Alaska. I love that state. It's beautiful and some of my favorite people live there. However, some of the other people there seem to be bone-stupid, and I have to shake my head and wonder about them sometimes.
About eight years ago, some kid named Schaeffer Cox, then fresh out of whatever high school he'd attended in the lower 48, shows up in Alaska and starts running off at the mouth about Libertarianism and the so-called "Sovereign Citizen" movement (where the government doesn't have authority over you if you don't want it to). He runs for elected office a couple of times and loses handily. He involves himself in the gun rights movement and uses it as a platform for his weird ideas, including one where he starts traveling around the state setting up his own courts. And then he forms a militia and declares himself it's head.
Now Cox has never served in the military. But that's ok, because most people who flock to militia groups haven't either. Such groups are gathering places for underachievers who just want to belong to something and maybe feel powerful for once in their pathetic lives. These groups are filled with the fat, the lazy and the incompetent, but they have guns and they have anger at a society that doesn't let them run it, so without even asking the rest of us, they declare themselves to be our guardians and appoint themselves watchers over our lawful authorities, like Cox did. Cox claims that his group exists to watch the police and to serve as a check on the government and remind them that if they go too far, they'll encounter opposition from armed citizens. His group also pretends that they'll be there to step in and act as local law enforcement or security forces the next time a Katrina-type disaster strikes, a claim that many militia groups make. But the reality is that we already have trained professionals who will do that. If these militia jokers really wanted to be helpful in time of crisis, they'd be volunteering with the Red Cross or similar disaster-response organizations to help hand out food, water and basic supplies to those in need. A lot of dedicated people do that, but then most militia goobers aren't cut from that sort of cloth. They don't want to help people--they just want to stand around with guns and intimidate people, and claim some sort of power and authority over other citizens without it actually being given to them by the rest of us. They look forward to the day when they can start bullying and oppressing people and making others respect them at gunpoint. That's really all they are--cowards and losers fantasizing about the day when they can be somebody because they have guns in their hands.
Well every now and again, this sort of thing gets those people in trouble. They start acting on their fantasies and they wind up in trouble with the law. We just have to look at people like Ed and Elaine Brown, the Alabama Free Militia, the Welch family, and the Hutaree Militia. And now Schaeffer Cox is on that list, along with a few of his cohorts.
You see, Schaeffer, man that he is, punched and choked his wife when she threatened to leave him last year. Then he caught another case for interfering with police officers and failing to disclose that he had a concealed weapon on his person as state law requires when he showed up as police were checking a house following a domestic disturbance and began shadowing the police and trying to record them. He was supposed to show up in court on that case February 14th, but he skipped out on his bond and went into hiding instead. Now fearing arrest on this MISDEMEANOR charge, he hatched a plan with his buddies to kidnap and kill several local state troopers and at least one judge in retaliation for his own arrest. They apparently went so far as to map the locations of the troopers' homes and stockpiled weapons around the area in anticipation of their coming battle with the law, a battle which Schaeffer was all ready for as he reportedly told at least one trooper that his group could "wipe them all out in one night".
Tough talk from a boy barely out of his teens. But in this case, he's got a following of other people with guns and no common sense.
Well now his dumb ass is back in jail, along with a few of his minions. They've got high bonds set, so it's doubtful that they'll be released any time soon. But what gets me is that so many other Alaskans were so quick to jump onto this kid's band wagon and accept him as their leader. Grown men, many of whom have jobs and families, were coming out of the woodwork saying: "Hee-yuk! You kin be my general, Mister Cox...You ain't but a kid, and ain't never been in no military, but I'll take yer orders...SUH!" WTF?! Who does that? Even in Alaska. But there are a number of them, and the letters to the local papers seem to bear this out. The kid had and still has a following made up of people who you'd think would be smarter than that.
But the real victims here are the lawful gun owners of that state and the country. When people like Cox manage to snake their way into the gun right movement and pervert it for their own ends, it makes us all look bad and gives those who would take our guns away that much more ammunition. That's why we, as a pro-gun community, have to be wary of those who would rise to speak in our names, and we need to scrutinize them as closely as we would any candidate for public office. we don't need our cause discredited by people like Cox (and there have been others over the years) and we don't need the beliefs and the actions of crazies or criminals attributed to us as a group.
Anyone who has read this blog for more than a few posts knows that I'm all about guns and gun rights for every law-abiding citizen in America. But I will not stand with criminals who plot to kill our law-enforcement officers or other public officials, nor will I allow them to go forward in our name and take us with them even if only by association. Schaeffer Cox was never one of us, and I wish the government well in their case against him.
Showing posts with label Militia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Militia. Show all posts
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Join the militia? Me?
So the other day, I get a comment submitted to the site expressing some positive feedback and inviting me to check out the website of the militia group that the poster belongs to. The poster also suggested that I consider joining.
Now as flattered as I am, I have to assume that he hasn't read my previous postings regarding militias and militia members. But since the request was polite and didn't scream “lunatic” like many of the comments that I've gotten from members of the militia movement in the past, I took a look at their website, first by myself and then a bit later with Nicki, herself a former member of the United States Armed Forces.
We basically decided that they seem like a harmless and essentially well-intentioned bunch as they model their store-bought camouflage and Load-Bearing Equipment (LBE) and discuss the relative attributes of their armaments, much of which appears to be foreign WW2-surplus that fires obsolete ammunition. They also post pictures of their “survival” or “Bug Out Vehicles”, many of which seem to be 1980's-vintage Chevrolet Suburbans or even older pick-up trucks, most of which get about 6 miles to the gallon and all of which undoubtedly have way too many miles and years on them to be even marginally reliable in a crisis. They also talk about “patrolling” their neighborhoods and preparing to do battle with terrorists and looters.
