"From My Cold, Dead, Hands!"

(This Post First Ran in
November of 2005!)

“From My Cold, Dead, Hands”

I was listening to a radio show in the wee hours of the morning, the other day, and there was an on going debate about gun control in the USA.

As I listened, it became clear to me that those on the “take the guns” side have managed to delude themselves into thinking that those of us on the “keep the guns” side will give up our weapons without a bloodbath in the streets of America. I nearly dropped my razor, as I was shaving at the time. It was such a blow to me to realize that those “Ban the Guns” folks are so out of touch with reality that they actually believe that.

Now, I’m a Southern American. I was reared around guns as a child and have handled, and fired weapons, all my life. I was taught to fire weapons at the age of six. That is actually a little late for a Southern boy to learn how to handle firearms. I legally purchased my first shotgun at age 12. It was a Winchester, model 37, with a 30-inch barrel, full choke. It was a very good squirrel gun… and a “weapon of mass destruction” on small game. It made a terrific Deer weapon with either a 12-gauge slug or double ought buckshot. But good marksmanship was required. It was a single shot, so often the shooter had a single chance to bag the game he was aiming for.

I have hunted the woods and the swamps of the two Carolinas all my life until failing health put a stop to it.

In the eyes of the “Ban the Guns” folks I own an arsenal of weapons. In a manner of speaking, I suppose I do. I own long guns; handguns and I even have edged weapons such as Bowie knives. Generally speaking… I’m armed to the teeth. At one time I was very good with a bow as well. Often my aim was better with a bow that with a rifle. Go figure! I tell you this, not as a boast, but to attempt to point out that I’m an average gun owner. Actually, a bit below average, here, in my part of the country.

Only a tiny portion of weapons owned by citizens of the United States are registered. Would you care to guess why? Because… if the weapon is registered, the government knows where it is located.

And one other point the “Ban the Guns” folks overlook… it is fairly easy to manufacture both handguns and long guns in your basement workshop. Back in the day of the “zip guns” I made several myself. I was nearly always armed during my teen years.

As I said, I’m just an “average” gun owner here in the American Southland. I have no gun rack in my pick-up.

Having said all this… let me ask you a serious question. Do you really believe, way down deep, that I would willingly hand over my weapons and place my safety, and that of my family, into the hands of a bureaucratic government agency such as the local police department? Do You?

Well, friend, if you do … you are demented and need serious help, right away.

I can say, with no hesitation, the only way the US government will ever come close to getting gun owning Americans to give up their weapons is with force of arms. In other words… they will have to use guns to take our guns. There will be a blood bath the likes of which this country hasn’t seen since the “late unpleasantness” in 1860 to 1865. It would cause an instant separation in the country. The UNITED states would be no more.

This is not an easy thing for me to say. It is not an easy thing to contemplate, yet is an undeniable truth.

I’m not a member of the NRA. I used to be… many years ago. And, I will be again… if a Democrat is elected President in 2008.

Many of us understand that a Democrat can never be trusted with the security of the US again. That means OUR security is at risk. The security of our families is at risk.

Call us what you will, but when that last element, the security of our families, is added to the mix, the line will have been crossed and that’s when the gun safes, and gun cabinets, are opened and we take responsibility for the safety of our homes and our families.

There is much truth to the old adage: “An armed man is a free man. An unarmed man is a “subject’”.

America was conquered and taken with the gun. Our independence was taken with the gun, our freedom is secured with the gun, and our liberty, as a free people, will be safe as long as American citizens are armed with a gun.

To quote Charlton Heston: “…from my cold, dead, hands!”

Longstreet