Ever since New York’s SAFE Act and new restrictions in other states further encroaching on law abiding gun owners’ right to keep and bear were enacted in the wake of Sandy Hook, the tectonic pressures have been building. You can feel it within mainstream organizations such as the NRA, where gun owners are in the midst of a “culture war.” You can certainly see it in the murkier corners of the intertubes where he who shall not have hair openly promised to “start killing people” if someone comes for his guns. The stage has been set for an otherwise innocuous – or overtly provocative – incident to get out of control. It’ll get real ugly real fast. Radio host Adam Kokesh seems just the man to set off the seismic tsunami . . .
salon.com is reporting that Kokesh is planning a July 4 March on Washington. He’s looking to assemble 1000 like-minded pro-2A folks and march across the Memorial Bridge from Virginia into “gun free” D.C. With loaded rifles.
The gun control industry laughs at the idea of law-abiding gun owners pitting their pitiful guns to stand up against to tyranny. Reacting to a report that 44% of Republicans (vs. 18% of Democrats) think that an armed revolution might be necessary, Bill Maher let out a loud guffaw:
Can we get to, first of all, how ridiculous it is for people to think that the Second Amendment protects them from tyranny. Didn’t Waco solve that? We just had the anniversary a couple of weeks ago. Remember Waco? You know what they had in Waco? They had like 1.9 million rounds of ammunition; they had .50 caliber machine guns; they had grenades…What did the government have? Everything else. The winner and still champion – the United States government. Thinking the Second Amendment protects you from tyranny is like thinking the First Amendment protects you from Thor. It’s quaint. It’s ridiculous. It’s nonsensical. And they never get called [on] it!
For his part, Kokesh (which sounds disturbingly Koreshian) is calling his little soiree the Open Carry March on Washington. Here’s the description of the event from his facebook page:
On the morning of July 4, 2013, Independence Day, we will muster at the National Cemetery & at noon we will step off to march across the Memorial Bridge, down Independence Avenue, around the Capitol, the Supreme Court, & the White House, then peacefully return to Virginia across the Memorial Bridge. This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.
Would the D.C. police act to stop them from crossing that bridge from Arlington into the capitol? Wouldn’t they almost have to? Allowing armed marchers to flout the law, brazenly carrying locally illegal firearms, would set a rather uncomfortable precedent for the nation’s seat of power.
And what happens then? What if, despite Kokesh’s pledge to peacefully do an about face, one of his fellow marchers, met by resistance from law enforcement, is stupid (or careless) enough to crack off a shot? With a battalion of armed riflemen encountering a phalanx of DCPD, one shot could (and probably would) quickly turn into many more. And a very bloody, terribly ugly incident. All filmed for the evening news.
Even if Kokesh’s provocative procession comes off peacefully, this will likely be the first of many of these. A March on Albany holding mags with 8 rounds loaded in the air? Another one on Denver sporting full Magpul 30-round mags? The potential is there for any one of those types of situations — or another one entirely — to go south. And then what?