Do you ever reach your boiling point?

[BHPshooter]

(don't forget Jane's lists Gun Owners of America as a terrorist outfit)

You've got to be kidding me. And terrorists (that will be synonymous with "gun owner" in a few years) can be held indefinitely without trial.

So, 215 years after the adoption of the Bill of Rights, we are finally getting the real idea of what the 2nd Amendment is there for -- to defend your own rights. I won't go into the graphic description of what that may entail, but you get it.

Yes, I'm at boiling point every hour that I'm awake.

Wes

 

[Norton]

I feel like I'm on a constant simmer 24.5 hours a day anymore. This whole business with the MD AWB has gotten me so upset that I actually lie awake at night pondering whether we may have to give up our jobs here and make a strategic withdrawal to another state.

But the sad reality as I see it is that states like MD, CA, MA are the front lines of the war for America's future and if we lose here, it will creep across the country until it has devoured every last shred of liberty and freedom.

I don't know what else to do. Even here in MD, we are the clear majority. Yet, we have arrayed against us the might of the leftist media, politicians and a few powerful and vocal lobbies. How is it that I can write 10 letters to the local paper and not have a SINGLE one published? How is it that Leah Barrett can write lies from the sanctity of her $870,000.00 house and be revered as the saviour of all that's good and holy?

I've often relayed the optimism that I feel when I see some of my students espousing thoughtful conservative opinion, but I must face the truth that they are a distinct minority amongst the brain-washed government educated masses.

This fight may be over already, I fear. And truth be known....I doubt that it will finish with a bang....more likely a whimper. There will be no Bravehearts shouting "Freedom", no Todd Beamers saying "Let's Roll", No Patrick Henrys decrying "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death".

When they finally say "turn 'em in".....we'll hold a couple back and hide them the best we can. We'll put a few cases of ammo in strategic places for a rainy day......but the truth is that we'll all just keep doing what we are.....just trying to get by the best we can. Yes, we'll write letters, make phone calls and generally behave as civilized people do. But darn few of us will sacrifice our families' futures by becoming Bubba's new girlfriend at www.statepen.gov.

Perhaps I'm just crying in my beer and need a few hours of sleep. Somebody please give me something to help me keep the faith

 

[Gramps]

Yep, those were the days. Born 49. Fondly recall packing my Winchester Model 12 to high school with me, in the back of my rig so I could limit out on phesants on the way home. That doesn't happen any longer for a # of reasons, #1 being I'd be permanently kicked out of school. No one thought about killing your fellow school mates. Boy have times changed. Hmmm, maybe replacing prayer with condoms wasn't a good idea after all.
Gramps

 

[oldfart]

Threads like this one arouse strange feelings in me. I read about how someone born in 1958 has seen so much change in our way of life and is getting angry about it. Someone else complains about overlapping laws and jurisdictions and cries about how our government no longer represents us. Still others remember 'the good old days' when they carried their guns to school so they could go hunting afterward. Through all of this, a low background noise of rebellion murmurs.

John Ross had it right. So did Thomas Jefferson and Nathan Hale. So did Jefferson Davis and a host of others who, after trying everything else, finally took up arms against the tyrants that ruled over them.

We-- as a group-- have tried almost everything else. Some of us-- as individuals-- have passed that point. Every week we see a new story about someone who has reached his own personal boiling point and struck out at the source of his pain. On rare occasions-- because they are well protected-- a member of that "source" is struck. More often though, it is one of the lower ranking soldiers who gets hurt, a police officer.

Earlier today I read a long dissertation about this very subject. The author suggested that the American people are withdrawing their "consent" to be governed. That they are ignoring more and more foolish 'feel-good' laws and the legislators who pass them. He indicated that widespread renunciation of the PATRIOT ACT by cities and counties across the land is a symptom of the growing discontent with the 'one-size-fits-all' laws handed down from Washington. I know of a number of good citizens who routinely carry concealed guns WITHOUT a permit from the King. I imagine there are many,many more who ignore that law and other laws whose only purpose is to categorize us all.

From time to time someone suggests it might well be time to 'shoot the bastards.' If the moderators don't immediately remove his post, others quickly reply with cries about how such action would lead to (gasp) WAR!

Folks, we are at war, on several fronts. We are being invaded from the south. Our government, which is instituted to protect us, instead protects the corporations that own the smaller companies that hire these invaders. Our military is being squandered in countries half-way around the world while our bureaucrats welcome thousands and millions of 'refugees' from those and other, similar countries.

We have an ongoing war on poverty, and poverty is winning. We have a war on drugs, and drugs are more plentiful than ever. We have a war on terrorism, and we are too terrified of our own government to stand up and spit in its eye! Terror has won this one too. As gunowners, we can only hope the blissninnies begin a war on guns. I could use a few more!

