The Roots of Anti-Government Gun Culture in America

 The Daily Beast

The most arresting idea in Adam Winkler's impressively learned study of US gun law, Gunfight, is the suggestion that contemporary American gun culture was more or less invented by the Black Panthers.

Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the party founders, had studied law and discovered California allowed the carrying in public of loaded rifles and shotguns, provided that the guns were not pointed at anyone. They seized on this law to stage theatrical confrontations with an Oakland police force they deemed hostile and oppressive - and then, most dramatically, in May 1967, to walk armed into the chamber of the California State Assembly. Police tried to intervene, but Newton and Seale recited the authorizing law, and pushed ahead.

The article goes on to point out the similarities between modern-day gun-rights activists and the Black Panther Movement of the 1960s. Fascinating.

Keith Says It Best

via One Utah

For the "Semper Paratus" Guys

via Boing Boing

If you're the sort of person who worries about having jackboot thugs breaking down your door and taking your laptop, you might consider this "Media Artist Contingency Plan," which helpfully marks off the spot you should aim your high-speed drill if you need to nuke your hard-drive in a hurry. Of course, full-disk encryption is a little less messy and more reliable (though perhaps also a little less stylish and dramatic).

Paranoid Joe Huffman

In response to my claims that genocide "can't happen here," Joe had this to say.

I think you are correct, "It can't happen here." But the reason for that is that the most likely victims are those that happen to own firearms. The ownership of firearms changes your attitude and your relationship with your government. With that attitude change and the presence of firearms in the hands of the most likely victims those most inclined to commit genocide are severely discouraged from doing so. You might challenge my assertion that the most likely victims are those with firearms but look at all the great genocides committed within a population (not across cultures such as whites against American Indians or the Japanese against the Chinese). All of them that I can think of were committed by leftists and other statists upon those that resisted their authority. Gun owners, as a group, are more self reliant and oppose the big government involvement associated with leftist governments. Just look at the violent rhetoric and actions of the anti-gun people in this country. There are far more people advocating that gun owners kill each other, themselves, and their children than the other way around.

You claim it "won't happen here"? You are correct but you don't understand the real reason. It is because the gun owners won't let it happen. We regard the protection of innocent life as a responsibility of gun ownership. The lefists regard genocide as just part of the cost of achieving and maintaining power.

His other answer about Washington D.C. was pretty flimsy too, but I wanted to concentrate on this one.

He said, "You might challenge my assertion that the most likely victims are those with firearms."  Yes I might indeed. This sounds like more than paranoia. This sounds like paranoia and egocentrism. It's not uncommon for the gun rights extremist, like Joe, to think the world revolves around him.

He said, "You claim it "won't happen here"? You are correct but you don't understand the real reason. It is because the gun owners won't let it happen."

Aside from the comical condescension, what he apparently believes is pretty funny too. Imagine the federal government with the largest military spending ever known to man, coming after the gun owners. Those gun owners, banding together perhaps someplace in Idaho to make a stand, would fight off the stealth bombers, nuclear and chemical weapons, all guided by the most advanced satellites. These intrepid warriors would emerge from the ashes free and victorious.

That's Joe's vision, and not only Joe's. Thousands read his blog every day.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Sovereign Citizen Extremists

Via Laci.

Noam Chomsky on the Government

So many pro-gun folks hate the government. Noam would say they're misled. What do you think? (via The Well-Armed Lamb)

The Sovereign Movement - Las Vegas

The Las Vegas Sun has the story.

Four members of an anti-government movement, known as the "Sovereign Movement," have been arrested after a three-year investigation by the Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force on allegations of money laundering, tax evasion and possessing unregistered machine guns.

These guys believed they were their own country, and as such I suppose they had to be their own weapons manufacturers.

In addition to the STEN machine gun, the task force seized a mill and other equipment that allowed Call to transform weapons into machine guns and he demonstrated an AR-15 rifle he had converted to allow for fully automatic firing.

What do you think about these guys? Do their beliefs make sense but they've just taken them too far? Or are they completely off the wall?

Members of the group believe they do not have to pay taxes and believe the federal government deceived Americans into obtaining Social Security cards, drivers' licenses, car registrations and wedding licenses, among other official records. The group believes that if these contracts are revoked, persons are "sovereign citizens."

Members of this group also believe that U.S. currency is invalid. They widely use fictitious financial instruments, such as fake money orders, personal checks and sight drafts, and participate in "redemption" schemes where the false financial documents are used to pay creditors.

Please leave a comment.

Like Father Like Son

CNN reports on the highly dramatic shootout that left two cops and two suspects dead in Arkansas.

Two suspects accused of gunning down Arkansas police officers this week may have ties to extremist anti-government groups, two civil rights organizations say.

Jerry R. Kane, 45, and his 16-year-old son Joseph Kane fatally shot two police officers and wounded two others during a wild shootout Thursday, according to Arkansas state police.

The father and son were shot and killed during the battle on the streets of West Memphis, Arkansas.

The Anti-Defamation League said the two suspects belonged to "an extreme right-wing movement that believes that virtually all existing government in the United States is illegitimate and which seeks to restore an idealized, minimalist government that never actually existed."

It sounds like a familiar theme, the anti-government one. Is it so difficult to identify the ones who cross the line from the more acceptable complaining about big government to the dangerous category which guys like this inhabit? Do you think the government doesn't have lists to do just that? Is it wrong?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.