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January 2, 2013
You Won't See a Rebellion Any Time Soon [Bumped]
Donald Sensing begs to differ with Side-Lines: What You'll See in the Rebellion by Bob Owen. "I posted the following comment at Bob's site: Well, nice try, Bob. But here is what will really happen. Congress passes the law, the NRA et. al. scream about it and then ... nothing happens.
Some people affected (no more than 20 percent) comply with the turn-in order. The rest don't comply. And they don't organize, they don't form insurgent groups, they don't start assassinating politicians. They just hide their guns and continue with daily life as before.
Another American revolution over such a law? Not a chance. Not for this reason nor any other. The American people decided beginning in the 1930s that we would surrender our sovereignty to the federal government and we have been doing so fervently and devotedly since then. Obama is merely running the end game. The vast majority - let me repeat, the vast majority - of Americans are fully sheepled now and will not forcefully resist any additional oppressive measure by this administration nor any other to follow.
A better bet would be for the remaining liberty lovers to start now to take over selected state legislatures and governorships, preferably of adjoining states, and lay the political groundwork for interstate unity and the revival of nullification doctrine, dead though Andrew Jackson made it.
This makes the federals the reactor rather than pro-actor and places them more publicly in the lawless role.
Remember that the Supreme Court ruled in the 1870s that the Constitutional question of secession was moot because events had shown that secession was a matter settled by force or arms, not courts. However, nullification was never tested either by the courts nor by force of arms. It was ended purely by President Jackson's threat personally to hang members of the South Carolina legislature. As S.C. was not being backed by other states, nullification soon withered away.
But what if today only four or five states united in declaring null and void certain federal enactments, based on common legislative acts passed by their legislatures and signed by their governors? What exactly can or would Obama do about it?
The most important thing to remember about beginning a revolution, whether peaceful or not, is that the King's Dominion must be, and must be seen as, the initiating actor. That's the position to put the federals in: opponents of the rule of law in which the states position themselves as its protector.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at January 2, 2013 9:01 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
"They just hide their guns and continue with daily life as before."
Would the federal and state governments really be satisfied with 20%? Why wouldn't they consider that their point had not been successfully made, and proceed to less passive measures?
The authorities may well be satisfied with 20% success rates in other endeavors (cough-education-cough) but I'm skeptical they'd be willing to stop at 20%, or 40%, when it comes to "assault" weapons.
Posted by: Daniel K Day at January 1, 2013 10:24 AM
I trust Donald has a reliable Tarot deck and I Ching. We defend the 2nd Amendment or we lose it all.
Posted by: Gary Ogletree at January 1, 2013 5:06 PM
I've been to all the other resorts. Might as well try the last one.
Posted by: mushroom at January 1, 2013 7:55 PM
I do not know Mr. Sensing or where he comes from. I do know many second amendment people and they are not going to lie down and be killed by the black booted thugs without a fight. I doubt Mr. Sensing ever served in the US military and fought in one of the US governments unnecessary wars of the past sixty years. He definitely does not know any patriots.
Posted by: Terry at January 2, 2013 8:09 AM
Terry, Rev. Sensing is a retired colonel from the US Army, armored division if I remember correctly. I don't question his patriotism or commitment to the 2nd amendment, I just question his skepticism about other 2A supporters and his (to me) naivete about the reaction of our would-be masters to a low turn-in of weapons following a law on registration or an outright ban.
Posted by: Daniel K Day at January 2, 2013 8:47 AM
How many "resistors" would it take to create a crisis and send a message to the federal authorities and the gun-control crowd? Not many. Mere dozens of incidents of armed resistance would suffice to create great alarm. While Sensing may be right about a majority of Americans' reaction, there will be some resistance IF a draconian law were passed, as was the case in Australia (and with no resistance). Also, Sensing did allow that a whole lot of people would not turn in their guns -- give him credit for acknowledging that.
The thing is though, gun-control advocates and their political lieutenants are smart enough not to make new laws truly draconian. For this reason, Sensing's assumptions will prove closer to the truth. Measured gun-control responses made periodically over time is the way Americans will lose their gun rights.
Posted by: Don Rodrigo at January 2, 2013 9:54 AM
The Reverend is a former artillery officer, if I remember One Hand Clapping at all. He has the grace and class not to go trying to bolster his argument by whipping out his DD214 and waving it around. Note that he doesn't even refer to himself by the honorific due him. For the purposes of the exercise, he's just plain Donald Sensing.
But now that Terry's made that a condition of judging one's patriotism, perhaps he ought to list his bona fides. Not that anyone with any sense falls for the 'appeal to authority' fallacy.
Posted by: Mike James at January 2, 2013 10:32 AM
I think it won't come down to guns but to water control. It did a few times before. In Klamath Falls, and in Nevada. When the Feds got to enforcing some tap closures, the local sheriffs all but declared war on them and kept the water flowing. Who knows what will be the fuse.
Posted by: Jewel at January 2, 2013 11:39 AM
Remember that notorious case in Tucson just a few short years ago, where a Pima County SWAT team home invastion tore into the Army veteran homeowner who was bearing a firearm, over a possible drug dealing connection.
Now imagine one of those in every city every month, or ten in a single month.
Those of you who say that the government will go from securing our rights, to denying them by force, by gradual frog-boiling degrees; you need to think hard about tipping points, phase transitions, wake-up calls.
Posted by: John A. Fleming at January 2, 2013 12:16 PM
And the Obama administration is going to let what they know or at least suspect is an eighty-percent non-compliance rate slide without opposition because...that's just the sort of classy, magnanimous folks they are? Or more to the point, because that's just the sort of classy, magnanimous guy Barry is? Yeah, Colonel, you might want to rethink that one a bit.
Posted by: Rich Fader at January 2, 2013 1:56 PM
It will be some damned stupid thing in the Balkans.
You may have noticed that there's a LOT more Balkans in North America than there used to be...
We are off the map. It's just inertia now.
Posted by: TmjUtah at January 2, 2013 10:03 PM