leads to victory is by outlasting your opponent, maybe even outliving him. Hiding is strictly defensive – and it’s not even fighting. So you’ll never win.
The whole idea behind fighting is to make one side give up to the other. The idea that one side, fighting, will give up to the other side, hiding – not fighting – is illogical, and frankly, stupid.
Why should he give up? He may not even know you exist, which is your whole point in hiding, right?. If he knows you exist, he may not even care, as you are no threat to him with your strategy.
Think how silly the notion is by putting it into historical context. On April 19, 1775, when the alarm bells rang, did the Minutemen come pouring out of their houses, and go hide?
And I know you’re going to say, “Fred, I’m only going to hide a while, then at the right time, I’m gonna come out fighting.” Right?
But, my friend, when will that day ever come? What is the magic about that day – the day you come out fighting – that The Day The UN Convoys Roll doesn’t have? If the UN convoys don’t bring you out, whatever will? And how will your fellow hiders – of whom you know few, if any – know to pick that same magical day to emerge from their cocoons? And if they don’t come out, what kind of impact will you – one person – make, all by yourself?
No, sir, if you’re not going to fight now, when the fighting is easy, if you are already hiding, in the soft crisis, you’re not going to fight later, when it’s gonna be hard.
Who is going to pass on the tradition, the skills of marksmanship, the love of freedom, if you don’t? How are we going to build our strength, if the smart thing is to hide? The most important thing right now is to get more people into shooting, to recruit more people to our side, to strengthen the tradition, to keep it alive, to pass it on so we can train our politicians and keep the UN convoys from rolling in the first place. So we can win the fight – before it starts.
And whatever happened to free America, where you live without fear, associate without fear, and are free, not a fearful loner afraid of contact with fellow humans? Sure, I know that our freedoms have and are being severely eroded, and that there not a liberal out there whose head wouldn’t bob up and down like a yo-yo at the idea of confiscation of your firearms.
But I am not going to hide from that scrawny, stuttering, worthless, UN-worshipping, third-world-kissing idiot.
And neither should you.
Hiding only makes them stronger. Failure to resist only gives them victory.
You need to get out, you need to be ringing the alarm bell, winning hearts and minds to the cause of freedom, waking your fellow sleeping Americans to the threat and to the solution.
Where are your friends, your brothers and sisters, your neighbors on that list?
That “government list” is a roll of honor:
We, the undersigned, are free Americans…and we are not afraid.