We received the following inquiry at Guntruths.com. I pass it along because
it contains an object lesson about "meeting" people on the internet or
elsewhere, and about being careless in our topics of conversation and in our
rhetoric.
My own feeling is, the writer is simply naive. But then again, he may be more
seasoned than I can imagine, and the naivete may be my own. Bottom line- let's
be careful out there.
His letter:
I read your website: http://www.guntruths.com/Myths/if_the_government_uses_the_milit.htm
and have a question about militias and targeting the leaders of a tyrannical
government.
Is there any organization of armed citizens?
And if there is some loose organization, will people actually move
to snipe a government leader gone awry?
If so, GREAT. But I would think that any real resistance would need to be
organized somehow in order to be successful. If you (we) wait till the boom is
lowered, it will be too late to coordinate that kind of action.
<SNIP>
So - is there a loose band of people, roughly organized and
communicating, that could/would be able to provide resistance in such a
situation?
Here is my response:
Dear __________,
You're in luck! Coincidentally, I am organizing just such a group of sniper
assassins. Our first meeting will be next Thursday night, at our command post
somewhere in the Los Angeles area, and we will be selecting targets and giving
out assignments, as well as updating our central list of resistance cells, and
marking discovered informant/infiltrators for sanctioning. Let me know if
you're interested in attending, and who you would like to take out.
Not.
I mean, really, how are we supposed to answer such a question? For all I
know, you are an ATF agent trolling for loose-lipped idiots. And for all you
know, GunTruths is an elaborate snare set out to identify enemies of the
state.
See the problem?
Here's a "real" response that I sent to another site visitor with
similar concerns, who was prompted to write us after reading an article I wrote
for Guns & Ammo ("You Say You Want A Revolution?"- June 2000):
"Dear _____________,
Where I live, there is no organized militia either - if you try to form
one, you will be arrested, even though we are each of us the unorganized
militia, recognized in law and guaranteed an inalienable right to keep and
bear arms by the Second Amendment of the Constitution.
The purpose of my article was to urge people to get involved now to prevent
actual fighting from ever happening, and to get them to think about where
their personal line in the sand would be drawn. For instance, if the
government orders you to register your guns, will you, or will you defy them
at the risk of going to jail? What about if they ban your guns and order you
to turn them in?
This is not something that you can or should rely on a group to decide for
you. If you can't make that decision on your own, how in the world would you
ever be able to make the decision to physically resist tyranny?
I submit that if and when we have lost all other means of redress and
tyranny has become so insufferable as to warrant resistance, you'll know. You
may not be the leader- it may be a neighbor or a co-worker, or your kid's
teacher, or your pastor, or even a brave police officer who refuses to follow
evil orders...if and when you see resistance occur, you will be faced with a
choice: call the authorities and report him; join him; or close the blinds and
do nothing.
I hope we never have to make this choice. I hope so badly that I work long
and hard trying to alert people to the loss of our liberties, trying to urge
them to get involved...
My suggestion to you is not to worry about joining a militia group - if you
find one, it will probably be so heavily infiltrated with government agents
and provocateurs that your first special op would result in being busted in
the glare of a prearranged media fanfare. I instead urge you to get personally
involved in this fight by educating yourself to the arguments that can
persuade our friends and neighbors to wake up, to write letters to editors and
politicians when you see injustice being done, to take friends shooting to get
them interested and show them we're not demons, and to form a grassroots
network of like-minded people, each of whom brings special talents to the
group that make it more effective than working alone. I urge you to support
efforts like Citizens of America, linked below, and KeepandBearArms.com,
likewise linked.
Because if you and I and the people who believe as we do don't turn the
tide, we're gonna have to make that choice I talked about. But as much as I
don't want to, I'd rather be the one to make it than to foist it on my kids
because of cowardice..."
Hope this helps clarify our position,
David Codrea codrea4@earthlink.net
Guns- good AND good FOR you! Find out why at: http://www.guntruths.com/
http://www.citizensofamerica.org/
http://www.thelsas.org/ http://www.keepandbeararms.com/
Epilog:
Well, judging from his reply, I guess I failed to win him over:
Your "real" response was measured and level-headed, but your
initial sarcasm really rubbed me the wrong way.
If this is how you intend to "get them interested and show them we're
not demons" - you just blew it with me! Wow! You expect me to be
sympathetic about your movement? You want to convince me about your ideas
after you slam me like that?!?
Better be a little nicer to the next guy down the pike. Even if I were a
gov't spy, there's better ways to "talk a lot and say nothing," than
how you handled it.
Dang! The one that got away...guess I'll never know if he would