Battle For the 2A: No More Circular Firing Squads

The gun bans are coming! The gun bans are coming!

Every time anti-gun forces take control of both Congress and the Oval Office, gun-rights advocates find themselves doing the modern equivalent of Paul Revere’s ride. Of course, part of our mission is to spread the word about what the Joe Bidens and Nancy Pelosis of the world are up to, as Revere did when the incoming British forces were spotted. But here’s a little-known fact about that famous ride. Paul Revere didn’t finish it. He was captured; Dr. Samuel Prescott escaped and managed to warn the Revolutionary forces. “Dr. Prescott” may not rhyme with “Listen children, and you shall hear,” but there’s an unforgettable message there for Second Amendment activists anyway: We’re all going to have to work together as a team to save the 2A…so get out of the circular firing squad.

The gun banners know that there are divisions among us.

It’s normal and natural that we gun owners don’t all share the same opinions…there are millions of us, after all. That means that there are cracks in our ideological bedrock. One of the most obvious ones is the famous “Fudds Vs. Tackleberrys.” Fudds are, of course, named after the hapless cartoon hunter Elmer Fudd and focus on firearms as hunting tools. Tackleberrys, named for the gung-ho gun-guy character in Police Academy, aren’t terribly concerned about hunting, but are very focused on tactical and security matters.

Historically, “Fudd” types have been more open to allowing limitations on the Second Amendment as long as it doesn’t impact their ability to hunt. The problem is that the gun banners know that, and are doing everything in their power to widen that division.

What has happened before, is happening now, and will happen again is the following: Gun banners will tell you that they don’t want to ban your guns. They know you are a law-abiding citizen. They will promise that it’s just those other people, the ones who can’t be trusted, that they’re targeting with this legislation. This is, to put it bluntly, a lie on par with “the check’s in the mail.”

Yes, that is a slippery slope, and it starts with stuff you don’t care about.

The famous quote is as follows: First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

This is exactly how it works every time the gun banners set sail for the Second Amendment’s shores. They start with relatively “fringe” features, like bump stocks and multi-round magazines. Those of us who don’t mind switching our mags out more frequently might just shrug and say, “So what? Who cares?” The problem is that the Second Amendment doesn’t have any codicils or footnotes in it about adjustable buttstocks or muzzle brakes. It says, “Keep and Bear Arms.” And every time we let them get away with banning some aspect of gun ownership, we’re saying that the Second Amendment is negotiable.

They will come for your guns eventually, and that is a promise.

If you’d like to know what it looks like when a formerly gun-friendly country “negotiates” their right to keep and bear arms, just look at Australia. Although they don’t have a Second Amendment (and never will), the former English colony has a lot in common with America. That includes, up until very recently, a pretty healthy gun culture. But then a monster used a semi-automatic firearm to commit an atrocity in Australia. In the wake of the horror, Aussie anti-gunners passed knee-jerk legislation that banned pretty much everything that shoots more than five rounds, as well as a punitive licensing scheme.

Why do they always do this? Well, part of the reason is that gun bans don’t work. Never have, never will. So what happens is the anti-gunners get their ban passed, then crime goes up. Because they are incapable of admitting that they were wrong, they simply do the same thing again, only harder. They ban more specific types of firearms, and specific features…and crime goes up again. Sooner or later, they get to the single-shots and the muzzleloaders, and that’s a promise.

Don’t believe me? Just ask Elmer Fudd!

Do you have fond childhood memories of waking early on a Saturday, pouring yourself a bowl full of tooth-melting cereal, and settling down in front of the TV to watch Elmer Fudd chase Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck from Wabbit Season to Duck Season? If so, it’s time to repent of your thoughtcrime, because there’s a reboot of those old Looney ‘Tunes coming down the pike…and there won’t be a double-barrel shotgun or a rootin’, tootin’, razzin’, frazzin’ revolver to be seen.

Yes, that’s right…they actually took Elmer Fudd’s gun away.

If we’re going to save the Second Amendment, we’re going to need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder. Because the gun bans are coming, and when we’re standing in a circular firing squad, we’re doing the anti-gunners’ work for them.