But seriously—if it's how these guys have fun, who am I to judge? I personally don't subscribe to the “militia” mindset or dream of the day when I will spot a “terrorist” somewhere—no doubt decked out in traditional islamist garb and carrying an AK-47 and a bomb as he skulks down the street—but I'm all about self-sufficiency and preparation for bad times, and I'm a firm advocate in fitness and relevant skills training of all sorts for practically everyone, so I applaud these guys for at least going that far. And to their further credit, I was unable to find any obvious anti-government or anti-law-enforcement stuff on their website, unlike on most militia websites and even most “mainstream” gun-related forums that I've seen.
Eventually I marked them “mostly harmless” and went on about my business, intending on just letting it pass. But then last night I saw another comment posted here. This one said that the poster agreed that BATFE is doing right by enforcing laws against gun criminals who supply guys to the drug cartels but believes that regular citizens should be able to enforce those laws too and that his group “actively works with local police forces and some of which support us. [sic]” He then went on to challenge me to stop by and check their site out “if you really are as patriotic as you say.”
Ah. So now unless I go back and look at their site some more, I'm not patriotic. Well to be fair, that didn't really spur me to any further review of their site or motivate me to join their group, but the claim that they allegedly work with local police forces (some of which supposedly support them) caused me to loudly call “BS”. I can guarantee you that there is not a police department anywhere in this country whose chief has ever said “Hey, I think that I'll grant law enforcement authority to Bob's Militia so that they can cruise around in their old Suburbans all decked out like extras from a straight-to-video war movie and arrest people.”
Sorry guys. It's never happened in America and it never will happen. Not ever.
Reading their website, it's obvious that they dream of taking on law enforcement functions and battling terrorists and other criminals here in America because they believe that somehow, they are more “legitimate” in this role than our regular and reserve military forces who, last I checked, were all better trained and equipped and just as patriotic as anyone.
OK, that bit of silliness aside, I do commend their desire to do something helpful in the time of crisis. However I think that they should probably devote their time and efforts into volunteering in a meaningful capacity, perhaps by joining an outfit like the Red Cross or some similar established disaster-response outfit. Yes I know that handing out bottled water and food to refugees is a lot less glamorous that sauntering around with an old rifle and pretending to be The Law, but it's actually realistic, and to be fair, it's exactly what the National Guard and Army Reserve units that were sent to Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina did.
Fact is, in any sort of calamity requiring a large-scale assistance effort, law enforcement will be handled by the Guard's military police units and by local agencies with their sworn personnel and reserves, bolstered by other sworn law enforcement officers from other jurisdictions if need be, just as we saw taking place during Katrina. You'll notice that during Katrina, police officers from all over the country were brought in to help but at no time did anyone at FEMA or in the Louisiana government ever get on the phone and ring up Thibodeux's Militia to see if a few guys who had no training and hadn't undergone any sort of background check might be available to run around New Orleans with rifles as a substitute for the real police. Sorry guys. I know that you're expecting to be asked/begged/allowed to do this the next time that a major catastrophe happens but you won't be.
So that said, I would suggest that if you really want to be part of the solution the next time help is needed, that you contact the Red Cross or some similar disaster preparedness group and ask them how you can help. Drop this idea that you're going to step in as some sort of armed paramilitary outfit and operate autonomously with police powers. That's not going to happen. If you really want to be the police or the military, then go through a police academy and join a real police department, or enlist. But if that's not an option, then you're pretty much restricted to helping the existing emergency groups in an unarmed capacity. It may not be as “cool” in your eyes, but it's still important and badly needed, and if you're really serious about wanting to help your communities and your fellow citizens, you'll sign on and start training with your local emergency preparedness organizations. Heck, you might even find that it's more satisfying and fun than playing toy solider.
Now as flattered as I am, I have to assume that he hasn't read my previous postings regarding militias and militia members. But since the request was polite and didn't scream “lunatic” like many of the comments that I've gotten from members of the militia movement in the past, I took a look at their website, first by myself and then a bit later with Nicki, herself a former member of the United States Armed Forces.
We basically decided that they seem like a harmless and essentially well-intentioned bunch as they model their store-bought camouflage and Load-Bearing Equipment (LBE) and discuss the relative attributes of their armaments, much of which appears to be foreign WW2-surplus that fires obsolete ammunition. They also post pictures of their “survival” or “Bug Out Vehicles”, many of which seem to be 1980's-vintage Chevrolet Suburbans or even older pick-up trucks, most of which get about 6 miles to the gallon and all of which undoubtedly have way too many miles and years on them to be even marginally reliable in a crisis. They also talk about “patrolling” their neighborhoods and preparing to do battle with terrorists and looters.
But seriously—if it's how these guys have fun, who am I to judge? I personally don't subscribe to the “militia” mindset or dream of the day when I will spot a “terrorist” somewhere—no doubt decked out in traditional islamist garb and carrying an AK-47 and a bomb as he skulks down the street—but I'm all about self-sufficiency and preparation for bad times, and I'm a firm advocate in fitness and relevant skills training of all sorts for practically everyone, so I applaud these guys for at least going that far. And to their further credit, I was unable to find any obvious anti-government or anti-law-enforcement stuff on their website, unlike on most militia websites and even most “mainstream” gun-related forums that I've seen.
