The Liberal Case for Gun Ownership

This is serious business, and I know it.  That's why I was not laughing when some of my friends took the Free Trump Score test.

Their supposed fate?

• Re-education camps
• The "Trump Guantanamo Bay Resort"
• Deportation
• Being Roughed Up

I'm not laughing.  Trump is dangerous, and we need to talk about that.  What would you do if Hitler raised his head?  Because Hitler did raise his head in Germany and people did nothing until it was too late.

You do what you want. I'm reminding my liberal friends with a brain that there's a place in this world for guns and ammunition, and it may be sooner rather than later.  Yes, let's drag every one we know to the polls, let's vote, let's engage in a serious program of organizing and nonviolent resistance.  Let's do it all. But remember they did all that in Germany too. And Russia.  And Turkey.  And in dozens of other countries that succumbed to madmen who then dragged their country into war, disappearances, dictatorship, and destruction.

To be clear, this is not a new thought. Back in 2007, I wrote The Liberal Case for Gun Ownership:

What were our Founding Fathers thinking when they wrote the Second Amendment?

Well, they were not engaged in narrow partisan politics. They were not posturing for Fox News or trying to “make nice to soccer moms.”

These were serious men who came fresh from the white-hot forge of revolution. A war had just been fought to overthrow the yoke of an oppressive and unresponsive Government that invaded homes without warrant and which exposed the populace to "dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within."

In short, while it was a bit hotter back then, the issues we face today are not so completely different.

As left-wing, NPR-loving Virginia author Joe Bageant notes in his book Deer Hunting With Jesus:

”With Michael Savage and Ann Coulter openly calling for putting liberals in concentration camps, with the CIA now licensed to secretly detain American citizens indefinitely, and with the current administration effectively legalizing torture, the proper question to ask an NRA members these days may be 'What kind of assault rifle do you think I can get for three hundred bucks, and how many rounds of ammo does it take to stop a born-again Homeland Security zombie from putting me in a camp?'

"Which would you prefer, 40 million gun-owning Americans on your side or theirs?"

Bageant is not a new liberal, but an old liberal – the kind that once protested things and took to the streets in opposition to stupid wars, and which stood up to be counted when civil rights were being violated.

The old liberals know the value of guns.

They know that after the Civil War, southern whites denied blacks the right to own guns, because it was easier to lynch an unarmed black man than it was one who owned a deer rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition.

Some gay Americans have discovered this secret knowledge as well. As Jonathan Rauch wrote in Salon magazine back in March of 2000:

"Thirty-one states allow all qualified citizens to carry concealed weapons. In those states, homosexuals should embark on organized efforts to become comfortable with guns, learn to use them safely and carry them. They should set up Pink Pistols task forces, sponsor shooting courses and help homosexuals get licensed to carry. And they should do it in a way that gets as much publicity as possible." 

If this sounds like Revolutionary talk, it is. It is the kind of language our revolutionary Founding Fathers might have used if they were gay, or black, or Hispanic, or Muslim, or Jewish and living in America today.

”Don’t Tread On Me,” was not a bumper sticker back then – it was a warning every bit as ominous as the shake of a rattlesnake’s tail.

The notion that our Founding Fathers contemplated armed insurrection inside the United States seems to surprise some people.

But it shouldn’t.

The Good Old Boys of Virginia -- Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington -- knew that power belonged to the people only so long as the power of the state could be met with an equal power organized by the populace at large working in tandem.

Guns were not to be used capriciously, but they were part of the long term plan crafted by our Founding Fathers to protect this great nation from powerful, cunning and patient forces of oppression -- whether those forces came from within or without.

Bottom line: Organize, vote, donate, put up posters and bumper stickers, send out messages on Facebook and Twitter, talk to everyone you know, and drag everyone you know to the polls.

But also read up on how to stuff newspapers inside a sweat shirt to absorb the baton strikes, and buy a gas mask and a couple of wrist rockets. Read up on how to disable police vehicles and how to counter pepper spray.  And don't forget to pick up 200 rounds and pay cash as is still your right under the Second Amendment. Because this is belt and suspenders time. This is serious business, and we will not go gentle into that good night.  Get serious. This election is not a fucking game.  As Michael Moore has noted, there is a very good chance Trump will win, and if that happens, there's going to be a Civil War to avoid a nuclear war. You will thank me later if it gets to that.