by
Jim
Karger
The Dollar Vigilante

Previously
by Jim Karger: Obama’s
Third Term? We Have More Pressing Problems

“And,
to you tough-talking Neo-Cons with your AR-15 rifles and a few thousand
rounds of ammo, here is reality: they will take your guns, and no,
all your Second Amendment bluster aside, you are not going to do
anything about it. You are not going to take on a platoon of Marines
with state of the art automatic weapons and the best body armor
you cannot buy protected by armed personnel carriers and attack
helicopters unless you choose to die that day – for nothing.

You will
either be in the country or out, and if you are in, you will stay
in and you will comply.

That is
your choice . . . for the moment.”

I wrote that
last year for The Dollar Vigilante in an article entitled
“When
They Come For Your Guns You Will Turn Them Over“,
and it has been republished dozens of times, often as not to vilify
the very proposition and its author.

And, even after
all the recent saber-rattling in response to Obama’s threat
to ban certain semi-automatic rifles, I still believe every word
of that article. Most Americans will give up their guns when they
are told do so. Not necessarily because they are afraid to die,
although most are, but because they are so used to giving up what
the government mandates be turned over. Guns may just be the next
takeaway in a long list of takings by the State.

Others will
come to the conclusion that guns no longer serve a purpose vis-à-vis
protection from government tyranny because they have already given
up all the rights that matter. From free speech to freedom of the
press, all that which was once held sacred has been fully abridged.
Even Bill Maher, a liberal’s liberal, gets
that irony.

From a government
that once complied with the requirements of due process down to
dutifully reading one’s Miranda rights, we now suffer under
a Leviathan that openly claims (and exercises) the right to arrest,
indefinitely detain, sequester, jail, and even kill its own citizens
without charges, an attorney, or a trial.

From cops who
used to fear violating a citizen’s rights, we have morphed law
enforcement into a vast, thuggish, militarized Gestapo-like police
network that share only one commonality: they don’t care about
the law. They care about what they want. And, if you get in the
way or don’t do exactly as you are told, or in some cases don’t
intuit what it is they want you to do, you can end up face down
on the pavement like this poor bastard.

From a simple
rap sheet on felons that might be available in the past, the State
and all of its appendages can and do have access to your most personal
information that can be used to construct vast dossiers
that are widely shared through new institutions like Joint Terrorism
Task Forces, fusion centers, and public-private partnerships. (That
information, by the way, includes the fact that you are reading
this blog online. They know. They will remember. Forever.)

Free speech
that was once revered is now also in the ashcan of history. The
Patriot Act, as only one example, makes it a crime for an American
citizen to engage in peaceful, lawful activity on behalf of any
group designated as a “terrorist organization.” And who
gets to define “terrorist organization”? The Secretary
of State who reports directly to the President. Even organizations
like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has
been characterized a “terrorist threat” by government.
And, of course, anarchists who by definition do not believe in aggression
against others, including aggression by the State, are set aside
for special condemnation as “terrorists” by the U.S. government:

“The
FBI has described anarchist extremists as typically being “event
driven,” meaning

they show
up at political conventions, economic and financial summits, environmental
meetings, and the like. They usually target symbols of Western civilization
that they perceive to be the root causes of all societal ills—i.e.,
financial corporations, government institutions, multinational companies,
and law enforcement agencies. They damage and vandalize property,
riot, set fires, and perpetrate small-scale bombings. Law enforcement
is also concerned about anarchist extremists who may be willing
to use improvised explosives devices or improvised incendiary devices.”
(Source: Congressional
Research Service)

Freedom of
the press has likewise been shit-canned, and now subject to the
whims of government. Of course, government need not take much action
against the press, not anymore, since most mainstream press organizations
are merely mouthpieces of government. But in the rare event a reporter
or a publication wants to expose the incestuous relationship of
government and big business, to reveal the State for what it is,
they are shut down under threat of law. Good example: agricultural
gag laws that provide prison for reporters that reveal animal
abuse in industrial agriculture are an in-your-face violation of
the First Amendment, but few care anymore, even the courts.

So, what’s
the point? Just this: the Second Amendment which prohibits the federal
government from abridging the freedom to possess firearms, a right
ostensibly provided by the Founders in order to prevent government
from stripping away other freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution,
is arguably unnecessary now, to-wit, those rights which our guns
were supposed to protect have already been stripped away.
Indeed, other than the right to shop and go out to eat (neither
specifically mentioned in the Constitution), there are few rights
that most Americans seem to care about anymore. Instead, they have
been gamed by bread and circuses without firing a shot.

I would opine
that under these circumstances government would care little whether
Americans are armed or not. However, the Feds must suspect civil
unrest is coming when the dollar collapses, and hungry people with
guns probably isn’t what they have in mind as an endgame, which
brings us full circle back to government, per Congressional directive
or Executive edict, one day going door to door asking not-so-kindly
for your weapons which will leave you asking what liberties you
have left worth dying for.

Reprinted with permission
from The Dollar Vigilante.

January 24, 2013

Jim
Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The
Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against
incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001,
he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert
of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler
life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website
is www.crediblyconnect.com.

Copyright
© 2013 The
Dollar Vigilante

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