Eventually I marked them “mostly harmless” and went on about my business, intending on just letting it pass. But then last night I saw another comment posted here. This one said that the poster agreed that BATFE is doing right by enforcing laws against gun criminals who supply guys to the drug cartels but believes that regular citizens should be able to enforce those laws too and that his group “actively works with local police forces and some of which support us. [sic]” He then went on to challenge me to stop by and check their site out “if you really are as patriotic as you say.”
Ah. So now unless I go back and look at their site some more, I'm not patriotic. Well to be fair, that didn't really spur me to any further review of their site or motivate me to join their group, but the claim that they allegedly work with local police forces (some of which supposedly support them) caused me to loudly call “BS”. I can guarantee you that there is not a police department anywhere in this country whose chief has ever said “Hey, I think that I'll grant law enforcement authority to Bob's Militia so that they can cruise around in their old Suburbans all decked out like extras from a straight-to-video war movie and arrest people.”
Sorry guys. It's never happened in America and it never will happen. Not ever.
Reading their website, it's obvious that they dream of taking on law enforcement functions and battling terrorists and other criminals here in America because they believe that somehow, they are more “legitimate” in this role than our regular and reserve military forces who, last I checked, were all better trained and equipped and just as patriotic as anyone.
OK, that bit of silliness aside, I do commend their desire to do something helpful in the time of crisis. However I think that they should probably devote their time and efforts into volunteering in a meaningful capacity, perhaps by joining an outfit like the Red Cross or some similar established disaster-response outfit. Yes I know that handing out bottled water and food to refugees is a lot less glamorous that sauntering around with an old rifle and pretending to be The Law, but it's actually realistic, and to be fair, it's exactly what the National Guard and Army Reserve units that were sent to Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina did.
Fact is, in any sort of calamity requiring a large-scale assistance effort, law enforcement will be handled by the Guard's military police units and by local agencies with their sworn personnel and reserves, bolstered by other sworn law enforcement officers from other jurisdictions if need be, just as we saw taking place during Katrina. You'll notice that during Katrina, police officers from all over the country were brought in to help but at no time did anyone at FEMA or in the Louisiana government ever get on the phone and ring up Thibodeux's Militia to see if a few guys who had no training and hadn't undergone any sort of background check might be available to run around New Orleans with rifles as a substitute for the real police. Sorry guys. I know that you're expecting to be asked/begged/allowed to do this the next time that a major catastrophe happens but you won't be.
So that said, I would suggest that if you really want to be part of the solution the next time help is needed, that you contact the Red Cross or some similar disaster preparedness group and ask them how you can help. Drop this idea that you're going to step in as some sort of armed paramilitary outfit and operate autonomously with police powers. That's not going to happen. If you really want to be the police or the military, then go through a police academy and join a real police department, or enlist. But if that's not an option, then you're pretty much restricted to helping the existing emergency groups in an unarmed capacity. It may not be as “cool” in your eyes, but it's still important and badly needed, and if you're really serious about wanting to help your communities and your fellow citizens, you'll sign on and start training with your local emergency preparedness organizations. Heck, you might even find that it's more satisfying and fun than playing toy solider.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Here come the Rambos...
Well judging by a few of the e-mails that I got today, and comments that I declined to publish, I'd say that the angry militia fringe has once again found this humble blog and taken offense with something that I posted. (Real buncha First Amendment swells, ain't they? NOT!)
The uproar this time appears centered around my post suggesting that people who flock to the Civilian Marksmanship Program just to glom onto cheap ammo and guns to squirrel away are somehow less deserving of it than the actual program participants and match shooters that it was intended for. Of course, like the potheads from Boulder that I offended last week, almost all of the feedback I'm getting contains obscenity or a personal insult of some kind, along with the usual label of "elitist" and dire predictions about how, when the time comes and the government turns on us all, I'll probably be siding with the government. I'm also being called a traitor for not standing with other gun owners.
Excuse me? I hate to tell my critics, but you guys are the lunatic fringe and you're out of step with the rest of us--the vast majority of Americans who own guns for hunting, self-defense, competition or basic recreational shooting. Most of us don't buy into your conspiracy theories about how "the government"--every single elected official and bureaucrat--is all secretly planning a big swoop in which they suspend the Constitution, take all the guns away from everyone, and do all sorts of other bad things. In case you haven't noticed, this government--made up of regular people just like anyone else here--can't agree on even the most mundane matters on any given day. How could they possibly all conspire to topple America as we know it AND keep it a secret when they can't stop anything else even remotely confidential from leaking out? Wake up, whacks...take the tinfoil hats off and calm down.
Now what's truly pathetic is that in a nation where so many people claim to care about the Right to Keep and Bear Arms--and I'm one of those--more than 95% of gun owners don't even bother belonging to the National Rifle Association--the only group that actually stands up for gun rights and the shooting sports and which has the power to make a difference. I belong to the NRA for that reason. I'm betting that few if any of the screamers calling me names do. Nah. They're too busy typing in internet forums telling each other how the NRA is a bunch of sell-outs because it doesn't win every single fight. And they can't give the NRA $35.00 because they need to buy another gun or more ammo, not to shoot it but to hide it for the day when the black helicopters land and take the rest of their stuff. They worry so much about losing their gun rights but they won't do a damned thing today to help those of us who are working to prevent it from happening.