I was born the same year the National Firearms Act was signed into law. I remember the things you have all talked about-- and more. I remember wearing a pair of cap-guns to see a Tom Mix movie. I remember a Red Ryder BB gun under the Christmas tree. I remember my dad laying on top of the house with an '03-A3 resting across the roof peak and shooting the heads off pheasants at 200 yards. I also remember a man who committed suicide by hanging himself while a dozen neighbors watched. I know he hanged himself because my dad was there and he told me what happened. It seems that the man felt remorse for having raped a small girl.

As long as these threads keep showing up you can bet no one will drum up enough intestinal fortitude (guts) to spit in the eye of the beast. As long as we can vent here we won't act there. That has to be one of the primary reasons government will never shut down the internet. So keep typing and relieving the pressure and nothing will ever get done... just like the beast wants.

 

[Norton]

oldfart....maybe you've hit the nail on the head. What if the internet is really just a different form of pacification that allows us to talk the talk but avoid walking the walk? It could be that it's even more insidious than TV because we know TV sucks but believe that our posting here and other places somehow makes a difference.

You've sort of come close to what I was talking about that we stockpile guns and ammo for SHTF but what if we are already there and we are just watching it happen?

What will be our "shot heard 'round the the world"? Has it already happened and no one was listening? Who will be the ones who finally say, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore"?

I don't even pretend to have the answers anymore. The more I read, the more confused I get. The more I see, the angrier I get. I'm not ready to climb into the clock tower yet, but I can see how there may be others out there who are. We've lost our sovereignity, our individual freedoms and the more we resist, the more we are branded as "extremists".

The people who think as most of us here on THR do are clearly in the majority in this country, yet that voice is somehow squelched by a leftist controlled press. When a news source such as Fox (love'em or hate'em) resists this trend they are dismissed as right-wing mouthpipes despite that fact they go OUT OF THEIR WAY to present dissenting opinions on both sides of issues.

How is it that our representative government no longer represents us? What do we do?

ok....too much Sam Adams Double Bock......or is it not enough?

 

[7.62FullMetalJacket]

Oldfart,
Ttyping here does not satisfy me. This means of communication helps me define boundaries, listen to the rumble of the jungle, and get a feel for what other members are thinking. I have actually accelerated preparations for the coming "possible" conflict. Before THR, I sensed somethjing was amiss, but could not know the magnitude. AFter discussing the numerous issues here, I am getting a real sense of the magnitude. My personal trip wire is getting real tight.

 

[Mark Tyson]

What if the internet is really just a different form of pacification that allows us to talk the talk but avoid walking the walk?

Take heart - the consensus seems to be that the net is a vehicle for social mobilization. Didn't you and a bunch of others just coordinate an appearance in Annapolis over the internet?

 

[geegee]

When I think of something that provides a stark contrast of today and when I was a kid (I was born in '52), it's the fact that my high school had a rifle team. I wasn't a member, but just the fact that it was in a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y. should tell you how different things have become. I can't imagine a high school rifle team anywhere in America, much less a high school in New York State. As I recently told my sister "Once Mom and Dad pass away, I'll never go back. Any state that would elect Hilary Clinton as a Senator surely has nothing I'm interested in."

IMHO, two of biggest accomplices in the change of our country are the media and lawywers. If you can control the messenger, the content of the message can be most anything you want. With a national media that has been far too happy for years to provide cover for every liberal politician and special interest group, they've had their way in framing the discussions and defining who we are. I don't care what anyone here thinks of Rush Limbaugh (personally I like him, but nowhere near as much as I used to), but he will be identified as the single most important conservative in the second half of the 20th Century. There are more that have greater intellect, and some more eloquent, but without his tenaciousness in publicly dogging liberals every day for the past 15 years, our plight would be far worse.

Inflation will always increase the pricing of goods and services, but the cost to the consumer of living in the most litigious society is enormous. Why have so many things exploded in cost from "the good ole days?" The answer I believe is in the courts. Every person, every business, every school, has to factor in the cost of a legal battle looming on the horizon. That's just the way it is, and it won't get any better anytime soon. People don't settle anything anymore "man to man." Have a dispute with a neighbor, a relative, or an employer? Sue the b@$t@rd$ Ask any teacher if he or she has ever encountered a kid that has responded to their disciplinary admonition with "You can't do that to me. My father will sue!" Do I even need to mention what Affirmative Action has done to the employment situation in this country?

Yeah, I'm fed up too. geegee

 

[Norton]

Mark Tyson....I suppose you are right in that regard, but I fear it will be for nothing. These socialists in control of our state government have decided that they do not need to listen to the constituency which they allegedly represent. They will pass that AWB regardless of what the people of MD truly want.

