Guest Commentary
Exclusive to The Zelman Partisans
by PigPen51
The battle for our guns continues to grow, with no end in sight.
Although polls indicate most Americans support private gun ownership, there will always be an element that wants to usurp our right to keep and bear arms. That element is becoming more desperate and is showing its true nature: they’re not for “gun safety” or against handguns or “assault weapons” any more; they’re openly against us and our firearms, period.
I’m sure regular TZP readers have already thought, and perhaps made decisions, about how to handle any attempts to disarm you. I’ve made my own decision, as well. For me it was not easy. I want to share my decision-making process with you, partly to help you understand the thinking of someone who is not perhaps as strong-minded as you are.
First, I have to share where I come from. I’ve been around guns all my
life, growing up in rural Michigan, where small-game hunting and deer
hunting was just a fact of life. So rifles and shotguns held no mystery
for any of my brothers or me. We neither feared them nor treasured them. They were simply tools, like any others. In this respect, I guess I grew up like a good many of you.
The one thing I didn’t grow up around was handguns. We simply had no use for them.
I’ve always been a freedom supporter. I’m a follower of the
constitution, not liking it when the government takes away my rights. I was particularly appalled when the so-called Patriot Act passed. Then the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was when Barack Obama was elected president. It was then I first joined the NRA. I saw the real threat to my gun rights and this was a tangible way that I could express it.
When Michigan passed shall-issue concealed carry, I began saving money for the mandatory class and the fee, and soon became a CCW holder.
That, to make a long story short, brings us to my proverbial line in the
sand: what do I intend to do if the knock comes on my door and the
authorities ask me to turn in all my guns?
I know some of you would say, “I’ll just start a firefight the likes of
which the nation hasn’t seen since the Tet offensive. The police, or the
National Guard, would lie in the streets until the cows came home.” From my cold dead hands, or something like that.
I understand that. It sounds very Rambo-like and brave, until you factor in things like what if the knock on the door comes when your family is sitting down to breakfast on Sunday morning, with your daughter and son in their pj’s? Or if your brother-in-law is on the sheriff’s department and your niece is in the National Guard?
For me, these are the kind of things that make it real. They are the
issues that kept me up at night while I pondered where I would draw that line in the sand. Because, once I drew it, I wanted it to stay drawn
deep and unmoving. So I had to decide what sacrifices I was willing to
make, and honestly, which ones I knew I just could never make.
I knew in my heart I could never willingly sacrifice my family’s lives.
Call me weak, if you wish, but that’s simply who I am. That option was
completely off the table. If the call for disarming happened, my family
and their well being would have to be taken into account. Therefore, any “last stand” heroics would not happen near them.
I’m not saying I would surrender any guns, just that my family couldn’t be around if I expected a confrontation. But how do I avoid that situation?
I think the best way is to try and prevent confrontation in the first
place. That calls for planning. So part of my ultimate line in the sand
is proper preparation.
For instance, I don’t think it’s wise to keep all firearms in the same
location. Best to keep them well-secured and hidden in multiple places. But that’s easier for a well-off person than for someone poor like me.
A wealthy person who had a hunting lodge with his rifles locked in in a safe, could easily keep his other guns at home in his basement (with
ammo stored at each location, of course). That also gives this happy
guy the convenience of not carrying his guns each time he travels. But
even less rich gun owners have options for storing guns in different
locations (for example, keeping a few firearms at home and hiding others securely underground in the woods).
On the other hand, knowing guns could be confiscated at any time, some people might think it would be prudent to get rid of them, one way or another. After all, you would hate to get into any trouble with the authorities over some steel and wood, right?
Another part of preparation might involve sending family members away to stay with a trusted relative who would not allow guns anywhere near them in any shape or form. But this assumes knowing when the confiscation squads will arrive, and we’re unlikely to know that until and unless times have gotten truly desperate.
This all boils down to my line in the sand: I will not keep all my guns
at my home. I will not get into a gunfight with the authorities in the
presence of my family, period. But if pushed, when alone, I will defend
myself or join with other patriots to defend liberty. Given enough time, it may become necessary to “lose” most or all of my guns. I could always attempt to find them later. Finally, given enough time, and only in very extreme circumstances, my family may have to stay with someone close to me who is not known to own firearms.