So if my criticism comes from people like that, I say "good". These aren't my allies or anyone that I want around me, good times or bad. I value the company of most of America's shooting community because by and large, gun owners are among the most responsible and law-abiding demographic in our society and most are just good, solid American folks. But these crazies that infest the gun forums on the internet? The ones who don't want to help the rest of us pull the wagon but instead sit around planning for the day when they can rise up and take the wagon under the guise of fighting some sort of domestic tyranny? Screw 'em. They're just a small bunch of bitter no-life-having sad sacks who talk the talk but don't do much else. I'm much happier to be a member of the sane majority of the pro-gun community, the one made up of everyday people, of police officers, veterans, hunters, target shooters, recreational plinkers and people serious about their self-defense. And it's those people--the ones that do belong to the NRA and/or the CMP--that are keeping America free every day while the Walter Mitty types fantasize about a day when they can stand up and fight the rest of us and actually be taken seriously for once in their pathetic lives.
It just galls me to think that the regular decent people who shoot the Garand matches and youth shooting events, either at the Nationals or at the local gun clubs, will face a day when the cheap ammunition for training runs out because it all got bought up by a bunch of squirrels who just hoarded it all up in their basements or sold it at the gun shows for a profit.
Funny...You'd think with two wars going on right now, all those internet big-talkers who want to fight someone so bad would have enlisted years ago.
Oh that's right. The military has weight limits and psychological examinations. Oh well...
Edited to add: At least one critic has pointed out that I own a Browning Model 1919A4 .30 machine gun. I do and I'm rather proud of it, hence it's appearance on this blog from time to time. However they also assert that my gripe is that I want to buy CMP ammo for the Browning, and nothing could be farther from the truth.
That beautiful gun subsists on the large stocks of foreign surplus from places like Taiwan and Turkey, countries thoughtful enough to put it on Browning links before eventually surplusing it off. I bought a lot of that when it was cheap...far cheaper than even CMP ammo. It also gets reloads, lots of reloads, fresh off my press. But it doesn't get any of that CMP ammo that I've purchased over the years. Nope. That stuff's for my Garands and Springfields, and they may shoot a little slower than the Browning but between practice and matches, they get out to the range a lot more than it does.
The uproar this time appears centered around my post suggesting that people who flock to the Civilian Marksmanship Program just to glom onto cheap ammo and guns to squirrel away are somehow less deserving of it than the actual program participants and match shooters that it was intended for. Of course, like the potheads from Boulder that I offended last week, almost all of the feedback I'm getting contains obscenity or a personal insult of some kind, along with the usual label of "elitist" and dire predictions about how, when the time comes and the government turns on us all, I'll probably be siding with the government. I'm also being called a traitor for not standing with other gun owners.
Excuse me? I hate to tell my critics, but you guys are the lunatic fringe and you're out of step with the rest of us--the vast majority of Americans who own guns for hunting, self-defense, competition or basic recreational shooting. Most of us don't buy into your conspiracy theories about how "the government"--every single elected official and bureaucrat--is all secretly planning a big swoop in which they suspend the Constitution, take all the guns away from everyone, and do all sorts of other bad things. In case you haven't noticed, this government--made up of regular people just like anyone else here--can't agree on even the most mundane matters on any given day. How could they possibly all conspire to topple America as we know it AND keep it a secret when they can't stop anything else even remotely confidential from leaking out? Wake up, whacks...take the tinfoil hats off and calm down.
Now what's truly pathetic is that in a nation where so many people claim to care about the Right to Keep and Bear Arms--and I'm one of those--more than 95% of gun owners don't even bother belonging to the National Rifle Association--the only group that actually stands up for gun rights and the shooting sports and which has the power to make a difference. I belong to the NRA for that reason. I'm betting that few if any of the screamers calling me names do. Nah. They're too busy typing in internet forums telling each other how the NRA is a bunch of sell-outs because it doesn't win every single fight. And they can't give the NRA $35.00 because they need to buy another gun or more ammo, not to shoot it but to hide it for the day when the black helicopters land and take the rest of their stuff. They worry so much about losing their gun rights but they won't do a damned thing today to help those of us who are working to prevent it from happening.
So if my criticism comes from people like that, I say "good". These aren't my allies or anyone that I want around me, good times or bad. I value the company of most of America's shooting community because by and large, gun owners are among the most responsible and law-abiding demographic in our society and most are just good, solid American folks. But these crazies that infest the gun forums on the internet? The ones who don't want to help the rest of us pull the wagon but instead sit around planning for the day when they can rise up and take the wagon under the guise of fighting some sort of domestic tyranny? Screw 'em. They're just a small bunch of bitter no-life-having sad sacks who talk the talk but don't do much else. I'm much happier to be a member of the sane majority of the pro-gun community, the one made up of everyday people, of police officers, veterans, hunters, target shooters, recreational plinkers and people serious about their self-defense. And it's those people--the ones that do belong to the NRA and/or the CMP--that are keeping America free every day while the Walter Mitty types fantasize about a day when they can stand up and fight the rest of us and actually be taken seriously for once in their pathetic lives.
It just galls me to think that the regular decent people who shoot the Garand matches and youth shooting events, either at the Nationals or at the local gun clubs, will face a day when the cheap ammunition for training runs out because it all got bought up by a bunch of squirrels who just hoarded it all up in their basements or sold it at the gun shows for a profit.
Funny...You'd think with two wars going on right now, all those internet big-talkers who want to fight someone so bad would have enlisted years ago.
Oh that's right. The military has weight limits and psychological examinations. Oh well...
