The 56 Signers of the Declaration Of Independence
The Plight of the Signers
Treasonous and Unconstitutional Legislation
Sighting In the 2nd Ammendment
The Revolution Has Started
Know Your Congressman's Ways
The Line is drawn in the sand

Don Feder - July 4, 2001

A Letter From The Founding Fathers

From: The Founding Fathers
To: The current generation of Americans

On this the 225th anniversary of our independence, those of us you call the Founding Fathers have assembled in Continental heaven to assess the condition of the republic we bequeathed to you.

It's true America has become the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth.  But so was the British Empire in 1776.

Before we get specific, we must confess that we are annoyed by your habit of misinterpreting our words. Take the First Amendment, where we said Congress shall make no law "respecting an establishment of religion." You usually neglect the other half of the injunction, "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

As anyone in the first Congress, which passed the amendment, could have told you, "establishment of religion" means an established church, which all are forced to support. We never intended to create a virtue-less republic, by prohibiting public expressions of faith.

In the Declaration of Independence, we acknowledged that rights are endowed by our Creator.  Absent a Creator, there are no inalienable rights.

In the Second Amendment, we said the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. In our day, if private citizens hadn't owned guns there would have been no Lexington and Concord.

Why would we bother guaranteeing a collective right to arm state militias?  The rights enumerated in the first 10 amendments are restraints on government, not grants of power to it.

If you ever wake up to what's going on, your leaders will have cause to fear an armed citizenry.  We viewed elective office as a sacrifice. For your politicians, it's an opportunity. We rid America of a monarchy. You've established an elected aristocracy. We were farmers, merchants and professionals who resumed our careers after a brief term of service and never lost touch with our constituents.

You are governed by an elite so different from you as to almost constitute a separate species.  Your elected rulers hold office for 20 or 30 years, becoming increasingly detached from their roots, while rewarding themselves lavish emoluments and pensions.

We revolted over a modest tax on tea. Your tax burden is staggering.  Despite the enormous expenditures of your prodigal politicians, even they can't spend it all.  And still, many resist returning the federal surplus to its rightful owners. We rejected taxation without representation.  You condone your own serfdom.

In the Declaration, we complained that King George III had "sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance." You complacently tolerate a bureaucracy that resembles all Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Eat out their substance? Today, almost one in 13 Americans works for a branch of government.  Harass our people? There are bureaucrats to tell you how to run your business, build on your property and raise your children. Government makes decisions for you regarding your health, safety and welfare.

We envisioned the judiciary as a coequal branch of government that interprets laws based on the clear meaning of language. Your courts have become a law unto themselves -- raising taxes, deciding elections, ordering private relationships and substituting their will for that of legislators.

We warned you against entangling alliances. You are eager to form defensive pacts with postage-stamp countries whose security couldn't conceivably be related to your own. This will only serve to drag you into their petty quarrels, sapping your strength.

We recognized that government and society must rest on divine wisdom.  George Washington observed, "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

You cultivate national immorality, in the apparent belief that abortion, adolescent access to pornography, cohabitation, public distribution of prophylactics and compulsory acceptance of perversion will somehow lead to a society whose citizens have the self-discipline to sacrifice for the common good.

Benjamin Franklin said we gave you a republic "if you can keep it." From our vantage point, it does not look promising. Were we alive today, we'd raise another rebellion.

                    ©2001 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
 

"Isn't our choice really not one of left or right, but of up or down?  Down through the welfare state to statism, to more and more government largesse accompanied always by more government authority, less individual liberty, and ultimately, totalitarianism, always advanced as for our own good.  The alternative is the dream conceived by our Founding Fathers, up to the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with an orderly society.  We don't celebrate dependence day on the Fourth of July.  We celebrate Independence Day."

-- Ronald Reagan (Remarks on accepting the GOP Presidential Nomination, Dallas, Texas, August 23, 1984)

A NOTE ON THE SIGNERS OF
   THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

   by Matthew Spalding, Heritage Foundation

   "...we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

   (Each year information about those who signed the Declaration of Independence is circulated, not all of which is accurate. The following note is based on research in several established sources, which are noted below.)

   Fifty-six individuals from each of the original 13 colonies participated in the Second Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. Pennsylvania sent nine delegates to the congress, followed by Virginia with seven and sachusetts and New Jersey with five. Connecticut, Maryland, New York, and South Carolina each sent four delegates. Delaware, Georgia, New Hampshire, and North Carolina each sent three. Rhode Island, the smallest colony, sent only two delegates to Philadelphia.

   Nine of the signers were immigrants, two were brothers, two were cousins, and one was an orphan. The average age of a signer was 45.  The oldest delegate was Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, who was 70 when he signed the Declaration. The youngest was Thomas Lynch, Jr., of South Carolina, who was 27.

   Eighteen of the signers were merchants or businessmen, 14 were farmers, and four were doctors. Forty-two signers had served in their colonial legislatures. Twenty-two were lawyers -- although William Hooper of North Carolina was "disbarred" when he spoke out against the Crown -- and nine were judges. Stephen Hopkins had been Governor of Rhode Island.

   Although two others had been clergy previously, John Witherspoon of New Jersey was the only active clergyman to attend -- he wore his pontificals to the sessions. Almost all were Protestant Christians; Charles Carroll of Maryland was the only Roman Catholic signer.

   Seven of the signers were educated at Harvard, four each at Yale and William & Mary, and three at Princeton. John Witherspoon was the president of Princeton and George Wythe was a professor at William & Mary, where his students included the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson.

   Seventeen of the signers served in the military during the American Revolution. Thomas Nelson was a colonel in the Second Virginia Regiment and then commanded Virginia military forces at the Battle of Yorktown. William Whipple served with the New Hampshire militia and was one of the commanding officers in the decisive Saratoga campaign. Oliver Wolcott led the Connecticut regiments sent for the defense of New York and commanded a brigade of militia that took part in the defeat of General Burgoyne. Caesar Rodney was a Major General in the Delaware militia and John Hancock was the same in the Massachusetts militia.

   Five of the signers were captured by the British during the war. Captains Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, and Arthur Middleton (South Carolina) were all captured at the Battle of Charleston in 1780; Colonel George Walton was wounded and captured at the Battle of Savannah. Richard Stockton of New Jersey never recovered from his incarceration at the hands of British Loyalists and died in 1781.

   Colonel Thomas McKean of Delaware wrote John Adams that he was "hunted like a fox by the enemy -- compelled to remove my family five times in a few months, and at last fixed them in a little log house on the banks of the Susquehanna . . . and they were soon obliged to move again on account of the incursions of the Indians." Abraham Clark of New Jersey had two of his sons captured by the British during the war. The son of John Witherspoon, a major in the New Jersey Brigade, was killed at the Battle of Germantown.

   Eleven signers had their homes and property destroyed. Francis Lewis's New York home was destroyed and his wife was taken prisoner. John Hart's farm and mills were destroyed when the British invaded New Jersey and he died while fleeing capture. Carter Braxton and Thomas Nelson (both of Virginia) lent large sums of their personal fortunes to support the war effort, but were never repaid.

   Fifteen of the signers participated in their states' constitutional conventions, and six -- Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer, James Wilson, and George Reed --signed the United States Constitution. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts attended the federal convention and, though he later supported the document, refused to sign the Constitution.

   After the Revolution, 13 of the signers went on to become governors, and 18 served in their state legislatures. Sixteen became state and federal judges. Seven became members of the United States House of Representatives, and six became United States Senators. James Wilson and Samuel Chase became Justices of the United States Supreme Court.

   Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Elbridge Gerry each became Vice President, and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson became President. The sons of signers John Adams and Benjamin Harrison also became Presidents.

   Five signers played major roles in the establishment of colleges and universities: Benjamin Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania; Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia; Benjamin Rush and Dickinson College; Lewis Morris and New York University; and George Walton and the University of Georgia.

   John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles Carroll were the longest surviving signers. Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Charles Carroll of Maryland was the last signer to die -- in 1832 at the age of 95.

   (Sources: Robert Lincoln, Lives of the Presidents of the United States, with Biographical Notices of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (Brattleboro Typographical Company, 1839); John and Katherine Bakeless, Signers of the Declaration (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969); Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989).

Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

They gave you and me a free and independent America.  The history books never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War. We didn't fight just the British.  We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government.  Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.  So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember freedom is never free!

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By Rush H. Limbaugh II

     " ... our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor."
     --Declaration of Independence

It was a glorious morning. The sun was shining and the wind was from the southeast. Up especially early, a tall, bony, redheaded young Virginian found time to buy a new thermometer, for which he paid three pounds, 15 shillings. He also bought gloves for Martha, his wife, who was ill at home.

Thomas Jefferson arrived early at the statehouse. The temperature was 72 and the horseflies weren't nearly so bad at that hour. It was a lovely room, very large, with gleaming white walls. The chairs were comfortable. Facing the single door were two brass fireplaces, but they would not be used today.

The moment the door was shut, and it was always kept locked, the room became an oven. The tall windows were shut, so that loud, quarreling voices could not be heard by passersby. Small openings atop the windows allowed a slight stir of air, and also a large number of horseflies. Jefferson records that "the horseflies were dexterous in finding necks, and the silk of stocking was as nothing to them." All discussion was punctuated by the slap of hands on necks.

On the wall at the back, facing the president's desk, was a panoply -- consisting of a drum, swords, and banners seized from Fort Ticonderoga the previous year. Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured the place, shouting that they were taking it "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!"

Now Congress got to work, promptly taking up an emergency measure about which there was discussion but no dissension. "Resolved: That an application be made to the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania for a supply of flints for the troops at New York."

Then Congress transformed itself into a committee of the whole, The Declaration of Independence was read aloud once more, and debate resumed. Though Jefferson was the best writer of all of them, he had been somewhat verbose. Congress hacked the excess away. They did a good job, as a side-by-side comparison of the rough draft and the final text shows. They cut the phrase "by a self-assumed power." "Climb" was replaced by "must read," then "must" was eliminated, then the whole sentence, and soon the whole paragraph was cut. Jefferson groaned as they continued what he later called "their depredations." "Inherent and inalienable rights" came out "certain unalienable rights," and to this day no one knows who suggested the elegant change.

A total of 86 alterations were made. Almost 500 words were eliminated, leaving 1,337. At last, after three days of wrangling, the document was put to a vote.

Here in this hall Patrick Henry had once thundered, "I am no longer a Virginian, sir, but an American." But today the loud, sometimes bitter argument stilled, and without fanfare the vote was taken from north to south by colonies, as was the custom. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

There were no trumpets blown. No one stood on his chair and cheered. The afternoon was waning and Congress had no thought of delaying the full calendar of routine business on its hands. For several hours they worked on many other problems before adjourning for the day.

Much to lose

What kind of men were the 56 signers who adopted the Declaration of Independence and who, by their signing, committed an act of treason against the Crown? To each of you the names Franklin, Adams, Hancock, and Jefferson are almost as familiar as household words. Most of us, however, know nothing of the other signers. Who were they? What happened to them?

I imagine that many of you are somewhat surprised at the names not there: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry. All were elsewhere.

Ben Franklin was the only really old man. Eighteen were under 40; three were in their 20s. Of the 56, almost half -- 24 -- were judges and lawyers. Eleven were merchants, 9 were landowners and farmers, and the remaining 12 were doctors, ministers and politicians.

With only a few exceptions, such as Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, these were men of substantial property. All but two had families. The vast majority were men of education and standing in their communities. They had economic security as few men had in the 18th century.

Each had more to lose from revolution than he had to gain by it. John Hancock, one of the richest men in America, already had a price of 500 pounds on his head. He signed in enormous letters so "that his Majesty could now read his name without glasses and could now double the reward." Ben Franklin wryly noted, "Indeed we must all hang together, otherwise we shall most assuredly hang separately." Fat Benjamin Harrison of Virginia told tiny Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, "With me it will all be over in a minute, but you, you will be dancing on air an hour after I am gone."

These men knew what they risked. The penalty for treason was death by hanging. And remember: a great British fleet was already at anchor in New York Harbor.

They were sober men. There were no dreamy-eyed intellectuals or draft-card burners here. They were far from hot-eyed fanatics, yammering for an explosion. They simply asked for the status quo. It was change they resisted. It was equality with the mother country they desired. It was taxation with representation they sought. They were all conservatives, yet they rebelled.

It was principle, not property, that had brought these men to Philadelphia. Two of them became presidents of the United States. Seven of them became state governors. One died in office as vice president of the United States. Several would go on to be U.S. senators. One, the richest man in America, in 1828 founded the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. One, a delegate from Philadelphia, was the only real poet, musician and philosopher of the signers (it was he, Francis Hopkinson, not Betsy Ross, who designed the United States flag).

Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, had introduced the resolution to adopt the Declaration of Independence in June of 1776. He was prophetic in his concluding remarks:

"Why then sir, why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American Republic. Let her arise not to devastate and to conquer but to reestablish the reign of peace and law. The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us. She demands of us a living example of freedom that may exhibit a contrast in the felicity of the citizen to the ever-increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repose. If we are not this day wanting in our duty, the names of the American legislators of 1776 will be placed by posterity at the side of all of those whose memory has been and ever will be dear to virtuous men and good citizens."

Though the resolution was formally adopted July 4, it was not until July 8 that two of the states authorized their delegates to sign, and it was not until August 2 that the signers met at Philadelphia to actually put their names to the Declaration.

William Ellery, delegate from Rhode Island, was curious to see the signers' faces as they committed this supreme act of personal courage. He saw some men sign quickly, "but in no face was he able to discern real fear." Stephen Hopkins, Ellery's colleague from Rhode Island, was a man past 60. As he signed with a shaking pen, he declared: "My hand trembles, but my heart does not."

Most glorious service

Even before the list was published, the British marked down every member of Congress suspected of having put his name to treason. All of them became the objects of vicious manhunts. Some were taken. Some, like Jefferson, had narrow escapes. All who had property or families near British strongholds suffered.

Francis Lewis, New York delegate, saw his home plundered and his estates, in what is now Harlem, completely destroyed by British soldiers. Mrs. Lewis was captured and treated with great brutality. Though she was later exchanged for two British prisoners through the efforts of Congress, she died from the effects of her abuse.

William Floyd, another New York delegate, was able to escape with his wife and children across Long Island Sound to Connecticut, where they lived as refugees without income for seven years. When they came home, they found a devastated ruin.

Phillips Livingstone had all his great holdings in New York confiscated and his family driven out of their home. Livingstone died in 1778 still working in Congress for the cause.

Louis Morris, the fourth New York delegate, saw all his timber, crops and livestock taken. For seven years he was barred from his home and family.

John Hart of Trenton, New Jersey, risked his life to return home to see his dying wife. Hessian soldiers rode after him, and he escaped in the woods. While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined his farm and wrecked his homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods as he was hunted across the countryside. When at long last, emaciated by hardship, he was able to sneak home, he found his wife had already been buried, and his 13 children taken away. He never saw them again. He died a broken man in 1779, without ever finding his family.

Dr. John Witherspoon, signer, was president of the College of New Jersey, later called Princeton. The British occupied the town of Princeton, and billeted troops in the college. They trampled and burned the finest college library in the country.

Judge Richard Stockton, another New Jersey delegate signer, had rushed back to his estate in an effort to evacuate his wife and children. The family found refuge with friends, but a sympathizer betrayed them. Judge Stockton was pulled from bed in the night and brutally beaten by the arresting soldiers. Thrown into a common jail, he was deliberately starved. Congress finally arranged for Stockton's parole, but his health was ruined. The
judge was released as an invalid, when he could no longer harm the British cause. He returned home to find his estate looted and did not live to see the triumph of the revolution. His family was forced to live off charity.

Robert Morris, merchant prince of Philadelphia, delegate and signer, met Washington's appeals and pleas for money year after year. He made and raised arms and provisions which made it possible for Washington to cross the Delaware at Trenton. In the process he lost 150 ships at sea, bleeding his own fortune and credit almost dry.

George Clymer, Pennsylvania signer, escaped with his family from their home, but their property was completely destroyed by the British in the Germantown and Brandywine campaigns.

Dr. Benjamin Rush, also from Pennsylvania, was forced to flee to Maryland. As a heroic surgeon with the army, Rush had several narrow escapes.

