patrick.net

By the way, I don't intend to draw moral equivalence between Timothy McVeigh and the revolutionary war.

SiO2 said: "When does something cross the line from regular crime to fighting the tyrannical state? I think we can all agree that shooting schoolchildren is never warranted. But, if one really hates the IRS' "tyrannical confiscation" of wages, why not bomb the office? I read about a guy who bombed a school in the 1920s because he was unhappy about a property tax increase. Why wouldn't that be ok? When does such anti-government action become ok under the 2nd amendment?"

The day a Declaration of Independence is signed. There's nothing ok about it. It simply happens. For better or worse. And it always happens. It's only a matter of time.

As suspected before the thread began, the new proposed gun control legislation asks law abiding gun owners to sign up with the national registry "or else". Now we need to to know what "or else" means, because many thousands of people will refuse to register or will under-register their arms because they do not accept the action of the federal government. This would mean that they do not find their elected officials are representing their interests any longer. They will rightly ask where in this law are you protecting my second amendment rights? How will the registry not be abused? And what will be done with the registry preemptively? If someone owns "too many" guns and has a son on antidepressants, where is the guarrantee that their 2nd amendment rights will be protected.

They will also argue that they could form "militias" for the purposes of defending their personal liberties.

It is foolish to have faith in the most powerful governmental entity in human history.

Ill tell you what comes next. Ma and Pa won't have to stare down a line of heavily armed marines in the street at high noon. The STATES will grow some balls and finally draw a line, because local governments answer directly to the people when the federal does not.

There is too much federal power. There is too much faith in Federal power. There is not enough fear of federal fiscal meddling. And too little language coming from the federal government that even pays lip-service to individual liberty over "the common good".