Edited to add: At least one critic has pointed out that I own a Browning Model 1919A4 .30 machine gun. I do and I'm rather proud of it, hence it's appearance on this blog from time to time. However they also assert that my gripe is that I want to buy CMP ammo for the Browning, and nothing could be farther from the truth.
That beautiful gun subsists on the large stocks of foreign surplus from places like Taiwan and Turkey, countries thoughtful enough to put it on Browning links before eventually surplusing it off. I bought a lot of that when it was cheap...far cheaper than even CMP ammo. It also gets reloads, lots of reloads, fresh off my press. But it doesn't get any of that CMP ammo that I've purchased over the years. Nope. That stuff's for my Garands and Springfields, and they may shoot a little slower than the Browning but between practice and matches, they get out to the range a lot more than it does.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Yay! Two more terrorists going to prison.
A federal judge in Alabama just sentenced two militia members to terms in prison for making and stockpiling hand grenades and other weapons in preparation for battle against the government and American law enforcement personnel, according to this story from the Decatur Daily.
More convictions are coming from the other defendants, once members of this domestic terror cell.
Man,they just sound like a bunch of hick goobers, don't they? Only thing is, even the most pathetic clowns stop being funny once they start shooting guns or hurling bombs at people. Good job, Alabama authorities and BATFE! A lot of other cops and local officials and their families can sleep safer now thanks to the stellar job that you guys did.
James Ray McElroy, 20, of Collinsville was sentenced to 41 months in prison, and Randall Garrett Cole, 22, of Gadsden was ordered to spend 37 months in prison.
Both men admitted being part of a militia that authorities said feared the government and disliked illegal immigrants. McElroy, Cole and three other men who pleaded guilty to weapons charges previously said they made and stored grenades out of fear of an economic collapse, terrorism and martial law being imposed in the United States.
More convictions are coming from the other defendants, once members of this domestic terror cell.
Agents who conducted a series of raids in April seized items including 130 hand grenades, a grenade launcher, about 70 hand grenades rigged to fire from a rifle, a machine gun, a sawed-off shotgun, 2,500 rounds of ammunition and stolen fireworks that were used as a source of explosive powder.
Authorities said the group called itself the Free Militia or the Alabama Free Militia, but members said it was too disorganized to have a name. Many of its activities centered around a ramshackle camper without running water or electricity.
"We just called it the militia," said Raymond Dillard, who held the rank of major and testified during the sentencing hearing for Cole.
Man,they just sound like a bunch of hick goobers, don't they? Only thing is, even the most pathetic clowns stop being funny once they start shooting guns or hurling bombs at people. Good job, Alabama authorities and BATFE! A lot of other cops and local officials and their families can sleep safer now thanks to the stellar job that you guys did.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Hey, you want to see some funny people?
I just Googled "Militia forum" and came up with THIS crazy site.
Read the posts in their "verifiable news and intelligence" area. When not spouting racist, anti-government conspiracy theories, they're really sitting there, scaring each other with tales of military helicopters flying over their houses and mysterious army trucks driving past. Ooooohhhh!
Of course they also puff on about how they're carrying their guns with them ready for action, in their own houses, 24/7--not because they fear a burglar but because they want to shoot the police. Now of course we all know that most of them will do just like the other ones I've written about over the last few days and dive under their beds the moment a police car pulls into their yard to investigate a "dog off the leash" complaint, but hey--they've got to talk their smack to each other, at least until they have to re-join reality and report to work at Wal-Mart or Burger King.
These guys'd be a riot if they weren't armed and itching to shoot some law enforcement officer in the back.
Here's another bunch. They claim that they aren't anti-government but they can't tell you who else other than our government that they're planning to fight against.
Read the posts in their "verifiable news and intelligence" area. When not spouting racist, anti-government conspiracy theories, they're really sitting there, scaring each other with tales of military helicopters flying over their houses and mysterious army trucks driving past. Ooooohhhh!
Of course they also puff on about how they're carrying their guns with them ready for action, in their own houses, 24/7--not because they fear a burglar but because they want to shoot the police. Now of course we all know that most of them will do just like the other ones I've written about over the last few days and dive under their beds the moment a police car pulls into their yard to investigate a "dog off the leash" complaint, but hey--they've got to talk their smack to each other, at least until they have to re-join reality and report to work at Wal-Mart or Burger King.
These guys'd be a riot if they weren't armed and itching to shoot some law enforcement officer in the back.
Here's another bunch. They claim that they aren't anti-government but they can't tell you who else other than our government that they're planning to fight against.
And here we go again--more "enemies, domestic"
Actually we should call them what they are: Criminals who knowingly broke several laws, tried to run away like cowards instead of facing their accusers in court, then pulled guns on American police officers. Now one's dead and two are shaking in their boots in Canada, where they ran to a second time after jumping bail.
This story, taken from the Rocky Mountain News, pretty much spells it out. A crazy family named Welch who grew drugs and amassed a collection of illegal weapons--some of which had been stolen from other people--decided that they'd run and try to hide behind guns or in other countries because they lack the courage to stand up for their beliefs in court or accept the consequences of their actions. And of course they, like the Alabama Free Militia and the Browns below, all have their following of camo-clad wing-nuts--fellow losers who resent a society that they can't succeed in.
But I have no sympathy for the crazy Welches or any of the others. Like most decent Americans, I own guns and I value the right that enables both me and other decent law-abiding people to do so. However I don't consider people like the Welches or the Browns or the Alabama group to be decent, law-abiding people. Involvement in drugs, refusal to pay taxes, making illegal machine guns and bombs, and threatening law enforcement officers and other innocent citizens with death pretty much takes them out of that category and I'm all for seeing them go to prison because frankly it's because of people like them that the rest of us need guns.