John Morton, a Tory in his views previous to the debate, lived in a strongly loyalist area of Pennsylvania. When he came out for independence, most of his neighbors and even some of his relatives ostracized him. He was a sensitive and troubled man, and many believed this action killed him. When he died in 1777, his last words to his tormentors were, "Tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it (the signing) to have been the most glorious service that I rendered to my country."

William Ellery, Rhode Island delegate, saw his property and home burned to the ground.

Thomas Lynch, Jr., South Carolina delegate, had his health broken from privation and exposures while serving as a company commander in the military. His doctors ordered him to seek a cure in the West Indies and on the voyage he and his young bride were drowned at sea.

Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward Jr. the other three South Carolina signers, were taken by the British in the siege of Charleston. They were carried as prisoners of war to St. Augustine, Fla., where they were singled out for indignities. They were exchanged at the end of the war, the British in the meantime having completely devastated their large land holdings and estates.

Thomas Nelson, signer of Virginia, was at the front in command of the Virginia military forces. With British General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown, fire from 70 heavy American guns began to destroy Yorktown piece by piece. Lord Cornwallis and his staff moved their headquarters into Nelson's palatial home. While American cannonballs were making a shambles of the town, the house of Governor Nelson remained untouched. Nelson turned in rage to the American gunners and asked, "Why do you spare my home?" They replied, "Sir, out of respect to you." Nelson cried, "Give me the cannon!" and fired on his magnificent home himself, smashing it to bits. But Nelson's sacrifice was not quite over. He had raised $2 million for the Revolutionary cause by pledging his own estates. When the loans came due, a newer peacetime Congress refused to honor them, and Nelson's property was forfeited. He was never reimbursed. He died, impoverished, a few years later at the age of 50.

Lives, fortunes, honor

Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create, is still intact.

And, finally, there is the New Jersey signer, Abraham Clark.

He gave two sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary Army. They were captured and sent to the infamous British prison hulk afloat in New York harbor known as the hell ship "Jersey," where 11,000 American captives were to die. The younger Clarks were treated with a special brutality because of their father. One was put in solitary and given no food. With the end almost in sight, with the war almost won, no one could have blamed Abraham Clark for acceding to the British request when they offered him his sons' lives if he would recant and come out for the king and parliament. The utter despair in this man's heart, the anguish in his very soul, must reach out to each one of us down through 200 years with his answer: "No."

The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence proved by their every deed that they made no idle boast when they composed the most magnificent curtain line in history. "And for the support of this Declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."
 

Rush H. Limbaugh II is the father of Rush Limbaugh, notable Excellence in Broadcast radio talk show host.

© 2000 Rush H. Limbaugh II

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Essays on the Crucial Right of Self Defense

Treasonous and Unconstitutional Legislation

Treasonous and unconstitutional legislation by our elected officials has placed millions of men, women and children in jeopardy!    By Sergei Borglum Hoff; former law enforcement officer.
 

Questions regarding the right of self-defense were resolved at the time the Second Amendment, principal defender of our Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15th, 1791. Accordingly, law and commonsense should render further discussion respecting the absolutes of self-defense as unwarranted. However, as this fundamental right is now under a vicious attack by Socialist activism, a plan of rational reaction is in order.

To the men and women who are outraged by the incremental theft of their cherished liberties, this essay will be of interest. Some, who are well-meaning yet clearly misinformed might also profit by proceeding. For the others who are indifferent, faint of heart or content with the social engineering of their lives by an oppressive nanny-state, they will not benefit by reading further. Because of an inability to direct and accept responsibility for their own lives, these individuals have by now blended into the flock heading toward the precipice. Until the grazing meadows of sweet-grass are taken from them, they will not stray.

The Constitution was conceived for the enumeration of legitimate authority and limitations of federal government, states and the people. Justly restrained, government has no constitutional authority, in any degree or manner, to infringe upon our inalienable, Second Amendment rights of self-protection.

Whether or not the majority of citizens believe in the right of the people (individuals) to keep and bear arms is irrelevant to the application of constitutional law. Intentionally disregarding degrees of social and political popularity, the Constitution equally protects the rights of every individual. Like it or not, this is a nation of laws and not men. We do not consider the political correctness of "Socialism" (endorsed by liberal Democrats and many so-called moderate Republicans) or polls of public opinion in order to determine which inalienable, constitutional rights government shall permit the people to exercise. We are dependent upon "Constitutional Law" for such judgments. Not any individual or faction has ever been blessed with the luxury of picking and choosing which "Article or Amendment" is more convenient and adaptable to their self-serving needs. The Constitution must be accepted logically, with honesty and in its entirety.

Federal court decision: "A state cannot impose a license, tax or fee on a constitutionally protected right. Murdock vs. Pennsylvania 319 US 105 (1942)." For those who rely on law and commonsense, the possession of firearms is clearly "a constitutionally protected right". Regardless of this truth, most states require a citizen to pay a "fee" (registration or background check "fee") in order to obtain a "license" (concealed carry "license") before keeping and/or bearing a firearm. And, a federal and/or state "tax" (firearms and ammunitions sales "tax" or machine gun "tax" collected by the BATF) is always levied at the time of firearm transaction.

Supreme Court decision: The U.S. Supreme Court broadly and unequivocally held that requiring licensing or registration of any constitutional right is itself unconstitutional. --Follett vs. Town of McCormick, S.C., 321 U.S. 573 [1944] This rather settles the question concerning the unconstitutionality of licensing, taxation or registration of a constitutional right.

NOTE: "Webster's University Dictionary - Infringed: 1. To violate or go beyond the limits of (e.g., a law). 2. To break (a law or agreement); fail to observe the terms of: violate. 3. To defeat: invalidate. - To encroach upon something. Infringement: 1. A violation, as of a law or agreement. 2. An encroachment, as of a privilege or right". Old Noah Webster must have experienced a prophetic dream prior to publishing these definitions.

Unrelentingly, armed lawful men and women are harassed beyond reason and commonsense with infringing, illogical and asinine gun control laws (forbidding self-defense). In their incremental efforts to abolish all guns, our corrupted government and dishonorable politicians are doing precisely what the Constitution forbids. If the 20,000 (plus) federal and state gun laws (fact) do not flawlessly illustrate Webster's definition of infringed, then no other repressive or invading action will. Within the world of authenticity, our gun laws remain as insidious acts of infringement and severe violations of constitutional law. These unconstitutional legislative and judicial illegalities represent direct and treasonous assaults upon the men, women and children of this nation and our sovereign "Constitutional Republic".

The Second Amendment has been assailed on countless occasions. Mesmerized by visions of United Nations utopianism (world government), our sovereign government refuses obedience to constitutional law. Contemptuously, legislators defile constitutional principles with blatant violations of the most fundamental commandment, "the right of the people (people = persons = individuals, never defined as a state) to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".

Contrary to "Socialist" propaganda, our Founding Fathers did not place limitations on the possession of arms - "(after receiving a concealed weapons permit) the right (limited by 20,000 state and federal gun laws) of the people to keep (inside their perilously unhandy gun safes) and bear arms (of specific description and registered with the Department of Justice and equipped with trigger safety locks, rendering the weapon useless for self-protection) shall not be infringed (unless feel-good solutions, opinion polls and Congress deem additional oppressive and unrealistic restrictions appropriate to their self-serving political needs)".

As a former law enforcement officer of many years, I can state with credibility that guns save innocent lives far more often than they kill. Law enforcement documentation also indicates that there are over two million lives saved by guns each year (facts, never disclosed in the local or national media). In opposition to this truth, I have heard many anti self-defense advocates say that they only want "reasonable restrictions" on gun ownership. That is of course, "for the sake of our children". My question is, does the number of 20,000 standing gun control laws appear to be "reasonable restrictions" to anyone other than a deceitful politician or an imbecile?

Each day, they rape the Constitution and molest our inalienable rights. Our disingenuous Legislators and Supreme Court Justices belittle and dishonor the memory, intent and integrity of our Founding Fathers. These self perceived ethical scholars of law have bastardized the Constitution with their convoluted and ambiguous interpretations of our unequivocal "Bill of Rights". Virtue by virtue, liberty by liberty, our Constitutional Republic is being systematically eroded away. It is they who are the most corrupting of outlaws!

