Dear Brothers and Sisters in Arms:

The following letter is written in the hope that matters may never come to the point where such a confrontation occurs. Though it may seem odd to quote such a source in a memo to American Patriots, my purpose in citing Chairman Mao Tse Dung is to show that Truth is Truth, and universal at its core.

In Mao's famous Little Red Book, he makes the observation that "all political power proceeds from the barrel of a gun." The obvious truth of this statement requires only a moment's reflection to verify. It doesn't matter how outrageous, tyrannical and/or unconstitutional the orders are which emanate from the White House or the State House, if the line officers and their underlings (whether police, sheriff, National Guard or whatever) refuse to carry out those orders. Therefore, an effort to convince these folks to do just that seems to me to be a worthwhile next-to-last undertaking. Failing this, I cannot see where any alternative remains but the ammo box. For if matters should come to the point of orders being issued to these "guardians of freedom", it will mean that all legal battles have been fought and lost. I only hope that the following isn't too late. P.S: What do you suppose the effect would be of copies of the following showing up on lampposts throughout you home town?

I want you to know right from the git-go that I've been one of you. I've served on active duty with the US Army in Europe, I've been a city police officer, and I've served with two different Sheriff's Offices. I'm fifty-seven years old, and most would say I'm a "high mileage" model. From this background, and over the years, I've come to certain core beliefs based on observation, study and, perhaps most importantly, thought.

First, oaths are sacred and should be inviolate. If you aren't an atheist, an oath is a promise you make to God. Otherwise, an oath is a promise you make to yourself and has the same value as you place on your own intrinsic worth. The breaking of an oath is perhaps the highest moral crime, in the same sense as undermining the foundation of a building is a more serious matter than merely destroying one of its floors.

Each and every one of you took an oath upon entry into you present vocation. Somewhere in that oath were the words "to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States". If there is any word in this phrase that seems unclear, please go look it up before reading any further. (This last remark is obviously made tongue-in-cheek, to make the point that there is little fogginess in the wording of that phrase.)

If you were to break up a peaceful rally of protesters outside the Capitol building, even though you were under orders to do so, you would be violating your oath of office. If you were to surround a congregation inside of their church, lay siege to the building, and finally burn it down with the people still inside, you would be violating your oath of office (not to mention several other laws of man and God). And if you were to come to the house of a decent, law-abiding citizen for the purpose of denying his right to keep and bear arms, you would be violating you oath of office.

Secondly, in the above examples, any orders you received to carry out the actions described would have been unlawful and therefore not subject to execution. One of the earliest Supreme Court decisions, Marbury v. Madison (1803) says so, and this decision has never been overturned. Look it up.

Finally, and most regrettably, any order you receive to violate a citizen's Second Amendment rights (which you must remember are "inalienable", i.e., granted by the Creator and/or inherent in the quality of being alive) is likely to lead to needless loss of life if you attempt to carry it out. And adding to the peril you would be placing yourself in by trying to execute such an order is the fact that you would not be able to unerringly predict the direction from which it would come. The seasonal deer hunter may give up his hunting rifle willingly. The senior citizen living on the edge of civilization and eating cat food (because million dollar cruise missiles over Kosovo are more important to that selfsame power structure that gave you your orders) may not.

Of course, the ultimate irony of this scenario is that you would be violating the rights of the people least likely to ever cause you trouble in your professional capacity, and most likely to come to your aid in time of need. I know that this is so, having had my own life saved by an armed citizen who happened to be in the right place at the right time, while my cover unit was several minutes away. Believe me when I tell you that I never asked to see his permit to carry. We are still friends, twenty-five years later, and I've still never asked.

For the above reasons, and many others which will no doubt occur to you on your own, I hope and pray that you will remember your oaths and refuse to carry out any such unlawful order to confiscate what Geo. Washington called our "liberty teeth". For proof that he was right, look at the history of what our nation has been, . . . and what it's rapidly becoming. The values of the Founders were responsible for the birth and growth of the greatest nation in human history, while the rejection of those values has brought us to our present state of affairs. If and when the order comes, the choice will be yours. And your children and grandchildren will be the beneficiaries of that choice. If the image of those grandchildren with numbers tattooed on the inside of their left forearm doesn't appeal to you, choose well.

"Henry Bowman"