But like the militia types, you get beyond the bluster and the facade crumbles. The Welches talked tough when they thought that they were all big and bad with their guns, but as soon as lawful authority neutralized one of them, the rest blubbered and bawled and surrendered--to run away again of course. Without their guns and a bunch of fellow militia nutters around them, these types are always craven cowards. That's why I just can't respect them. They all talk the talk about how righteous they are, but as soon as their moment of truth comes, they scamper and hide like frightened mice. So much for their "righteousness". Even they know that they're wrong and all they ever accomplish is making the rest of us gun owners look like loons, which we're not. The media and the legislators need to be reminded that these people aren't us, and we law-abiding gun owners don't support them.
One thing's for certain though, as the Welches can surely attest: There's a big difference between playing with your guns at a militia meeting and actually pointing them at a law enforcement professional who is probably better equipped and better trained than you are. The first may get you admired by other losers in the room, but the second, as we've seen over and over again, is likely to get you deservedly dead.
This story, taken from the Rocky Mountain News, pretty much spells it out. A crazy family named Welch who grew drugs and amassed a collection of illegal weapons--some of which had been stolen from other people--decided that they'd run and try to hide behind guns or in other countries because they lack the courage to stand up for their beliefs in court or accept the consequences of their actions. And of course they, like the Alabama Free Militia and the Browns below, all have their following of camo-clad wing-nuts--fellow losers who resent a society that they can't succeed in.
But I have no sympathy for the crazy Welches or any of the others. Like most decent Americans, I own guns and I value the right that enables both me and other decent law-abiding people to do so. However I don't consider people like the Welches or the Browns or the Alabama group to be decent, law-abiding people. Involvement in drugs, refusal to pay taxes, making illegal machine guns and bombs, and threatening law enforcement officers and other innocent citizens with death pretty much takes them out of that category and I'm all for seeing them go to prison because frankly it's because of people like them that the rest of us need guns.
But like the militia types, you get beyond the bluster and the facade crumbles. The Welches talked tough when they thought that they were all big and bad with their guns, but as soon as lawful authority neutralized one of them, the rest blubbered and bawled and surrendered--to run away again of course. Without their guns and a bunch of fellow militia nutters around them, these types are always craven cowards. That's why I just can't respect them. They all talk the talk about how righteous they are, but as soon as their moment of truth comes, they scamper and hide like frightened mice. So much for their "righteousness". Even they know that they're wrong and all they ever accomplish is making the rest of us gun owners look like loons, which we're not. The media and the legislators need to be reminded that these people aren't us, and we law-abiding gun owners don't support them.
One thing's for certain though, as the Welches can surely attest: There's a big difference between playing with your guns at a militia meeting and actually pointing them at a law enforcement professional who is probably better equipped and better trained than you are. The first may get you admired by other losers in the room, but the second, as we've seen over and over again, is likely to get you deservedly dead.
Friday, April 27, 2007
On Enemies, Domestic. Militia terrorists and their admirers.
This story about a federal raid on an Alabama militia group was all the news this morning. Six males were arrested, one of whom had been a federal fugitive for over a decade. They allegedly had machine guns, suppressors, short-barreled shotguns, hand grenades, a home-made rocket launcher, and many other improvised explosive devices and booby-traps. Worse, they were selling some of these items, presumably to whoever they found with the desire and the cash. (Think about the worst or dumbest kids in your neighborhood running around with hand grenades and bombs.) And the suspects also had a number of marijuana plants, because we all know that there's nothing like getting stoned while playing with guns and bombs, right?
Predictably, I made my rounds of several of the gun-related forums and saw thread after thread started in support of these criminal pot-heads. It seems that you can never be too bad for a segment of the internet posters as long as you: 1. have guns, and: 2. profess a hatred for our government and the laws of our nation. If Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer had owned an AK-47, worn camouflage and made a few anti-government comments, they'd have been the darlings of the internet commandos at AR-15.com and FALfiles. Sheesh.
So what's up with the internet revolutionaries who sit around all day masturbating over fantasies involving not hot women but they themselves shooting and blowing up police officers and elected representatives of the American people? Most claim to worship out Constitution and the Founding Fathers who wrote it, but none seem to understand that Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and others who worked on the Constitution were setting up a government that was intended to apply to everyone in this country. The self-described "Constitutionalists" (their word, not mine)will tell you that Thomas Jefferson was some bloodthirsty radical who wanted an overthrow of every government every twenty years or so, and they'll back that up with a ton of single-sentence quotes attributed to Jefferson and other Founding Fathers. Unfortunately for their claims, most of those quote are taken out of context from the voluminous works of those great peace-loving gentleman, or else they are completely made up. Our nation's founders set up to create a government, not advocate anarchy 200 years later, and the Constitution sets up that government and establishes many checks and balances that include allowing the citizens to elect their representatives and vote directly on many laws. It also sets up a court system through which anyone can sue to block or overturn legislation, and it grants everyone the virtually unfettered right to speak out publicly about perceived injustices.
Of course the militia set only recognizes the Second Amendment, which they loosely and incorrectly interpret to mean that there can be no laws whatsoever that restrict who can have what kind of guns or where they can take them. They would have us all believe that while every other Right enumerated in the Constitution is subject to reasonable regulation pursuant to legitimate government interests, the Second somehow is holy and guns cannot be subject to legislation as can free speech, property rights, etc. And of course they've also decided that they--each individual hero-in-a-box militia man--gets to decide which laws are "unconstitutional" without bothering to take it to court. No surprise but they always seem to determine that the laws that they already desire to break are the "unconstitutional" ones. It follows then in their warped minds that anyone who would object or stop them--a police officer, a judge or a lawmaker doing their jobs--must be the real enemy.