The germane question is, would the peoples of China, Cuba, Nazi Germany (Holocaust survivors know the answer), Soviet Russia, Kosovo, Chechnya and so on, have become victims of rape, torture and genocide, had the citizenry been well prepared with handguns and assault weapons (the real thing, fully automatic) for self-defense? With adequate weaponry at hand, along with an appropriately defensive attitude, the numbers of casualties certainly would not have counted into the millions.

Unarmed, we are all vulnerable to tyranny. In truth, it is occurring to this day. Irrespective of ongoing government attempts at deception (BATF and FBI), the federally sanctioned mass murder of over eighty men, women and children (shot or burned to death) at Waco and a young innocent boy (shot in the back) along with his infant bearing mother (shot in the face while nursing her baby) at Ruby Ridge, should serve as profound examples demanding a well-armed citizenry. As a consequence of militarism (utilizing such equipment as machine guns and tanks, designed for global warfare, not assaults on U.S. civilians), now being discovered within the ranks of our federal, state and local police forces, freedom-inspired armed citizens must hold these audacious agencies in check. Street-wise criminals and the insane are not the only threatening elements within our society requiring constant vigilance and preparedness. Dismissing firm and decisive actions to rectify government atrocities assures us of further tyranny. Refusing to defend self and family by the most effective means possible is not only an omission of unnatural cowardice, but such inaction demeans God's gift of life.

Demand from your legislators that they cease their unconstitutional assaults on the American people. If your elected officials refused to obey and defend the Constitution of the United States then vote them out of office as traitors, for they are nothing less. Elected and appointed officials who, with intent, actively attempt to subvert the Constitution of the United States must be impeached, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned for acts of high treason against the people of this nation. Contemplation of leniency for crimes of such far-reaching and destructive consequences is unconscionable.

Self explanatory: In 1856, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that local law enforcement had no duty to protect individuals but only a general duty to enforce the laws. South vs. Maryland, 59 US (HOW) 396, 15 L. Ed. 433 (1856). A U. S. Federal Appeals Court declared in 1982, "There is no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals or madmen." Bowers vs. devot, U. S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit 686 F. 2d 616 (1982).

Make no mistake! Anyone, regardless of ignorance or intent, who deprives you of the means or ability to defend the lives of yourself and family is your enemy and must be consciously and continuously perceived as such. All anti self-defense activists are as deadly a threat to you and your family as any uncontrolled violent criminal or psychopath. Their actions contributing to the same result, government along with many politicians (Clinton, Gore, Schumer, Feinstein, Laudenberg, Kennedy, Daschel, on and on) and street-wise criminals must all be held accountable for the thousands of men, women and children whose lives are lost to felonious assaults each year.

Because of their ceaseless and malicious distortion of gun related facts, many members of the liberal news media are morally responsible for these horrific losses. Knowing full well that women are far more vulnerable than men to violent assault, the feminist movement (NOW) is quite negligent by refusing to encourage the arming of their supporters for self-defense. If they were sincere in their concern for the welfare of women they would certainly do so. If recorded on paper, acts of hypocrisy by the ACLU would fill volumes.

How many elected officials venture outdoors without the security of an armed bodyguard standing at their side? Are any of their lives more valuable than your own? Can you afford to retain the same quality of protection for yourself and family? Dialing 911 will not assure your safety. Although in most cases they are willing to assist, police usually provide an after-the-incident response. After the damage is done, they will always be there to investigate your homicide or rape.

Bureaucrats defiantly and unconstitutionally refuse to permit all honest citizens from exercising the "First Law of Nature" (self-defense). Covertly, government is aiding and abetting the most sadistic malcontents of humanity, the psychopaths and violent criminals within this nation. Indeed, along with President Clinton and his appointed scoundrels, the blood is also on the hands of many other elected officials. Not only have they violated their oaths of office but actively subvert the Constitution of the United States.

Our Founding Fathers did not endure the abuses of a tyrannical government (England) and learn nothing. Their goal was not to create a document of government sanctioned privileges, to be allotted out by contemporary miscreants in office. Ingeniously, they instead provided us with the "Bill of Rights" which is intended to limit government. Not the people! They protect our Creator-bestowed rights and further affirm the "First Law of Nature". Without question, our elected officials have illegally far exceeded the authority of their office.

The establishment of our Constitution demanded a display of courage and independence by a well armed citizenry. Its continued integrity will necessitate the same. Look around you. Be observant! Question all actions of government and propaganda by the biased news media (dependent on distortions and sensationalism for high ratings rather than facts). Our freedoms remain in peril to this day. It will require more than indifference, complacency or fear to sustain your liberties.

As for myself, I am an ordinary, lawful American citizen who has witnessed for the past thirty years, the systematic, ruthless and devastating erosion of our liberties by a government behaving in an unconstitutional and corrupt manner. The bottom line is that I shall not tolerate further infringements on my inalienable rights. Coexisting in harmony with liberty, my Second Amendment rights are not to be compromised. Regarding independence of thought and action, I have never pledged fidelity to any militant cause, religious doctrine or political party. I will, however, defend with dedication and ferocity the principles and intent behind the United States Constitution. I am a former Deputy Sheriff and have participated in hundreds of criminal investigations including armed robbery, felonious assault, homicide, rape and child abuse. Having tired of the despair related to this profession, with pleasure, I now indulge in the sculpting of wildlife, nudes and portraiture.

My final question is, when will "WE THE PEOPLE" of this nation awaken to reality and reclaim our constitutional authority? Without detour, we are rapidly approaching the point of no return. Do give it some thought!

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."   ---Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

Sergei Borglum Hoff     sparwood@earthlink.net

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We should not let the hoopla associated with the Million Mom March cause us to lose sight of the real purpose and meaning behind the Second Amendment: the ability to protect ourselves from the tyranny of our own government.

Virtually all the arguments in the gun-control debate have revolved around gun violence in American society. The proponents of registration, licensing, waiting periods, gun buy-backs, and even gun confiscation aim to rid our society of gun-related deaths.

But as their opponents have so ably pointed out, the means that the advocates of gun control are advocating are not likely to achieve their ends. People who violate laws against violence are not likely to feel constrained by gun-control laws. And people who do obey the gun-control laws are going to be less able to defend themselves against those who don't obey the laws.

Moreover, there is no reason to believe that a war on guns will rid American society of guns any more than that war on drugs has eradicated drugs from our society. Those who wish to purchase illegal guns will be able to do so on the black market as easily as they purchase drugs on the black market.

Thus, the ultimate consequence of gun control would be a society in which violent antisocial people are armed while peaceful, law-abiding people are disarmed. Of course, that's a prescription for disaster for those who are disarmed.

But despite its obvious importance, being able to protect oneself from murderers, thieves, robbers, burglars, and the like is not why the people of the United States enacted the Second Amendment to the Constitution in 1791. The true purpose of the amendment -- one that modern-day Americans forget at their peril -- was to protect us not from private thugs but rather from government ones.

Don't forget that revolutions are, by their very nature, wars against one's own government. Keep in mind that when George Washington and Thomas Jefferson revolted against England in 1776, they were British, not American, citizens. At various times throughout history, people have taken up arms against their own government because of what they considered to be nasty and brutal acts that their own officials had committed against them.

Historically, the biggest threat to the freedom and well-being of a people has lain not with some foreign government but rather with one's own government. And as Thomas Jefferson pointed out in the Declaration of Independence, if a government "crosses the line" by engaging in overly tyrannical conduct against its own citizens, it is the right of the people to meet force with force, even to the point of violent revolution.

Resistance to tyranny and violent revolution, however, require an essential ingredient -- weapons. In the absence of weapons, there is only one course of action in the face of government brutality -- obedience. A disarmed society is an obedient society, a society in which, at the extreme, people obey their own government's orders to follow the line into the gas chambers.

This point was recently reflected by what Fidel Castro said about the U.S. government's raid on the home of the Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez. He commented that his forces would not need to be armed to conduct a similar raid in Cuba because Cuban citizens are not permitted to own guns. What he failed to say, of course, is that because of gun control, the Cuban people also lack the means to overthrow the gun-toting communist thugs who rule over them.

 "But in America, our leaders are democratically elected. We are the government. There's nothing to fear here." But given the proper circumstances, a democratically elected government can be even more tyrannical than a totalitarian one. Remember: the very purpose of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is to protect us from our own democratically elected government officials!