 

[Norton]

7.62FullMetalJacket....

Before THR....I was like you....I sensed something "just wasn't right" with what I believed should be, and the way things were. I continue to use the analogy of "The Matrix".......we've unplugged ourselves from the Matrix and the other poor slobs are content to go about their miserable little lives not wanting to see or believe what's really going in the world.

 

[Standing Wolf]

The natural form of government is tyranny.

You didn't make my day, Rainraven, but you nailed it.

 

[Atticus]

Interesting thread. I was born in 1956 and can relate to the experiences posted here. I do get frustrated and depressed at times, but overall I don't think things in general are all that bad. Granted, I don't live in an area that is strongly anti-gun, and I own far more more guns than I thought I ever would. I will soon get to carry concealed legally (something I've not been able to do LEGALLY in my entire life). Even the Democratic party strategist are telling their candidates to play down the gun issue. It's not a lost cause,at least politically, but socially it is a huge issue. We are getting Urbanized in a big way, and in the urban setting, guns are equated with non-white gangs and crime, (just as John Ross stated), and medicated white kids shooting classmates. The media and public schools are teaching kids to believe that guns are like heroin (1% usefull and 99% harmfull). I agree with Boats on many points; but what I see at work nearly every day, is a whole new generation of 20-30 somethings that have been re-educated by the system to be anti-gun. I see it in my own kids, who are too young to understand many of the concepts involved, although I try everyday to teach to their level, and will continue to do so. It is a powerfull force to overcome. THAT is what I find most frightening.

 

[seeker_two]

ravinraven got it in one...

I've had it. I'm absolutely fed up with arbitrary, capricious rules and laws that make no sense. There's a day coming--and that date I cannot predict--when all of this horsehockey is going to rain down onto those politicians who try to play the "blood in the streets" card, or try to play both sides on gun issues.

When that day comes, Mr. Politician--and that day will most assuredly come--you'd better be with me. If not, you'll wish that your mother had an abortion.

When the time comes, count me in the coathanger brigade...

 

[oldfart]

I will do this again-- and again and again, if neccesary. Go to www.lizmichael.com/mcveight.htm. From there you can find other stuff she's written. Rush is good because he has a wide audience, but others--- and Liz is one-- are better. Some of what she says you won't like but it's still worth reading and thinking about.

One of the first things we have to get through our heads is... our government is our enemy! It is no longer a government of the people in the sense that it is made up of citizens like us. Rather, it is a government of the people in the sense that it governs us. It governs us because we are afraid of it; that is to say we are both tyrannized by it and terrified of it.

I started grade school when I was only five years old. Naturally, I was smaller than my classmates and I got pushed around quite a lot. It got to a point where I always walked behind the other kids and kept my mouth shut except when spoken to. It continued until my second year of high school when, for some reason I've never understood, I just got fed up and socked a guy who had, until then, made my life miserable. To this day, I don't know who was more surprised, him or I, but the bullying stopped. Not only did he stop but the other guys stopped too. That was the beginning of my education. After that, I never backed down from an even fight and if it wasn't even, I waited until it was.

That's just about where we are. We recognize the bully and we know his tactics. We just haven't decided to slap him in the mouth... yet! The bad thing is, if one of us does decide to make a stand he'll do it alone and the media will crucify him.
How many went to help at Ruby Ridge? Well, actually there were a few, but they weren't properly organized and the JBTs nabbed them right away. But no one showed up at Waco or any of the other smaller situations. That Church in Indianapolis (I think) was being primed for a big slapdown until word got out that some militia group might show up, then the government got a whole lot more reasonable.

People fight for causes. We like to say we'll fight for our way of life and our freedom and those are reasonable causes. The JBTs are fighting for their retirement fund. While I might lay my life on the line for my family I doubt very many of us (or them) would do the same for a check drawn on the treasury of a nation in debt to some foreign country.

The simple fact is... if we want to be free, we'll have to fight for it. The current generation has no knowledge of what previous generations had to do to pass on the little bit of freedom they now enjoy and there is no way to properly tell them either. Just like every generation before, they'll have to suffer and die until they no longer have anything left to lose. Then-- and only then-- they'll fight! In the meantime, it is up to us to keep the swords sharp and clean for the comming battle.

 

[HunterGatherer]

I reach boiling all the time.


Here is what I try to do about it: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66588

 

[Gordon Fink]

If and when the “assault-weapons†ban is reauthorized and expanded later this year, the legislative war will be effectively over. The remaining choice will be to fight or to lose the ability to so.

We will not fight …

~G. Fink