Crossposted from"News From the Front".
There is this…
The CEO of a company that teaches people how to use guns has posted a ranting video online in which he claims he will ‘start killing people’ if President Obama uses his executive powers to introduce tighter gun controls.
James Yeager runs Tactical Response, a Tennessee company that trains people in weapon and tactical skills. In a video posted on YouTube and Facebook, Yeager describes President Obama as a ‘dictator’ and claims that tighter gun control measures will result in ‘civil war.’
(Snip.)
‘F*** that! I’m telling you that if that happens, it’s going to spark a civil war, and I’ll be glad to fire the first shot,’ rants Yeager, who has bullets tattooed on his left arm.
Yeager gets increasingly more irate as the video continues and he urges other gun rights advocates to ‘load your damn mags’ and ‘get ready to fight.’
He closed with more threats: ‘I’m not fucking putting up with this. I’m not letting my country be ruled by a dictator. I’m not letting anybody take my guns! If it goes one inch further, I’m going to start killing people.’
(More After the jump.)
I have two points to make about this stupidity. One that’s obvious. Another, not so much.
The obvious one first. The United States has the largest military in the history of the world. If you were to say barricade yourself in your home with all your weapons, even if you stockpiled for twenty years, you honestly think you’d have enough fire power to repel, let’s say for the sake of argument, a well-trained SEAL team.
In fact, forget the SEAL team. As long as we’re going down the paranoid rabbit hole, let’s go all the way down. You start screaming about revolution from a fortified home bunker, what’s to stop them from using an unmanned drone from raining AGM-114 Hellfire missiles on your head. Unless, of course, you had the presence of mind to install on your roof an EMP emitter or an Anti-Aircraft gun.
Which means, if you want to fight the tyranny of the United States Government, you would have to run an arms race against them.
The Soviet Union couldn’t win an arms race against us. What makes you think you have a shot?
And now on to the less obvious point. And I’m kind of surprised that no one else had thought of this.
After 9/11, the Bush Administration shoved the Patriot Act down our throat and began an erosion of our civil rights which I will admit, the Obama Administration has done little to counteract. Whether, it’s out of a fear of looking “Soft on terrorism” or a legitimate agreement with those tactics is subject to debate.
Now I’m lucky that both my senators, have been great on pushing back on this nonsense. Ron Wyden has been single-handedly pushing back on anti free internet bills like COICA and SOPA. And Jeff Merkley has been pushing back the most onerous parts of the NDAA.
But because of the persistent fear hangover from 9/11, the success of these pushbacks have been limited.
Imagine how much harder that pushback becomes when a segment of the population loses their shit and threatens revolution over new gun laws?
Seriously, what do you think would be the more possible reaction to a bunch of crazy people waving guns screaming revolution?
A: “Gee, you know. Those people waving guns are making some very salient points about the place of the 2nd amendment in modern society.
Or…
B: “Somebody call the FBI.”
I’ll make it easy. It’s B. If a non violent movement like Occupy can have the FBI get up in their grill, you bet your sweet ass a possible violent uprising is going to get the same treatment.
You are not fighting an encroaching police state, you are enabling it!
And let me tell you something else. You start screaming about armed conflict, even people who are sympathetic to your point of view are going to back away for the very human reason of not wanting to get shot. And they will tolerate any possible erosion of civil rights to gain that goal of not being shot.
The government oppresses the people. The people violently attack the power structure. The Government clamps down harder as voices of reason within are drowned out by screams of outrage and terror.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Again, I am not excusing the government’s behavior. I am simply pointing out that going on YouTube and screaming about killing people does not help
Say what you want about the Occupy movement but they at least realize the futility of violence in a political struggle and are working for non-violent change. And they have the guts to face down the truncheon and the rubber bullet armed with only the righteousness of their beliefs.
You think your guns will save you from what’s coming? Hell, Adam Lanza’s mother had guns to prepare for the collapse of the world economy.
How much good did they do her?
The only thing that’s going to walk us through this time of crisis is intellect, imagination and engagement. And the battlefield is not just the halls of power but the dark and fear encrusted recesses of our hearts.
G’Quan wrote, “There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.”
Citizen G’Kar (Written by J. Michael Straczynski.)