When citizens are well-armed, government officials must think twice before going too far down the road to tyranny against its citizenry. Thus, the right to bear arms protected by the Second Amendment is the best insurance policy that the American people could have against tyranny.

Mr. Hornberger is president of The Future of Freedom Foundation in Fairfax, Va. (www.fff.org) and co-editor of The Tyranny of Gun Control.

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by Liz Michael       June 14, 2000

Americans of all politics are going to be faced with a very clear dilemma. In the not too distant future, they will probably be forced to take sides in a revolution against the central government of the nation. And they're going to have to learn how to get out of the way of a civil war.

Government should be "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed", but take a look at the nation today and tell me with a straight face that this is the case. How long has that "train of abuses and usurpations" become? How much have we been "reduced under absolute despotism"? How many "multitudes of new offices", sending "swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance" are there  oday? Truthfully, we are more enslaved today than we were in colonial times.

The Declaration of Independence has never been repealed. It plainly states that it is "the right of people to alter or to abolish" the government. This is something you will see within the next 10 to 20 years. It will not happen in a far off land, but among your very homes. Your children will learn of it with their own eyes. And in today's electronic world, the whole world will be watching. This revolution SHALL be televised.

And when the tyrants come... and history, if it shows nothing else, shows that the tyrants will always eventually come, what then will you do? And what should you do NOW to prepare for that day?

So You Wanna Be A Hero

Maybe there are dreams dancing in your head about doing what Timothy McVeigh did, only with less damage to human life, maybe a nice IRS building in the middle of the night or something. Maybe you think one brazen, explosive act, timed at the right instant, will spark a revolution which will restore our Consititutional republic, an act which people will, in future textbooks, regard as "heroic".

Get over it. McVeigh didn't blow up the Murrah Building all by himself. He was brainwashed by operatives in the government to participate, be there, and take the fall. His single van COULDN'T have caused that level of damage. Very probably, you will never be in such a position to do such an act, unless you're an operative of the government.

Nor should you. Such acts are usually seen as direct attacks against the American people. You do not want to do things which may seem spectacular, but won't be well received. Remember, we're opposing tyrannical, out of control, governments. We're not opposing America, we're defending America, and her people.

Lay the Foundation

You REALLY want to do something for the revolution? You REALLY want to engage in overt and covert acts which will eventually restore the Constitutional government of the United States? You can. And it's relatively easy: anyone can do it.

Lay the foundation for the revolution. There are several building blocks upon which any successful revolution will be built. They are not dramatic. They do not involve drawing attention to yourself. But they are critical to the restoration of our freedoms. And they are things YOU can do. Begin laying these foundations now.

First Order: Buy Guns

The first order I am giving you as the de facto revolutionary commander is, buy guns.

It doesn't really matter which guns: handguns, hunting rifles, long range rifles, shotguns, antiques....any and all will do. It doesn't really matter the premise. The only qualification is, buy arms which can be fired, and arms for which ammunition can be easily acquired or made. If you're poor, get cheap guns if you have to. Make sure you get the proper ammo for them.

Do it now! Do it while you can, and do it while it is still legal for you to do. In many states, such as California, where oppressive gun laws are likely to increase, time is of the essence in stocking up. And in places like New York, where house to house searches have sporadically begun over licensed firearms, you're probably going to have to break New York state law. I'll explain later why, even if you're law-abiding, breaking the law may actually be called for.

"Why guns, Liz?"

Right now, an estimated 240 million firearms are owned by 83 million Americans. The most important thing you can do, either FOR the revolution, or for self-defense during the chaos, is to make sure that those 83 million Americans CONTINUE to have ownership of firearms. And to increase their number. That's why YOU should buy guns. I could give you hundreds of reasons but let me give you just a handful.

Operatives within the various governments will do something....cause a catastrophe, an emergency, or something, or take advantage of a naturally occuring situation, which will require a form of national martial law. Possibly elections would be suspended, or rigged. And the only thing standing between success and failure of such a government takeover is a modern American revolutionary army.

You won't have to cause the chaos. You won't have to fire the first shot. The chaos will likely be caused by government operatives in order to enhance and increase their power. Already, the Federal Emergency Management Adminstration has plans on the drawing board to rule under regional martial law.

"But that CAN'T happen here!"

It already IS happening here. The various components of federal land grabs in the West, done without the support of the local residents, the states, or even the Congress, to which the response has been the so-dubbed "Western Rebellion". The increase of forfeiture without trial, blantantly an unconstitutional act. The Internal Revenue Service's own brand of "guilty until proven innocent" justice and the many many government agencies which have followed its example. Illegal strip searches of mostly black women at Chicago's airports.

And it's not just federal government agencies. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer already has plans on the drawing board to do a house to house search for the first registered and now banned SKS rifle. New York State has officials out looking for the licensed weapons of people who die, and whose heirs fail to reregister or surrender the weapons. New York City police have done periodic house to house searches for firearms already under Mayor Giuliani.

So it already is happening here. In reality, the first shots have already been fired. We already have our Crispus Attucks in the form of the Weaver family. We already have our Patrick Henry in the form of 88 Seventh-Day Adventists at Waco. We, in point of fact, already have a set of governments, that in terms of taxation and regulation, are FAR MORE OPPRESSIVE to the people than the British were. The rebellion is the only thing left to fulfill.

"But rebels couldn't withstand the massive firepower of the U. S. Government!"

The sheer numbers of firearms in the hands of the American public would have made the American commanders in Vietnam quake in their boots. Most of it is pretty sophisticated stuff. The average hunter could give a platoon of regular troops more grief than they want.

The potential recruitment population for a modern American revolutionary army would be 150 million, compared to a maximum of 2 million government troops. Millions of these are people with military or law enforcement training. And it's not just the arms: it's the vehicles and the technology. A modern revolutionary army would be one of the most numerous, best trained, best armed, most mobile, and most high tech, probably in the history of the world.

And the government forces would use their high tech stuff on whom? Who do they drop bombs on? Which recruits will be counted on to obey the orders that bomb their home cities, or the homes of their fellow platoon members. How many of those troops will be willing to die for a government run amok? And possibly kill their friends and families for it?

The Real Agenda Of Gun Control

This is the real intent of gun control: to neutralize that 83 million gun owner army. To make its weapons difficult to purchase, and easy to confiscate. It isn't about criminals. Janet Reno has only prosecuted 4 people under the Brady laws out of thousands of people having "illegally" applied to buy a firearm.

And keep in mind, that at the same time these people want to take our guns, they also want to restrict our automobiles. Al Gore himself said he wanted to do away with the internal combustion engine by 2010. And there is a bevy of new law also directed at restricting our movement, and regulating many of our automobiles out of existence, under the guise of "pollution standards" and "urban planning".

Together with real property, guns and automobiles are the prime targets of laws permitting confiscation. This is not an accident. And it is not because these things are the most valuable, because they are not. This is planned for the stated purpose, to prevent the revolutionary army from forming, and to make it more difficult for the American people to rebel against government.

Add to this, the attack against our children with a disshelved public school system, and a coming war against home schooling by the education establishment. This completes the trifecta against the American people: disarm them, keep them stupid, make them less mobile, and establish full government control of their lives, even of their own families.

This is why you as a patriotic American, have as your first assignment, should you choose to accept it: to prevent the disarmament of the 83 million law-abiding Americans, and to increase their number. Yes, being part of the political process is important. Fighting unconstitutional gun laws is important. But it's not actually as important as making sure Americans actually maintain possession of their firearms, whether that possession technically violates the law or not.

"But I don't wanna keep guns in my house!"

Get over it. If you're worried about your kids getting into your firearms, lock them away, hide them, keep the ammo separate from the firearms. Put trigger locks on them if you feel you must. (None of which I advise if you have firearms for self-defense.) But get them.

One of these days the revolution will happen. It will happen to you regardless of whether you want it or not. Which brings me to the second reason to arm for the revolution: without an armed populace of law-abiding citizens, lawlessness will abound. Criminals will never give up their guns. If war breaks out, you and your family will be at the mercy of government thugs or criminal thugs, and you will not be protected.