Sadly they can't see how silly their position really is or how goofy they look when they espouse it. Seriously, almost all of them are heavily armed and thanks to the internet, they can geek each other up with tales of government "tyranny" and their plans to do battle with the "forces of evil" (police officers, judges and lawmakers again) when "the time" comes. When's that time? Well none of them seem to know. But they all agree that when it comes, they'll be ready to start shooting.
Now in the case of the Alabama goobers, I couldn't help but notice that every one of these guys was within the age limits required for enlistment in the armed forces--the real military. Yet as far as I can tell, none of them was in the service or ever had been. You'd think that with two wars currently under way, any red-blooded American boy who wanted to be a soldier would have no trouble being able to do it for real. But these guys don't strike me as red-blooded Americans any more than the internet Rambos do. The adjectives "posers", "pretenders", "wanna-be's" and "losers" come more quickly to mind. Oh--and "cowards". They want to live in a world where they're armed warriors, but they really don't want to deal with other armed warriors on the other side. They prefer to terrorize neighboring farmers and teenagers. And of course like every other militia wing-nut, they talk smack about how they'll fight off the cops "when the time comes", however as always happens when the time really does come, they fold up like a bunch of lawn chairs and surrender without firing even a token shot.
Of course they probably worship Randy Weaver. That whole cammie-crowd does. Weaver, if you recall, was the no-job-having white supremacist who was arguably set up by federal agents on an illegal gun charge but instead of going to court and defending himself like a man, he ran away to a mountain cabin, where he taunted the feds via short-wave radio for about a year, daring them to come get him, until finally they did. Weaver's son murdered a courageous Deputy United States Marshal by the name of William Francis Degan by shooting him from ambush, and was himself justifiably shot down. Weaver's wife was erroneously shot by a federal sharpshooter a few days later, but she was a grown woman who was aiding and abetting her husband and she'd also had every opportunity to surrender but refused to do so. After she got show, Randy, not really the bravest guy when the heat was on, realized that he would probably be next and meekly surrendered. He sued the government for millions of dollars when he got out of prison, but he lost when the jury said that he had no one to blame but himself. He now ekes out a pathetic living going from gun show to gun show, hawking his book and charging people to have their picture taken with him.
I've seen the guy--he's scrawny, his hygiene sucks, and he rarely makes eye contact with anyone. And I was amazed this this is the guy that the Walter Mitty wanna-be-Rambo crowd views as their Messiah. If anything, it only underscores how pathetic THEY are.
Frankly I'm tired of logging onto some gun-related website and having to wade through post after post by some non-hacking, french-fry-burning, fat-bodied headcase who insists on using the site as a forum to spout off about the Federal Reserve System, the black people and their abuse of welfare, what a great President Ron Paul will be, and how the police are bad, the legislators corrupt, and everyone's conspiring to take their guns then establish Martial Law and start putting "patriots" (their label for themselves) in prison. I resent having some minimum-wage flunky who probably lives in a trailer or with his parents trying to tell me--a law-school graduate and once-practicing attorney--what the Constitution says and means and running down the country that I love because it does not mirror their ideal of what a "free" country should be like. ("Free country"=place where any militia member can wear camouflage when they go to the mall, own and shoot machine guns and blow things up in their back yards all day. That's really all they care about.) And I'm tired of these fools making law-abiding, responsible gun owners look like terrorists just because they insist on following us, posting on our websites, and standing around gun shows in XXXL cammies trying to get mistaken for an actual veteran and bragging about how high-speed they are. Most don't vote, or if they do, they vote for some third-party whack job. They hate everyone who doesn't share their world-view and they despise lawful authority. Folks, these people are not with us reputable gun owners and more than Doctors Kervorkian and Mengele are representative of the medical community or Geoffrey Fieger serves as an example of what all lawyers are like. These militia guys aren't the good guys and I wouldn't want them behind me when times get bad. (These are the ones who seriously plan for a disaster by stockpiling 30,000 rds of ammunition but no food or other supplies. Comforting thought, eh?)
I once took an oath to defend this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Many of us in America have. Well when I see these militia types, either being paraded off to jail on the news or posting crap on internet websites, I'm pretty sure that I'm looking at some of those very "enemies, domestic" that I and other great Americans swore to protect this great country against.
Predictably, I made my rounds of several of the gun-related forums and saw thread after thread started in support of these criminal pot-heads. It seems that you can never be too bad for a segment of the internet posters as long as you: 1. have guns, and: 2. profess a hatred for our government and the laws of our nation. If Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer had owned an AK-47, worn camouflage and made a few anti-government comments, they'd have been the darlings of the internet commandos at AR-15.com and FALfiles. Sheesh.
