Made Common Citizens Think

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

def4pos8

Member
Joined
May 31, 2007
Messages
560
Location
SW Ohio
I work as an armed guard, making sure that a bunch of nice folks go home in one piece after a shift. Since I'm "The Gun Guy", more than one of 'em has asked my opinion of the Heller decision.

I start my response by stating that we were one vote shy of causing the first armed rebellion in this country in 150 years.

This tends to stun the listener.

Most think on it for a while but do understand the implications. The usual response is: "Yeah, you're right! Gee! That WAS a close call!"


Don't be shy! Be prepared to discuss Heller with common citizens. They're not, all, freaked-out, Brady types -- and they do tend to vote. . . .
 
Maybe it's just me, but that's not the response I'd want to give people, especially if I have no idea what their views on guns and gun rights are.

Hell, even as a gunnie, it seems a bit...reactionary. Now, I know where you're coming from, and in a way I agree, but to joe average, I think it paints a rather extreme picture.

As always, just my two cents.
 
we were one vote shy of causing the first armed rebellion in this country in 150 years
Click to expand...

I think this is a bit of an overstatement. Losing Heller would have been devastating, but it would not have caused armed rebellion. Our nation is too apathetic. It would take a bigger shock than a Supreme Court decision to cause armed rebellion.

Just my two cents.
 
Perhaps many of you aren't aware Montana's situation. A resolution expressed their intent to dissolve the Montana Compact if the court held other than an individual right. I think armed conflict may have been much more likely than most Americans want to admit.
 
I think it paints a rather extreme picture.
Click to expand...

I also don't think it is accurate. Whatever your sentiments, a different decision on Heller would not have automatically made our possession of guns illegal. It simply (at least in the short term) would have allowed DC to continue their handgun ban. There was no armed rebellion before Heller - and there would not likely have been one as a reaction to a different ruling.
 
I think that it would have had a greater effect than most of us think.(then again less than some of us think, like def4pos8)

There probably wouldn't have been an immediate armed rebellion, but constant protests/riots. And if Montana did leave the U.S. that could easily put other ideas about rebellion in motion.
 
Any sort of swaggering and threatening talk of CW2 is silly, ineffective, and could even be counterproductive.
 
"Any sort of swaggering and threatening talk of CW2 is silly, ineffective, and could even be counterproductive."

Yeah, but if we don't say it once in awhile they'll think we've forgotten about it. Worse, we might forget about it.
 
Hearts and minds, campers...

Being aggressive, confrontational and antagonistic just reinforces all the stereotypes which the non-gun folks want the fence-sitters to believe.

Be nice.

Be a Good Example.

And lead, instead of push.
 
Yeah, but if we don't say it once in awhile they'll think we've forgotten about it. Worse, we might forget about it.
Click to expand...

I reckon that anyone who is dead serious about engaging in violent and destructive action would be too busy planning and executing to talk about it.

See what I mean?

I've studied a little history and I know the kinds of body counts and horrors that even 'successful' revolutions can produce.
 
I think that those of us who exercise our Right to arms on a regular basis are NOT common citizens. We are not the norm in today's society. We are not better or worse than other citizens in our general behavior but our understanding of the implications of the Second Amendment sets us apart.

I think that most citizens don't understand the free exercise of our Second Amendment -- or the others codified in the Bill of Rights and the balance of the Constitution. This is a sad situation.

After grabbing their attention with my shock line, I push the conversation into a general discussion of Constitutional issues.

I see Heller as a good decision that represents a tidal shift, reversing a forty-year trend of government encroachment. If it had gone the other way, things could have, eventually, slow as a glacier, gone very bad. That it likely won't degenerate to violence is a good thing.
 
def4pos8, you gave us the context:
I work as an armed guard... Since I'm "The Gun Guy", more than one of 'em has asked my opinion of the Heller decision.
Click to expand...
I think that your "shock line" was excellent, coming from you, at work. Stay pleasant and professional, stimulate thought, and fulfill your mission:
def4pos8 said:
...making sure that a bunch of nice folks go home in one piece after a shift.
Click to expand...
You might by your polite teaching influence folks to help themselves and others to stay alive elsewhere, too.

Good thread.
 
I think def4pos8 is exactly right.

This tends to stun the listener.
Click to expand...

Probably the reason this tends to stun them is that it has a real grain of truth. We hear the history of the founding of our nation and it all seems so distant to us in our chemically and electronically over stimulated world. The Heller decision reaches all the way back to the reason for the Revolution and ties today's world directly to it. Makes ya think, which most folks aren't in the habit of doing, therefore the stunned reaction.

5 watt load on a 2 watt circuit... ;)
 
I very well think that it might have caused an armed rebellion. It could eventually lead to the confiscation of all firearms.

What would infuriate me more is how clear it is to see the original intent of the Constitution, yet 4 Supreme Court Justices, people who should be more knowledgeable than any of us on the subject, did not agree.
 
i would not rule out the possibility that an armed rebellion COULD have happened. would it? i doubt it. but nothing is impossible.
 
i just remind people that the criminals already had the guns and now the lawful can have them too! it's simpler and everybody believes it.
 
This is called the "macho flash", and it has its place, to be used sparingly and with judicious discretion.


we were one vote shy of causing the first armed rebellion in this country in 150 years
Click to expand...
I think this is a bit of an overstatement.
Click to expand...

I actually don't think it an overstatement at all.

Certainly, I'm not saying that gunfire would have erupted on June 27, but I think that had Heller gone against us, future history books would have noted that it was the moment at which armed internal conflict had become inevitable.
 
Perhaps many of you aren't aware Montana's situation. A resolution expressed their intent to dissolve the Montana Compact if the court held other than an individual right. I think armed conflict may have been much more likely than most Americans want to admit.
Click to expand...

I do know from my old fed LE pals that better than two-dozen large, organized militias were watching this decision VERY intensely. I also know from them that there were some folks at DHS that were getting a severe case of the sweats in the days leading up to the decision.

Some of the younger guys at our VFW post who worked special ops over in Sandland and Taliban-land told us that they were definitely typical of the specwar guys in believing STRONGLY in the Second Amendment--especially after fighting in a land in which only the bad guys have weapons, and it was part of their job to help arm the good guys and teach them how to overthrow the bad guys.

I'm not a reactionist by any stretch, and I seen more than one civil war. And while I don't think the Heller decision, had it gone against us would have resulted in a civil war, I have no doubt that it would have lit the long fuse on a large powder keg.

Jeff
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

N
  • Locked
Arms of "Common Useage".
Replies
14
Views
871
Clerihew
C
S
  • Locked
News from Switzerland
2 3
Replies
63
Views
3K
MachIVshooter
MachIVshooter
H
  • Locked
New England Journal of Medicine at it Again!
2
Replies
36
Views
2K
Kim
K
R
  • Locked
Armed Citizen Analysis
2
Replies
31
Views
3K
Carl N. Brown
Carl N. Brown
C
  • Locked
Judging Gun Rights: Are They Inalienable?
2 3
Replies
61
Views
1K
R127
R
Back
Top