There you have it. My particular plan might seem like a coward’s way to a great many of you. It might seem unrealistic to some of you,
particularly if you believe that there will never be a confiscation
order or squads going door-to-door, looking for guns. It may even seem unpatriotic. But to me, given my nature and circumstances, this is what I’m willing to do and not willing to do. Call it what you might; you can’t call it wrong.
What are your thoughts about potential firearm confiscation? And
what planning have you done to avoid being caught unprepared if it happens?
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Pigpen51, your position appears very reasoned to me.
To each his own, we all have to decide for ourselves; when, how and with whom we chose to stand.
But for most the biggest decision will be whether to stand at all. Most will chose not too.
For myself I have decided that the line in the sand (mud or whatever!) has already been crossed by tyranny in the state I live in and therefore I am not complying. Being a responsible person also means I am prepared to take the consequences for my actions and follow what ever path my actions lead me too.
When tyranny becomes law
Rebellion becomes duty
This doesn’t mean you have to act stupidly either but having once been a Boy scout I still live by the motto of “Be Prepared”!
I WILL NOT COMPLY!
You’re honest. I think that almost all fathers would choose not to jeopardize their children’s lives in a firefight. I respect your honesty. The choice is the one government always wants for us while it nudges us nearer to accepting our servitude. The thought of submitting has entered your mind. You have lost. May your chains lay lightly.
Or, you must draw the line now. Talk to your sens and reps at all levels, sheriff, mayor, everyone and tell them that this scenario is unacceptable. Tell them that freedom is the only viable answer for peace. Get active, go on offense. We are winning the debate, they know it. Tell them what side you’re on now. Those who don’t have the courage to get in their face now will certainly not have the courage to fight later. This is a fact of armed resistance. Resist now before the shooting starts, then you will know, that you have done, all you can. I’m honored to be in this fight with you. Please move your line nearer.
Comrade X, and Fred, thank you so much for your comments. I may or may not have been clear enough in explaining my willingness to stand with other patriots, against those who would attempt to take freedom from myself or others in my area. I have every intention of helping my neighbors in resisting any gun confiscation efforts. We have had several discussions on this and I expect to have several more as the weather breaks here and we can meet more easily. I just at this time cannot see putting my family in harms way to join this local effort at fighting tyranny. Who knows what the future holds. It is possible that I could become more willing to stand even stronger in time, if the balloon goes up, so to speak, but as of now I can’t count on it.
Pigpen, you have laid out some of the things I’ve said to people when they tell me they will go down etc etc. I’ve looked at them and asked them “And when they kick the door during the Sunday dinner and have a gun to your wife’s head as the children scream in terror?” You do what?
There are certain agencies within the governmental alphabet soup of agencies that don’t have a good reputation for behaving rationally. Ever seen what happened to some of Cliven Bundy’s cattle? Or heard the stories of what happened to family pets on some of those raids? And people.
There are those within those agencies that enjoy the power they wield WAY too much, we’ve seen their type before in history. This is one of my fears as we see cops persecuted by the DOJ for doing their job. YES, there are bad cops, but when they are being charged by someone bigger than they are? Anyway, with the persecution of cops for doing their job, it will become harder go get the kind of people that you really want to be cops, to be cops. You will get more of the power mad. The same with the military, you prosecute a man for defending a boy, rescuing him from being raped (again and again) and you throw that man out of the military. Bill Whittle did a excellent Firewall video, Sir I will not comply dealing with what’s happening in the military now. When you make a profession such that people of honor can not serve, you will not have people with honor serving.
The thunder rolls from the coming storm, eh?
Excellent column, thank you!
The thing is, Sheila, I am not a coward, by any means, and am quite willing to stand with my fellow loyal patriots against tyranny. I am just unwilling to put my family in peril. I quite understand that recruitment of those whom we would wish to protect us has actually turned out to be more difficult than it should be. Although many of our military and police are good and committed, in fact my son is a member of the military, an increasing number of them are becoming the power hungry types that you have described. And they are just the type that will serve the regime in Washington that would send them to collect our guns, in that future we all dread. Let’s hope that by our standing firm now and also by preparing together we can turn things around and head them off at the pass. If they do attempt to begin some type of widescale gun collection, things will most certainly get very, very ugly, and it will happen very, very fast. We know that thousands could die on both sides, and I doubt that anyone could win.
Yes you may die;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEOOZDbMrgE
If you could afford it you good get one or two El Cheapos to use as sacrificial guns. Hand them over with the others not at home. If they look long enough they can find them if the guns are in the house. So it depends on how much time they have.
