Let’s not mince words. I own an “assault rifle” because I fear my government. I’m afraid that the government — a self-serving alliance of politicians, bureaucrats and law enforcement officers — will take away my liberty at the point of a gun. I want to be prepared to counter that eventuality by force of arms, if necessary. So I bought the best “weapon of war” I could: a rifle that gives me a fighting chance against my own government.
Gun control advocates consider that premise laughable. For one thing, the government is your friend! It’s just another word for the things we do together! For another, a gun owner wielding a modern sporting rifle (a.k.a., “assault rifle”) doesn’t have a hope in hell of defending him- or herself against the might of the United States government’s legions of well-armed, trained agents.
Both of these arguments are demonstrably false and hugely revealing.
The only people who believe that government is the average citizen’s friend are people who ignore history, both past and present.
As the son of a Holocaust victim, I am but one generation away from inhuman horrors perpetrated on my family by monsters working for their government. The same sort of horrors that governments are busy inflicting on their populations in Mexico, Iran, China and other “developed” and “developing” nations.
It couldn’t happen here? The United States government is not only capable of mass murder — as all governments are — it’s got a track record in that department.
As I pointed out earlier, pundits who proclaim the Pulse nightclub terrorist attack the worst mass shooting in U.S. history somehow forget the Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota, where U.S. soldiers gunned down as many as 300 Native Americans. And what of the slaughter at Waco, where 76 Americans died at the hands of the FBI?
The only people who believe that armed citizens are defenseless against large, organized government forces are people who ignore history, both past and present.
The American Revolution is a good example of an armed confederation of freedom fighters holding off a much larger, better armed and battle-hardened military power. And if America’s failures in Afghanistan and Iraq teach us anything, it’s that determined “guerrilla” fighters armed with little more than “assault rifles” and explosives can stymie the world’s mightiest armies.
Besides, who cares? Laughable and inconvenient as it may be to some, Americans have a Constitutionally guaranteed right to be armed against their own government. And terrorists. And criminals. Or for no reason at all. Which is why when someone asks me why I own an “assault rifle” I simply say “because I can.”
But if you want another reason why I own a SIG SAUER MCX — the same semi-automatic rifle used by the Pulse mass murderer — it’s because the U.S. government doesn’t want me to own one.
Gun control advocates talk about keeping “assault rifles” out of the hands of criminals, crazies and terrorists. But it’s entirely evident that they don’t want anyone to own one. Why else did they enact — and seek to enact again — an “assault weapons” ban?
Truth be told, people who work for civilian disarmament are afraid of a well-armed populace. A populace armed with “military style rifles.” As well they should be. As John Basil Barnhill pronounced, “Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.”
If you want to protect your individual liberties as set forth by the United States Constitution, buy an “assault rifle.” Buy a few. I did. If gun control advocates are frightened of that reality, good.
I make no apologies for my purchases. Nor will I surrender my “assault rifle” without a fight. Hopefully, one without bloodshed. But there is no guarantee. When it comes to the freedoms that millions of patriotic Americans cherish, there never is. Which is why millions of Americans are armed with “assault rifles”…to protect them.