You will be robbed. If you are a woman, you will be raped, as will any of your daughters. You will not be able to wave pieces of paper at them, and the police will not come to rescue you. Read what is happening in Yugoslavia, when the people don't have the arms to protect themselves against criminals or hostile troops. Better yet, read what happens in Central Park in the most tyrannical (and disarmed) city in the nation. If you love yourself, and if you love your family, you will not allow this to happen to you and them by being disarmed.

But there's something even more important than that. When the revolution happens, the forces who will win the revolution are the ones who are best armed, best trained, and best strategized, in the greatest numbers. The people who disarm themselves will be powerless to oppose whatever should happen, or whoever shall seek to oppress them. Nothing illustrates this better than modern day Russia, where organized crime is the strongest in the world.

Sell Guns, Give Guns, Loan Guns

Most Americans can legally buy and sell weapons amongst one another, and give or loan them to friends and family. For the most part, the only people under mandate to file transfer paperwork are Federal Firearms License dealers, except in states such as California, New York, Massachussetts, Michigan and Maryland. .

FFL's [Federal Firearms License holders] put up with all the regulation to make a profit by selling to the general public. I am not encouraging you to sell guns for a profit, although if you can, more power to you. I am encouraging you to sell guns and give them away to preserve freedom. A caution here: you should look at your local laws to determine if you have to file any transfer paperwork. If it is easy, my advice is to do it. If it is not easy, use your judgment at the time. Of course you never want to give or loan a firearm to anyone whom you do not implicitly trust with your life.

Never turn over firearms to be destroyed

I cannot emphasize enough the need to never, ever, willfully take a working firearm out of circulation. Sell it to someone. Sell it on the free market. It is perfectly legal to do, and you will likely make a greater profit on the open market than in some government buyback scheme. If you don't want it, keep it alive. Don't turn it in to be destroyed. Some American needs it.

This is a message that the usual targets of buyback schemes, the predominantly minority communities, especially need to hear. Historically, owning a gun was evidence that one was a free man or woman. It was illegal for slaves to own guns, and most gun control laws ever passed in this country were aimed at keeping firarms out of the hands of Negroes. If you are able to own a firearm in this world, you are a free person. If you are fully dependent on others for your defense, you are a slave.

How Should You Handle The Authorities?

The best way to handle the authorities now is to never take them on directly. Don't treat them hostily. Befriend them when you can. Some of you perhaps see some of these folks as the enemy. They may or may not be. But when the revolution happens, it may very well be a local police officer, or a few federal civil servants, who stand with us.

Don't openly violate laws. Don't do drugs. Don't drink and drive. Don't steal. Only take marijuana if it is a medical necessity for you. It is important for you, now more than ever, to be a law-abiding citizen in as many other ways as possible. Don't ever give law enforcement other valid, non-political reasons to arrest you.

But understand this: constitutionally no law of the United States, or a separate state or locality, is actually legal, if it infringes upon the right to keep and bear arms in any way. There is no provision for registration. There is no provision for excluding even criminals from firearms ownership, believe it or not. The right is broad and absolute.

There will be government officers telling you otherwise. But you are not breaking the law through promoting firearms ownership. The GOVERNMENT is breaking the law by violating the Supreme Law of the land, the Constitution of the United States. And if we are to make other people believe it, we will have to begin to act like it.

I know many of you want to assert that you have the freedom to do just about anything you so choose so long as you don't hurt others. I don't dispute you for a minute. But while we are in this struggle for freedom, we need to be prudent and not foolish. After the revolution, when the Constitutional government is restored, and the oppressive government is rooted out, all these rights may be reestablished. But for now, we need to be able to defend what we do IN COURT if apprehended , so if we pick methods to rebel, we ought to choose clearly constitutionally enshrined means of rebellion. Nothing fits that more than the freedom of speech and of assembly and of the press, which the internet is, and the right to keep and bear arms.

"But I pray it never comes to this!"

I don't fear a revolution. A lot of people do. I don't. It would set the record straight and clean out a lot of the crap this government has set up, and it will additionally inspire other revolutionary actions against other tyrants around the world. The right people have the weapons, the numbers, the training, the strategy, and the will.

Already this very week, a federal "anti-terrorism" force is being formed in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the grounds that there are, in their words, "too many militias" in the region. Do any of you know what the unorganized militia of the United States is? Why, that's you and me! Check your U.S. Code.

Make no mistake. The government of the United States is planning to go to war with its citizens. It will fall to the citizens to have to defend America against its own oppressive government. I have very little doubt that it will not come to that. The whole world will be watching what we do.
 

Copyright, 2000,    LizMichael.com  www.lizmichael.com

Permission to reprint granted so long as the website and the copyright remains referenced. No exclusivity may be retained by any individual or press entity which reprints.

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[  Great essay, Liz.  ]

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Copyrighted by Claire Wolfe

Date: 8 Sep 2000
 

Let me run by you a brief list of items that are "the law" in America today. As you read, consider what all these have in common.

1. A national database of employed people.

2. 100 pages of new "health care crimes," for which the penalty is (among other things) seizure of assets from both doctors and patients.

3. Confiscation of assets from any American who establishes foreign citizenship.

4. The largest gun confiscation act in U.S. history—which is also an unconstitutional ex post facto law and the first law ever to remove people's constitutional rights for committing a misdemeanor.

5. A law banning guns in ill-defined school zones; random roadblocks may be used for enforcement; gun-bearing residents could become federal criminals just by stepping outside their doors or getting into vehicles.

6. Increased funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, an agency infamous for its brutality, dishonesty and ineptitude.

7. A law enabling the executive branch to declare various groups "Terrorists" — without stating any reason and without the possibility of appeal. Once a group has been so declared, its mailing and membership lists must be turned over to the government.

8. A law authorizing secret trials with secret evidence for certain classes of people.

9. A law requiring that all states begin issuing drivers licenses carrying Social Security numbers and "security features" (such as magnetically coded fingerprints and personal records) by October 1, 2000. By October 1, 2006, "Neither the Social Security Administration or the Passport Office or any other Federal agency or any State or local government agency may accept for any evidentiary purpose a State driver's license or identification document in a form other than [one issued with a verified Social Security number and 'security features']."

10. And my personal favorite national database, now being constructed, that will contain every exchange and observation that takes place in your doctor's office. This includes records of your prescriptions, your hemorrhoids and your mental illness. It also includes—by law—any statements you make ("Doc, I'm worried my kid may be on drugs.... Doc, I've been so stressed out lately I feel about ready to go postal.") and any observations your doctor makes about your mental or physical condition, whether accurate or not, whether made with your knowledge or not. For the time being, there will be zero (count 'em, zero) privacy safeguards on this data. But don't worry, your government will protect you with some undefined "privacy standards" in a few years.

All of the above items are the law of the land. Federal law. What else do they have in common?

Well, when I ask this question to audiences, I usually get the answer, "They're all unconstitutional."

True.

My favorite answer came from an eloquent college student who blurted, "They all SUUUCK!"

Also true.

But the saddest and most telling answer is: They were all the product of the 104th Congress. Every one of the horrors above was imposed upon you by the Congress of the Republican- Revolution—the Congress that pledged to "get government off your back."

BURYING TIME BOMBS

All of the above became law by being buried in larger bills. In many cases, they are hidden sneak attacks upon individual liberties that were neither debated on the floor of Congress nor reported in the media. For instance, three of the most horrific items (the health care database, asset confiscation for foreign residency and the 100 pages of health care crimes) were hidden in the Kennedy-Kassebaum Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HR 3103).

You didn't hear about them at the time because the media was too busy celebrating this moderate, compromise bill that "simply" ensured that no American would ever lose insurance coverage due to a job change or a Pre-existing condition.

Your legislator may not have heard about them, either. Because he or she didn't care enough to do so. The fact is, most legislators don't even read the laws they inflict upon the public. They read the title of the bill (which may be something like "The Save the Sweet Widdle Babies from Gun Violence by Drooling Drug Fiends Act of 1984"). They read summaries, which are often prepared by the very agencies or groups pushing the bill. And they vote according to various deals or pressures.