So what's up with the internet revolutionaries who sit around all day masturbating over fantasies involving not hot women but they themselves shooting and blowing up police officers and elected representatives of the American people? Most claim to worship out Constitution and the Founding Fathers who wrote it, but none seem to understand that Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and others who worked on the Constitution were setting up a government that was intended to apply to everyone in this country. The self-described "Constitutionalists" (their word, not mine)will tell you that Thomas Jefferson was some bloodthirsty radical who wanted an overthrow of every government every twenty years or so, and they'll back that up with a ton of single-sentence quotes attributed to Jefferson and other Founding Fathers. Unfortunately for their claims, most of those quote are taken out of context from the voluminous works of those great peace-loving gentleman, or else they are completely made up. Our nation's founders set up to create a government, not advocate anarchy 200 years later, and the Constitution sets up that government and establishes many checks and balances that include allowing the citizens to elect their representatives and vote directly on many laws. It also sets up a court system through which anyone can sue to block or overturn legislation, and it grants everyone the virtually unfettered right to speak out publicly about perceived injustices.
Of course the militia set only recognizes the Second Amendment, which they loosely and incorrectly interpret to mean that there can be no laws whatsoever that restrict who can have what kind of guns or where they can take them. They would have us all believe that while every other Right enumerated in the Constitution is subject to reasonable regulation pursuant to legitimate government interests, the Second somehow is holy and guns cannot be subject to legislation as can free speech, property rights, etc. And of course they've also decided that they--each individual hero-in-a-box militia man--gets to decide which laws are "unconstitutional" without bothering to take it to court. No surprise but they always seem to determine that the laws that they already desire to break are the "unconstitutional" ones. It follows then in their warped minds that anyone who would object or stop them--a police officer, a judge or a lawmaker doing their jobs--must be the real enemy.
Sadly they can't see how silly their position really is or how goofy they look when they espouse it. Seriously, almost all of them are heavily armed and thanks to the internet, they can geek each other up with tales of government "tyranny" and their plans to do battle with the "forces of evil" (police officers, judges and lawmakers again) when "the time" comes. When's that time? Well none of them seem to know. But they all agree that when it comes, they'll be ready to start shooting.
Now in the case of the Alabama goobers, I couldn't help but notice that every one of these guys was within the age limits required for enlistment in the armed forces--the real military. Yet as far as I can tell, none of them was in the service or ever had been. You'd think that with two wars currently under way, any red-blooded American boy who wanted to be a soldier would have no trouble being able to do it for real. But these guys don't strike me as red-blooded Americans any more than the internet Rambos do. The adjectives "posers", "pretenders", "wanna-be's" and "losers" come more quickly to mind. Oh--and "cowards". They want to live in a world where they're armed warriors, but they really don't want to deal with other armed warriors on the other side. They prefer to terrorize neighboring farmers and teenagers. And of course like every other militia wing-nut, they talk smack about how they'll fight off the cops "when the time comes", however as always happens when the time really does come, they fold up like a bunch of lawn chairs and surrender without firing even a token shot.
Of course they probably worship Randy Weaver. That whole cammie-crowd does. Weaver, if you recall, was the no-job-having white supremacist who was arguably set up by federal agents on an illegal gun charge but instead of going to court and defending himself like a man, he ran away to a mountain cabin, where he taunted the feds via short-wave radio for about a year, daring them to come get him, until finally they did. Weaver's son murdered a courageous Deputy United States Marshal by the name of William Francis Degan by shooting him from ambush, and was himself justifiably shot down. Weaver's wife was erroneously shot by a federal sharpshooter a few days later, but she was a grown woman who was aiding and abetting her husband and she'd also had every opportunity to surrender but refused to do so. After she got show, Randy, not really the bravest guy when the heat was on, realized that he would probably be next and meekly surrendered. He sued the government for millions of dollars when he got out of prison, but he lost when the jury said that he had no one to blame but himself. He now ekes out a pathetic living going from gun show to gun show, hawking his book and charging people to have their picture taken with him.
I've seen the guy--he's scrawny, his hygiene sucks, and he rarely makes eye contact with anyone. And I was amazed this this is the guy that the Walter Mitty wanna-be-Rambo crowd views as their Messiah. If anything, it only underscores how pathetic THEY are.
Frankly I'm tired of logging onto some gun-related website and having to wade through post after post by some non-hacking, french-fry-burning, fat-bodied headcase who insists on using the site as a forum to spout off about the Federal Reserve System, the black people and their abuse of welfare, what a great President Ron Paul will be, and how the police are bad, the legislators corrupt, and everyone's conspiring to take their guns then establish Martial Law and start putting "patriots" (their label for themselves) in prison. I resent having some minimum-wage flunky who probably lives in a trailer or with his parents trying to tell me--a law-school graduate and once-practicing attorney--what the Constitution says and means and running down the country that I love because it does not mirror their ideal of what a "free" country should be like. ("Free country"=place where any militia member can wear camouflage when they go to the mall, own and shoot machine guns and blow things up in their back yards all day. That's really all they care about.) And I'm tired of these fools making law-abiding, responsible gun owners look like terrorists just because they insist on following us, posting on our websites, and standing around gun shows in XXXL cammies trying to get mistaken for an actual veteran and bragging about how high-speed they are. Most don't vote, or if they do, they vote for some third-party whack job. They hate everyone who doesn't share their world-view and they despise lawful authority. Folks, these people are not with us reputable gun owners and more than Doctors Kervorkian and Mengele are representative of the medical community or Geoffrey Fieger serves as an example of what all lawyers are like. These militia guys aren't the good guys and I wouldn't want them behind me when times get bad. (These are the ones who seriously plan for a disaster by stockpiling 30,000 rds of ammunition but no food or other supplies. Comforting thought, eh?)
I once took an oath to defend this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Many of us in America have. Well when I see these militia types, either being paraded off to jail on the news or posting crap on internet websites, I'm pretty sure that I'm looking at some of those very "enemies, domestic" that I and other great Americans swore to protect this great country against.
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