TexasCHLforum.com

The executive director of CSGV has posted an opinion piece on the NRA and mentions Charles Cotton among others in it. Mr Horwitz seems to be under the impression that NRA members and/or 2nd Amendment types are just waiting to start an armed insurrection....

The comments are enlightening. The website where it is posted is instructive as well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-horw ... lp00000592

"Insurrectionist ideology", huh? Here's an example of that "insurrectionist ideology" that is very familiar to many of us:

The Oath of Enlistment (for enlistees):
"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

The Oath of Office (for officers):
"I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance tot he same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God."

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?

So he quotes the NRA, and puts the lie to his entire screed.

"We do not want a civil war against the radical left wing of the Democrat Party, but let it be made abundantly clear that if they start one,"

I put my 2cents on that article. Let us see how it goes.

Beiruty wrote:I put my 2cents on that article. Let us see how it goes.

Can you give me an identifier to plug into my CTRL+F function to find your post and subsequent comments?

Charlies.Contingency wrote:

Beiruty wrote:I put my 2cents on that article. Let us see how it goes.

Can you give me an identifier to plug into my CTRL+F function to find your post and subsequent comments?

PM sent.

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.

A list of the "member organizations" of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition ... n_Violence
Maybe we need to start looking into them.

Personally I believe I will start writing e-mails explaining who I am, (a 69 year old father and grandfather) why I have a CHL and why they should quit the CSGV.