TexasCHLforum.com

I tried to respond, but my post just stayed grayed out.

Here's what I tried to post:

I'm a member of the NRA and I'm offended by my affiliations put in context with The Turner Diaries. I've never read it based on what I know about it from excerpts. Apparently, based on what he knew about the work, Mr. Horwitz decided it was worth the investment in time to read it. Bully for him, but not for me.

As to any insurrection by armed citizens, please be mature. Rebellion is not a whim and the NRA cetainly does not say otherwise. The Declaration puts it well. "Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

As to whether the armed citizen is a barrier to a runaway government with military might, read Federalist #46. There Madison addresses the question of a people opposed by their government and whether a regular army could defeat a militia, and says, "Those who are best acquainted with the last successful resistance of this country against the British arms, will be most inclined to deny the possibility of [the militia being crushed by the military]."

But if we have endured a long train of abuses and usurpations they have been self-inflicted at the ballot box. There is no need by tyrants to execute any design to reduce us under despotism, we're doing that to ourselves.

I believe that explains why no civil war is in the offing. Certainly there are lines the government could cross that would justify such a thing. We have many examples of government beyond reason. Our own experiences in 1776, Germany's excesses such as Auschwitz, Japan's establishment of Unit 731, and many others. Government not constrained by law is an ugly thing, and cannot be tolerated by gentle and upstanding people.

Good grief. I can only suppose the article was written to trigger overreaction. Any other purpose would suggest the author lacks the cognition of a carrot.

I confess I've never read The Turner Diaries because I have not wished to contribute to the thinking I suspect is behind it. I fully support the freedom to publish fiction of that kind, and hope my freedom to avoid it is equally respected.

But based on what I think I know about The Turner Diaries, it is insane to put that work in context with the NRA. I also note the Huffington author who put The Turner Diaries and the NRA in the same bucket actually read The Turner Diaries. Ewww. Pass the mental floss, please.

As far as insurrection, I happen to know an interesting statistic.

In 2013, the DPS logged 158 convictions against marauding taxpayers who committed aggravated assault against public servants. Predictably, none of the marauding taxpayers were CHL holders.

And the DPS logged 8 convictions against marauding public servants who committed aggravated assault against taxpayers. Predictably, none of the marauding public servants were CHL holders.

There's a pattern there, I think. No matter what side of the equation you look at, us gun nuts are pretty civil people.

Put another way, which business would you rather be in when the power failed, cell towers blew over, and you couldn't call 911 - a gun free business where none of the strangers in the room, except any wishing you harm, were armed, or a business that refused service to non-CHL holders, where every total stranger in your company was armed to the teeth?

Paraphrasing Davy Crockett, you may all tremble in the safety of gun free utopias, I will stay in heavily armed Texas.

And fervently hope Texas stays heavily armed. It's just more - what's the right word? - idyllic? Pragmatically utopian? Free? All of the above?