Brimstone
03-13-13, 16:50
Not sure if this has been posted, but it was damn well written:
An Open Letter To A Sheep (http://www.coldsteel.com/Open-Letter-To-A-Sheep.aspx)
follow link for complete letter
An open letter to a Sheep
First of all I would like to encourage all of our Cold Steel fans, friends and customers to read the following LA Times article, entitled "Dorner case shows the folly of armed fight with government" by George Skelton, dated Thursday February 14th, 2013.:
Dorner case shows folly of arming oneself to combat government - latimes.com (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap-guns-20130214,0,2648847.column)
Skelton (whose articles show a decided anti-gun stance) describes "obsessed gun owners" and "disgruntled misfits" who believe in the "nutty notion that a citizen can be heavily armed enough to fight off the government".
It's hard to respond to this article without playing into Skelton's stereotypical caricature of the angry ranting gun owner. I can't help it, when you talk about taking my guns from me I get mad. It brings out that knee-jerk reaction in me. Therefore I wanted to take the time to reflect on his article and calmly respond to his points.
The reason the second amendment is so important is that it exists to protect not only the people but the other amendments. Without the second amendment the people cannot defend any of their rights. Without the second amendment the government can rule without the good will and support of the citizenry that it should exist to serve and represent. Any threats to the second amendment understandably make a lot of people (myself included) very angry and very concerned for our nation's future.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am not only a firm supporter of our second amendment rights but a keen historian. I take great pride in not only owning and appreciating firearms but having no small amount of knowledge regarding their history, social context and their place in our society, as well as their development and application. I could quite easily turn this into a history lecture, but I will try to be brief.
Rather than reply to Skelton's fear-mongering and confrontational tone with an equally aggressive article I would like to point out a couple of errors on his part and then maybe ask a few questions of my own...
Dear George,
My name is Lynn Thompson, and I am the President of Cold Steel Knives. I have been reading your articles in the LA Times with great interest and growing concern. I'd like to respond to one particular article from February 14th entitled "Dorner case shows the folly of armed fight with government" if I may. As a proud gun owner and supporter of the second amendment I felt obliged to raise several points. I understand that you may disagree with them, but hopefully you will find this of interest...
"...the 2nd Amendment was written by patriots who did successfully rebel against the tyranny of a foreign power"
I'm sorry George, you are mistaken. England wasn't a foreign power at that time - they represented our government. America was a colony. Those brave patriots successfully rebelled against their own government. Those individuals, with their grit, determination, passion and - yes - their guns, then went on to form the great nation we have today.
"...too many people think that private citizens should be sufficiently armed to take on not only the local police, but the Army, the Navy, the Marines and even the Air Force"
Let's look at this historically. The English were 1000 times richer than our poor colony. They had not only one of the finest standing armies but the most powerful Navy in the world. They were the super-power of their day and their troops were armed with the state of the art weapons of that time. From Brown Bess Musket and Bayonet to Hanger, Tomahawk or even a Broadsword (in the case of the Scottish troops). By contrast our militiamen were armed with their own private guns! That's right, their personal arms. At Concord and Lexington the militia, using guerilla tactics and hard won frontier honed marksmanship skills, slew or wounded 200 British troops (losing only 8 men in the process). When patriots, who love freedom more than life, take up their personal arms - they do alright. 8 to 200, not too bad, George...
"You can't protect your freedom when the government has more guns than the people."
The government doesn't have more guns than the people - and that's what we are talking about in this context, not a crazy lone gunman (whose actions should never be condoned or justified) but a people rising against a government. There are approximately 70 million gun owners in the USA, with roughly 300 million guns and untold billions of rounds of ammunition. That's quite possibly more guns and ammo than any of the world's standing armies combined! These guns that you are so afraid of, well our enemies are afraid of them too. That's not scary, that is empowering! There are those of us who see responsible and law abiding gun owners as a huge asset to this nation - it's a great comfort to know that they are out there!