It also sometimes happens that the most horrible provisions are sneaked into bills during conference committee negotiations, after both House and Senate have voted on their separate versions of the bills. The conference committee process is supposed simply to reconcile differences between two versions of a bill. But power brokers use it for purposes of their own, adding what they wish.  Then members of the House and Senate vote on the final, unified version of the bill, often in a great rush, and often without even having the amended text available for review.

I have even heard (though I cannot verify) that stealth provisions were written into some bills after all the voting has taken place. Someone with a hidden agenda simply edits them in to suit his or her own purposes. So these time bombs become "law" without ever having been voted on by anybody.

And who's to know? If congress people don't even read legislation before they vote on it, why would they bother reading it afterward? Are power brokers capable of such chicanery? Do we even need to ask? Is the computer system in which bills are stored vulnerable to tampering by people within or outside of Congress? We certainly should ask. Whether your legislators were ignorant of the infamy they were perpetrating, or whether they knew, one thing is absolutely certain:

The Constitution, your legislator's oath to it, and your inalienable rights (which precede the Constitution) never entered into anyone's consideration. Ironically, you may recall that one of the early pledges of Newt Gingrich and Company was to stop these stealth attacks. Very early in the 104th Congress, the Republican leadership declared that, henceforth, all bills would deal only with the subject matter named in the title of the bill. When, at the beginning of the first session of the 104th, pro-gun Republicans attempted to attach a repeal of the "assault weapons" ban to another bill, House leaders dismissed their amendment as not being "germane." After that self-righteous and successful attempt to prevent pro-freedom stealth legislation, Congress people turned right around and got back to the dirty old business of practicing all the anti-freedom stealth they were capable of.

STEALTH ATTACKS IN BROAD DAYLIGHT

Three other items on my list (ATF funding, gun confiscation and school zone roadblocks) were also buried in a big bill — HR 3610, the budget appropriation passed near the end of the second session of the 104th Congress. No legislator can claim to have been unaware of these three because they were brought to public attention by gun-rights groups and hotly debated in both Congress and the media. Yet some 90 percent of all congress people voted for them including many who claim to be ardent protectors of the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Why?

Well, in the case of my wrapped-in-the-flag, allegedly pro- gun, Republican congressperson: "Bill Clinton made me do it!"

Okay, I paraphrase. What she actually said was more like, "It was part of a budget appropriations package. The public got mad at us for shutting the government down in 1994. If we hadn't voted for this budget bill, they might have elected a Democratic legislature in 1996—and you wouldn't want THAT, would you?" Oh heavens, no I'd much rather be enslaved by people who spell their name with an R than people who spell their name with a D. Makes all the difference in the world!

HOW SNEAK ATTACKS ARE JUSTIFIED

The Republicans are fond of claiming that Bill Clinton "forced" them to pass certain legislation by threatening to veto anything they sent to the White House that didn't meet his specs. In other cases (as with the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill), they proudly proclaim their misdeeds in the name of bipartisanship—while carefully forgetting to mention the true nature of what they're doing. In still others, they trumpet their triumph over the evil Democrats and claim the mantle of limited government while sticking it to us and to the Constitution. The national database of workers was in the welfare reform bill they "forced" Clinton to accept. The requirement for SS numbers and ominous "security" devices on drivers licenses originated in their very own Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1996, HR 2202. Another common trick, called to my attention by Redmon Barbry, publisher of the electronic magazine Fratricide, is to hide duplicate or near-duplicate provisions in several bills. Then, when the Supreme Court declares Section A of Law Z to be -unconstitutional, its kissing cousin, Section B of Law Y, remains to rule us.

Sometimes this particular form of trickery is done even more brazenly; when the Supreme Court, in its Lopez decision, declared federal-level school zone gun bans unconstitutional because Congress demonstrated no jurisdiction, Congress brassily changed a few words. They claimed that school zones fell under the heading of "interstate commerce." Then they sneaked the provision into HR 3610, where it became "law" once again. When angry voters upbraid congress people about some Big Brotherish horror they've inflicted upon the country by stealth, they claim lack of knowledge, lack of time, party pressure, public pressure, or they justify themselves by claiming that the rest of the bill was "good".

The simple fact is that, regardless of what reasons legislators may claim, the U.S. Congress has passed more Big Brother legislation in the last two years—more laws to enable tracking, spying and controlling—than any Democratic congress ever passed. And they have done it, in large part, in secret. Redmon Barbry put it best: "We the people have the right to expect our elected representatives to read, comprehend and master the bills they vote on. If this means Congress passes only 50 bills per session instead of 5,000, so be it. As far as I am concerned, whoever subverts this process is committing treason." By whatever means the deed is done, there is no acceptable excuse for voting against the Constitution, voting for tyranny. And I would add to Redmon's comments: Those who do read the bills, then knowingly vote to ravage our liberties, are doubly guilty. But when do the treason trials begin?

BILLS AS WINDOW DRESSING FOR AN UGLY AGENDA

The truth is that these tiny, buried provisions are often the real intent of the law, and that the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pages that surround them are sometimes nothing more than elaborate window dressing. These tiny time bombs are placed there at the behest of federal police agencies or other power groups whose agenda is not clearly visible to us. And their impact is felt long after the outward intent of the bill has been forgotten.

Civil forfeiture—now one of the plagues of the nation was first introduced in the 1970s as one of those buried, almost unnoticed provisions of a larger law. One wonders why on earth a "health care bill" carried a provision to confiscate the assets of people who become frightened or discouraged enough to leave the country. (In fact, the entire bill was an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code. Go figure.)

I think we all realize by now that that database of employed people will still be around enabling government to track our locations (and heaven knows what else about us, as the database is enhanced and expanded) long after the touted benefits of "welfare reform" have failed to materialize.

And most grimly of all, our drivers licenses will be our de facto national ID card long after immigrants have ceased to want to come to this Land of the Once Free.

It matters not one whit whether the people controlling you call themselves R's or D's, liberals or conservatives, socialists or even (I hate to admit it) libertarians. It doesn't matter whether they vote for these horrors because they're not paying attention or because they actually like such things.

What matters is that the pace of totalitarianism is increasing. And it is coming closer to our daily lives all the time. Once your state passes the enabling legislation (under threat of losing "federal welfare dollars"), it is YOUR name and Social Security number that will be entered in that employee database the moment you go to work for a new employer. It is YOU who will be unable to cash a check, board an airplane, get a passport  or be allowed any dealings with any government agency if you refuse to give your SS number to the drivers license bureau. It is YOU who will be endangered by driving "illegally" if you refuse to submit to Big Brother's procedures. It is YOU whose psoriasis, manic depression or prostate troubles will soon be the reading matter of any bureaucrat with a computer. It is YOU who could be declared a member of a "foreign terrorist" organization just because you bought a book or concert tickets from some group the government doesn't like. It is YOU who could lose your home, bank account and reputation because you made a mistake on a health insurance form. Finally, when you become truly desperate for freedom, it is YOU whose assets will be seized if you try to flee this increasingly insane country.

As Ayn Rand said in Atlas Shrugged, "There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."

It's time to drop any pretense: We are no longer law-abiding citizens. We have lost our law-abiding status. There are simply too many laws to abide. And because of increasingly draconian penalties and electronic tracking mechanisms, our "lawbreaking" places us and our families in greater jeopardy every day.

STOPPING RUNAWAY GOVERNMENT

The question is: What are we going to do about it? Write a. nice, polite letter to your congressperson? Hey, if you think that'll help, I've got a bridge you might be interested in buying. (And it isn't your "bridge to the future," either.)

Vote "better people, into office? Oh yeah, that's what we thought we were doing in 1994. Work to fight one bad bill or another?  Okay. What will you do about the 10 or 20 or 100 equally horrible bills that will be passed behind your back while you were fighting that little battle? And let's say you defeat a nightmare bill this year. What, are you going to do when they sneak it back in, at the very last minute, in some "omnibus legislation" next year? And what about the horrors you don't even learn about until two or three years after they become law? Should you try fighting these laws in the courts? Where do you find the resources? Where do you find a judge who doesn't have a vested interest in bigger, more powerful government? And again, for every one case decided in favor of freedom, what do you do about the 10, 20 or 100 in which the courts decide against the Bill of Rights?

