My brother sent this to me. It might have ran around the internet universe seven times via email. But it was new to me, and I found it genuinely insightful.
“With all the defects in our Constitution, whether general or particular, the comparison of our government with those of Europe, is like a comparison of Heaven with Hell” (Aug. 14, 1787. ME 6:274)
Twelve years after Jefferson wrote these words, Napolean Bonaparte installed himself into power in a coup and began a totalitarian dictatorship. For the next sixteen years, he stirred constant war across Europe.
Sixty-one years after Jefferson wrote these words Karl Marx wrote his Communist Manifesto, which stated, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
One hundred and twenty-seven years after Jefferson wrote these words the hatred and ugliness that had long festered in Europe erupted into the most vicious and murderous world war the world had ever known up to that time.
One hundred and thirty years after Jefferson wrote these words the revolution of class struggle described by Marx violently took over Russia and began to grow into the greatest oppressor of the human spirit the world has ever known. Over one hundred million human beings would die under the system of communism.
One hundred and thirty-five years after Jefferson wrote these words the dictator Benito Mussolini brought fascism into the world in Italy. And one hundred and forty-six years after Jefferson wrote these words Adolf Hitler degenerated fascism into its ultimate depths of evil that led to the Holocaust and the most costly and horrible war ever waged.
While European despots and totalitarian regimes seized weapons from the hands of the people and dominated their people with tyranny, America – like heaven in comparison – continued to grow as a free nation. Ultimately, it came to grips with the conflict that the founding fathers deliberately created, and faced its own tyranny in a costly Civil War that resulted in the freeing of the slaves.
While white Americans continued to be free to keep tyranny at bay by bearing arms, the laws prior to the Civil War kept blacks under the thrall of abject tyranny:
“No slave shall go armed with a gun, or shall keep such weapons,” declared an 1854 law of North Carolina.
There were four million black slaves in 1861. How long would they have remained slaves had they possessed arms?
And thus without further ado we present the:
FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE
1. “Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.” ~Thomas Jefferson
2. Those who trade liberty for security have neither. ~John Adams
3. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
4. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
5. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.
6. Gun control is not about guns; it’s about control.
7. You only have the rights you are willing to fight for.
8. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.
9. You don’t shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
10. Assault is a behavior, not a device.
11. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
12. The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights Reserved.
13. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.
14. What part of ‘shall not be infringed’ do you NOT understand?
15. Guns have only two enemies; rust and politicians.
16. When you remove the people’s right to bear arms, you create slaves.
17. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.
IF YOU AGREE, PASS THIS ‘REFRESHER’ ON TO TEN FREE CITIZENS.
I think back to the country our founding fathers had emerged from. In Britain, it was illegal for a peasant to be armed. Revolt against the king – no matter how villainous or tyrannical he was – was absolutely impossible.
The founding fathers had an idea for a greater system of government; one which forced the government to respect the people.
I think back more recently to the many countries that America has liberated from tyrants – Iraq and Afghanistan included. The peoples we liberated were helpless to liberate themselves; they needed the strong and mighty hand of a free people who loved and valued freedom to do their liberating for them.
And America – with its passion for freedom and its hatred of tyranny espoused in the theme of sic semper tyrannis – has a proud and noble history of liberating peoples from the most evil dictators and tyrants the world has ever seen.
The 2nd Amendment was a reaction against tyranny in the aftermath of their conflict with a nation that offered its people no recourse against the tyranny of their government.
As we stare a government that is growing larger and ever larger, and more and ever more invasive, we keep our rights as a free people only by embracing the fundamental right to defend ourselves against tyranny from the wisest and noblest political leaders who ever lived.
Start Thinking Right 