Gunnie stuff

(I originally titled this "Gunny stuff", but I didn't want to confuse Uncle Sam's Misguided Children any more than they already are.) ;)

While I usually expound on how Texas is better off without the US, I will admit that our founding documents were echoed in many ways from their's, especially the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I haven't heard of any other country in the world whose founding documents allow, nay, demand that its citizens be armed (US Second Amendment; Texas Article I, Section 23); most countries have some article which makes noise about right of security and safety, but never explains how to do that.

As the US Founding Fathers saw, the only way to do that is make every citizen responsible for themselves: individually, folks could protect themselves from criminals; altogether the People would be able to overwhelm any army the government could hope to tyrannize them with. To that end, there's no Constitutional stipulation of a "Royal Armorer" or government approval to make guns. As such, the recent actions of various government agencies (noises about a renewed "assault weapons ban" and ammo taxes and restrictions thru "micro stamping" every bullet with a serial number(?!?)) would make it seem prudent to learn how to make firearms from common household materials, so that the People could fight back, when various laws and agencies make it near impossible to buy guns and ammo thru traditional, legal means.

Mind you, I've heard from assorted gun-rights philosophers that just because the People have the right to own firearms, doesn't mean they also have the enthusiasm necessary to use them when the Government has infringed that right one too many times. Folks seem complacent in thinking, "it doesn't matter that I toil for nearly half the year paying off the taxes from various Federal, State, and local agencies, I STILL HAVE MY GUNS!" or "it's terrible that I fear an IRS audit for the smallest accidental infraction, but I STILL HAVE MY GUNS!" What good is having a right if one is too afraid to exercise it, because of some imagined retribution by tyrants? (I'd point out, that retribution can come all at once, or a little at a time, like we're suffering under NOW!) Even Thomas Jefferson said "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of patriots and tyrants." (It's kinda pathetic that this link is to a Canadian site, the comments there are pretty fired up for being our far northern neighbours, I should expect that host to be in the US.)(Here is a link to the whole letter, from which that quote comes.)