An Open Letter To A Sheep (http://www.coldsteel.com/Open-Letter-To-A-Sheep.aspx)
follow link for complete letter
An open letter to a Sheep
First of all I would like to encourage all of our Cold Steel fans, friends and customers to read the following LA Times article, entitled "Dorner case shows the folly of armed fight with government" by George Skelton, dated Thursday February 14th, 2013.:
Dorner case shows folly of arming oneself to combat government - latimes.com (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap-guns-20130214,0,2648847.column)
Skelton (whose articles show a decided anti-gun stance) describes "obsessed gun owners" and "disgruntled misfits" who believe in the "nutty notion that a citizen can be heavily armed enough to fight off the government".
It's hard to respond to this article without playing into Skelton's stereotypical caricature of the angry ranting gun owner. I can't help it, when you talk about taking my guns from me I get mad. It brings out that knee-jerk reaction in me. Therefore I wanted to take the time to reflect on his article and calmly respond to his points.
The reason the second amendment is so important is that it exists to protect not only the people but the other amendments. Without the second amendment the people cannot defend any of their rights. Without the second amendment the government can rule without the good will and support of the citizenry that it should exist to serve and represent. Any threats to the second amendment understandably make a lot of people (myself included) very angry and very concerned for our nation's future.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am not only a firm supporter of our second amendment rights but a keen historian. I take great pride in not only owning and appreciating firearms but having no small amount of knowledge regarding their history, social context and their place in our society, as well as their development and application. I could quite easily turn this into a history lecture, but I will try to be brief.
Rather than reply to Skelton's fear-mongering and confrontational tone with an equally aggressive article I would like to point out a couple of errors on his part and then maybe ask a few questions of my own...
Dear George,
My name is Lynn Thompson, and I am the President of Cold Steel Knives. I have been reading your articles in the LA Times with great interest and growing concern. I'd like to respond to one particular article from February 14th entitled "Dorner case shows the folly of armed fight with government" if I may. As a proud gun owner and supporter of the second amendment I felt obliged to raise several points. I understand that you may disagree with them, but hopefully you will find this of interest...
"...the 2nd Amendment was written by patriots who did successfully rebel against the tyranny of a foreign power"
I'm sorry George, you are mistaken. England wasn't a foreign power at that time - they represented our government. America was a colony. Those brave patriots successfully rebelled against their own government. Those individuals, with their grit, determination, passion and - yes - their guns, then went on to form the great nation we have today.
"...too many people think that private citizens should be sufficiently armed to take on not only the local police, but the Army, the Navy, the Marines and even the Air Force"
Let's look at this historically. The English were 1000 times richer than our poor colony. They had not only one of the finest standing armies but the most powerful Navy in the world. They were the super-power of their day and their troops were armed with the state of the art weapons of that time. From Brown Bess Musket and Bayonet to Hanger, Tomahawk or even a Broadsword (in the case of the Scottish troops). By contrast our militiamen were armed with their own private guns! That's right, their personal arms. At Concord and Lexington the militia, using guerilla tactics and hard won frontier honed marksmanship skills, slew or wounded 200 British troops (losing only 8 men in the process). When patriots, who love freedom more than life, take up their personal arms - they do alright. 8 to 200, not too bad, George...
"You can't protect your freedom when the government has more guns than the people."
The government doesn't have more guns than the people - and that's what we are talking about in this context, not a crazy lone gunman (whose actions should never be condoned or justified) but a people rising against a government. There are approximately 70 million gun owners in the USA, with roughly 300 million guns and untold billions of rounds of ammunition. That's quite possibly more guns and ammo than any of the world's standing armies combined! These guns that you are so afraid of, well our enemies are afraid of them too. That's not scary, that is empowering! There are those of us who see responsible and law abiding gun owners as a huge asset to this nation - it's a great comfort to know that they are out there!