We all saw what happened in New Orleans in 2005.
I’ve got a couple that don’t work. Badly enough that when I made a mental count of how many I owned, I forgot to count them so my answer was mumblety-mumblety, instead of mumblety-mumblety+2. They weren’t “El Cheapos” but that’s all they turned out to be worth.
Tell you what, confiscationalist asshats: You can HAVE those two guns, IF and ONLY IF you go away and leave the rest of this country alone (including the rest of my guns) alone FOREVER.
See, I’m willing to compromise and make a deal, but that IS my final offer.
You know Pigpen, something is ringing the back of my mind. This coward thing.
If you’ve never read Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s essay on Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs, you should.
Your position is you will do what you need to in order for your family to be safe. You are being protective of your family, that is a sheepdog. Livestock guardian dogs are a cagey breed. They don’t just fly at something, especially if it is more than one wolf. They plan, they plan to win. But they sniff the wind, they read signs and intentions. They are seldom caught off guard.
Good qualities all.
Your post makes a lot of sense. I am trying to structure my defense of home such that they can’t surprise me, but I am not sure how to avoid the surprise 4 am raid. I have motion detector lights around the house and fake security cameras to hopefully give them pause. I will have to figure out how to hide some of the guns. My kids are grown and long gone. Not sure what to do with the wife–send her out or put her in the safe room? The part that gives me pause is my Christian Faith–“thou shalt not kill…. obey your rulers…. etc.” I am not afraid to die for my freedom; the difficult part is killing someone else to remain free. I take comfort from the fact that many of the patriots in the war for independence were Christians. They were able to fight for freedom from the king’s tyranny. I also think of the Lutheran Pastor in 1930s in Germany who said something to the effect of “When they came for the Jews, I did nothing. When they came for the gypsy’s, I did nothing…… When they came for me, there was nobody left to do anything.” Finding the balance in the moral equation is where I have trouble. Although I am Lutheran I attended one of the Catholic Law Schools that still took Christ seriously. I don’t recall which class it was, but the Catholic concept of justifiable war came up. The professor and I disputed the Winter War in which Finland held off the Soviet Army for several months in the winter. The professor said the Finns should not have fought because the war was not winnable for their side, which made their fighting immoral. I pointed out that they killed more than 100,000 Soviet soldiers during the winter and easily held their own. The Finns did not lose until spring came and melted the snow which assisted in their defense. I did not understand his theory that if the totalitarians are going to win you must submit to them. I still can’t fathom that notion.
Fishlaw, I am far from a Biblical authority, however as a Christian, I perhaps I can give you a different perspective on the Bible and the freedom to protect yourself and your loved ones.
First, if you consider Nehemiah, even though he trusted in G-d to protect Israel, he still set a watch, with the watchmen armed with swords, spears, and bows. They were not soldiers, simply family members. These weapons were the modern arms of the day. They also wore their weapons while they worked.
In Ester 8:11, the Jews are permitted to use force, up to lethal force, to protect themselves from those would harm themselves.
In Luke 22:35ff, Jesus instructed his followers that if they didn’t have a sword, they should buy one. When told that there were already 2 swords in his travelling group, he said that it was enough. There were 2 things to be learned from this. One, he was giving his approval for us to arm ourselves in preparation for self-defense. Secondly, I believe he was letting his disciples know in advance that they would not have need of any sword, as he had been telling them that there was this confrontation coming which he was going to allow to happen, and they would therefore not be able to fight their way out of it.
1Tim5:8 says that if a man doesn’t take care of his household he is worse than an infidel. That is not just about a roof over their head, in my opinion, but also speaks about their physical safety.
Lastly, when you go to bed at night, do you lock your doors? Isn’t that self defense, in a manner of speaking? Although not physically harming someone else, it speaks to your care of your family and yourself.
These are just a few thoughts. Many others have struggled with these same things, so don’t feel different. The choice is a very personal one. I wish you well, and thank you for reading this essay, and for the feedback.
“When told that there were already 2 swords in his travelling group, he said that it was enough.”
Sir, He said “it is enough.”
This is a common misunderstanding of what Jesus meant. What he meant was; “it is enough” that I have told you to arm yourselves. ie; I ain’t tellin’ you again. Not “that is enough” or “they are enough” swords.
But your greater point is well taken and I agree.
Pigpen, you have it right. Prepare, evade, avoid, deny… and when necessary, FIGHT. The Alamo was not a victory.