Perhaps you'd consider trying to stop the onrush of these horrors with a constitutional amendment—maybe one that bans "omnibus" bills, requires that every law meet a constitutional test or requires all congress people to sign statements that they've read and understood every aspect of every bill on which they vote. Good luck! Good luck, first, on getting such an amendment passed. Then good luck getting our Constitution-scorning "leaders" to obey it. It is true that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and part of that vigilance has been, traditionally, keeping a watchful eye on laws and on lawbreaking lawmakers.

But given the current pace of law spewing and unconstitutional regulation-writing, you could watch, plead and struggle "within the system" 24 hours a day for your entire life and end up infinitely less free than when you begin. Why throw your life away on a futile effort?

Face it. If "working within the system" could halt tyranny, the tyrants would outlaw it. Why do you think they encourage you to vote, to write letters, to talk to them in public forums? It's to divert your energies. To keep you tame. "The system" as it presently exists is nothing but a rat maze. You run around thinking you're getting somewhere. Your masters occasionally reward you with a little pellet that encourages you to believe you're accomplishing something. And in the meantime, you are as much their property and their pawn as if you were a slave. In the effort of fighting them on their terms and with their authorized and approved tools, you have given your life's energy to them as surely as if you were toiling in their cotton fields, under the lash of their overseer. The only way we're going to get off this road to Hell is if we jump off. If we, personally, as individuals, refuse to cooperate with evil. How we do that is up to each of us. I can't decide for you, nor you for me.

(Unlike congress people, who think they can decide for everybody.) But this totalitarian runaway truck is never going to stop unless we stop it, in any way we can. Stopping it might include any number of things: tax resistance; public civil disobedience; wide-scale, silent non-cooperation; highly noisy non-cooperation; boycotts; secession efforts; monkey wrenching; computer hacking; dirty tricks against government agents; public shunning of employees of abusive government agencies; alternative, self-sufficient communities that provide their own medical care and utilities.

There are thousands of avenues to take, and this is something most of us still need to give more thought to before we can build an effective resistance. We will each choose the courses that are right for our own circumstances, personalities and beliefs.

Whatever we do, though, we must remember that we are all, already, outlaws. Not one of us can be certain of going through a single day without violating some law or regulation we've never even heard of. We are all guilty in the eyes of today's law. If someone in power chooses to target us, we can all, already, be prosecuted for something. And I'm sure you know that your claims of "good intentions" won't protect you, as the similar claims of politicians protect them.  Politicians are above the law. YOU are under it. Crushed under it. When you look at it that way, we have little left to lose by breaking laws creatively  and purposefully.  Yes, some of us will suffer horrible consequences for our lawbreaking.  It is very risky to actively resist unbridled power. It is especially risky to go public with resistance (unless hundreds of thousands publicly join us), and it becomes riskier the closer we get to tyranny. For that reason, among many others, I would never recommend any particular course of action to anyone—and I hope you'll think twice before taking  "advice" from anybody about things that could jeopardize your life or well-being. But if  we don't resist in the best ways we know how and if a good number of us don't resist loudly and publicly — all of us will suffer the much worse consequences of living under  total oppression. And whatever courses of action we choose, we must remember that this legislative "revolution" against We the People will not be stopped by politeness. It will not be stopped by requests. It will not be stopped by "working within a system" governed by those who regard us as nothing but cattle. It will not be stopped by pleading for justice from those who will resort to any degree of trickery or violence to rule us.

It will not be stopped unless we are willing to risk our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honors to stop it. I think of the words of Winston Churchill: "If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
 
 

NOTES on the laws listed above:

1. (employee database) Welfare Reform Bill, HR 3734; became public law 104-193 on 8/22196; see section 453A.

2. (health care crimes) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, HR 3103; became public law 104-191 on 8/21/96.

3. (asset confiscation for citizenship change) Same law as #2; see; sections 511-513.  4., 5., and 6. (anti-gun laws) Omnibus Appropriations Act, HR 3610; became public law 104-208 on 9/30/96.

7. and 8. (terrorism & secret trials) Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996; S 735; became public law 104-132 on 4/24/96; see all of Title III, specifically sections 302 and 219; also see all of Tide IV, specifically sections 401, 501, 502 and 503.

9. (de facto national ID card) Began life in the Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1996, sections III, II 8, 119, 127 and 133; was eventually folded into the Omnibus Appropriations Act, HR 3610 (which was itself formerly called the Defense Appropriations Act—but we wouldn't want to confuse anyone, here, would we?); became public law 104-208 on 9/30/96; see sections 656 and 657 among others.

10. (health care database) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, HR 3103; became public law 104-191 on 8/21/96; see sections 262, 263 and 264, among others. The various provisions that make up the full horror of this database are scattered throughout the bill and may take hours to track down; this one is stealth legislation at its utmost sneakiest.

And one final, final note: Although I spent aggravating hours verifying the specifics of these bills (a task I swear I will never waste my life on again!), the original list of bills at the top of this article was NOT the result of extensive research. It was simply what came off the top of my head when I thought of Big Brotherish bills from the 104th Congress. For all I know, Congress has passed 10 times more of that sort of thing. In fact, the worst "law" in the list—#9, the de facto national ID card—just came to my attention as I was writing this essay, thanks to the enormous efforts of Jackie Juntti and Ed Lyon and others, who researched the law. Think of it: Thanks to congressional stealth tactics, we had the long-dreaded national ID card legislation for five months, without a whisper of discussion, before freedom activists began to find out about it. Makes you wonder what else might be lurking out there, doesn't it? And on that cheery note—

                                                THE END

© Copyrighted by Claire Wolfe. Permission to reprint freely granted, provided the article is reprinted in full and that any reprint is accompanied by this copyright statement.

Claire Wolfe is the author of the aphorism "It's too late to work within the system, and too early to shoot the bastards." which appeared in her book 101 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution.

                 by Angel Shamaya
          Director, Keep And Bear Arms .com

Tyrannical webs are a'weaving.
The plot thickens more each day.
The string-pullers no longer whisper.
It's time to do more than just pray.

They KNOW that rape becomes childsplay
With every new gun law they spew.
They KNOW that victimization
Arises from what they now do.

They KNOW of the heavy tax burdens
Borne by the people they rule.
They KNOW they are paid to be servants
As they play you and me like The Fool.

They KNOW that their "facts" are all phony.
They KNOW that the truth lays them low.
They KNOW they cannot meet in open debate.
They KNOW, they KNOW, THEY KNOW!

A fraction of them stop to listen.
Fewer still bother e'r to respond.
The mountains of new laws illegal
Require us ALL to now Bond.

The Founders knew what they were doing
When they honored the right of the Gun.
And though I have hopes that we'll find other means,
We may need them before this is Won.

So I call to the shooters and hunters,
To the gunnies whose time is so dear.
I call upon you to unite for your country.
Your presence is needed right here.

I'd much rather cut my own tongue off
Than refrain from speaking the truth.
I'd rather eat lead for my country
Than enslave our future youth.

I'd rather be hailed as a villain
By people who no longer think,
And chastised for crimes I would never commit
Than ever let Liberty sink.

I'd rather have dumbed-down sheeple,
Present me as Enemy One,
And spit in my face like the horror I'm not
Than EVER hand over The Gun.

I am proud of my brothers and sisters
Who stand by my side and say "NO."
I am honored to battle for Freedom.
I say THIS to the Tyranny Foe:

We've watched your plastic broadcasts,
And suffered your treasonous lies.
We've read your deceitful reports,
As you've turned a deaf ear to our cries.

You castigate us by the Millions
For simply defending our Life.
You've aided and abetted The Rapist
That he force-sex another man's Wife.

You follow the path laid by Hitler,
"But it's all 'for the children'," you cry.
And though there be fools who buy it,
The people with guns know YOU LIE.

You've programmed our children as dummies.
You've plundered our private reserves.
You've made so many laws we all are now criminals.
So expect what TRUE EVIL deserves.

You went much too far, a LONG time ago.
The time has come to relent.
You back the hell off and stop harming our country,
Or many a cartridge gets spent.

None of us knows where The Line is,
Or how great would be our loss.
But while you fight for Power, we fight for our Freedom,
Just know there's a line you don't cross.

Suppose that we let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal: still it would not be going to far to say that the State governments with the people at their side would be able to repel the danger ... half a million citizens with arms in their hands.

 ~~ James Madison, The Federalist Papers

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