Arming the Left: Is the time now? --by Charles Southwell

[Ian David]

Arming the Left: Is the time now? --by Charles Southwell

I hope you didn't open this page to read what we already know: that this is the most rightwing government we have ever had in the US, even far right of Bush I, that our rights are being eroded daily, and that our democratic process is all but gone, if it isn't already gone.

I hope you came here to read about tactics for action that will finally have some consequence. I hope you agree that our protests, petitions, letters, and on and on, have been utterly ignored. The fascistas that run our country laugh at us. They believe they can do anything and that we haven't got the guts to revolt, but only to wage a war of words. I have seen the Bush cavalcades, as they drive away, his aids sneering and jeering and laughing and mocking our protests. They think we are a JOKE. Tens of millions of Americans protested the war, but because we posed no REAL THREAT to their power, we were UTTERLY IGNORED.

As long as we pose no REAL threat to the powers-that-be, to what is shaping up into a dictatorship, we will continue to be ignored. Right now, we are ignored because we present no organized power to fight this onslaught of anti-democratic, totalitarian government that we are up against.

It will take time, but it's time to get more left-leaning liberals and outright leftists to at least POSE a threat, by getting organized and getting ARMED. It's time to get well past this liberal phobia and taboo about weapons and force. After all, our liberalism was won with a REVOLUTIONARY WAR! they used real guns in that war. The French Revolution was also a WAR and they used real weapons there too.

More:
http://www.legitgov.org/essay_southwell_arming_the_left_is_the_time_now_102203.html

Also:


http://www.pinkpistols.org/

[HopeHoops]

1. I didn't have any ammunition in the house until a few months before the election.

The right wing crazy-ass bastards were talking about armed revolt then - and it has gotten worse. I keep a clip loaded for the shotgun now.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. Somebody bought a saiga

Damn I need to get one of those. All my shotguns are tube mags. So slow to reload.

[HopeHoops]

4. Frankly I don't know what a "saiga" is. This is an OLD (emphasis) Sears model (Stevens/Savage?)

It is a really fine piece of work. I like it just for the craftsmanship.

[AtheistCrusader]

19. Box mag?

[HopeHoops]

21. It just has a clip that holds two cartridges - you pop it in from the underside.

I suppose you could load it manually, but I honestly don't know how. I've never fired it.

[mwrguy]

24. You might want to learn how to use it

It's not going to do you any good trying to learn on the fly during an emergency.

[HopeHoops]

25. I've fired rifles before and another shotgun - just not this one.

The safety is a little dodgy so I don't keep it loaded.

[cowman]

16. Clip?

For a Shotgun?
1. It's not a clip, it's called a magazine
2.What kind of shotgun and what guage?
Whoops, never mind

[HopeHoops]

18. It only holds 2 cartridges - 20 guage.

[AtheistCrusader]

2. Being armed is really never a bad thing.

The only time it's possible to have too much ammo is if you have to move it, or you are on fire.

If you value your civil liberties, if you value your way of life, remaining armed is the best insurance policy you can ever obtain.

[frebrd]

5. K&R! n/t

[sharesunited]

6. Not helpful. Look to Gandhi. Look to MLK.

[Hoopla Phil]

8. Gandhi anti gun? Ha Ha Ha! Gandhi on guns. In his own words.

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. If we want the Arms Act to be repealed, if we want to learn the use of arms, here is a golden opportunity. If the middle classes render voluntary help to Government in the hour of its trial, distrust will disappear, and the ban on possessing arms will be withdrawn." Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Chapter XXVII, Recruiting Campaign, Page 403, Dover paperback edition, 1983.

[virginia mountainman]

14. LOL you beat me to the "enter key"

[sharesunited]

15. Gandhi was shot to death, and achieved his final enlightenment in that moment.

[Hoopla Phil]

17. Ha Ha Ha. Just like all mediums. You channeled Gandhi to say what you wanted. Ha Ha Ha.

Gandhi would be spinning in his grave if he knew his name was being manipulated by people into such things.

[AtheistCrusader]

20. If men and women with guns had a vested interest in either figure's safety

we could have enjoyed the fruits of both living out their natural lives.

I'd also like to know who annointed you speaker for the dead.

[DonP]

22. So did Carl Spackler

...the assistant groundskeeper ay Bushwood. Thanks to the Dalai Lama, a big hitter.

[sharesunited]

28. So he's got that going for him.

Which is nice.

[cowman]

29. Dumb as a solution to dumb

100 points awarded

[David__77]

9. Look to Sukarno. Look to Malcolm X,

For every MLK, there are thousands in the trench of war fighting life and death. Nothing comes for free. Nothing falls without being hit.

[virginia mountainman]

12. Good Idea!!

Gandhi wrote in Chapter XXVII, "The Recruiting Campaign," in his autobiography, My Experiments with Truth:

'Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.

[GMBshootingclubM60]

7. brady say to not have guns..

They are 49 times more likely to kill someone in your family.

Use 911 to stop rabid rightwingers.

[Hoopla Phil]

11. That 49 times state has been debunked many times over. It is a myth! And what happens when 911

does not work? Like what happened in the Texas hill country for 7 hours affecting several towns?

Check this out: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x304605

[David__77]

13. Learn gun safety and be smart and the likelihood is not 49 times higher.

I think it's a personal choice. But I do think that being armed can be a good thing. An armed citizenry is a good thing in general.

[PavePusher]

27. Don't forget your sarcasm tags... n/t

[spin]

10. While I support gun ownership ...

"shall issue" concealed carry, castle doctrine and "stand your ground" laws, I don't advocate buying arms in order to intimidate our government.

Perhaps people believe that since the US federal government has the fire power to blow up the world X times over, that we have no chance, and that the 2nd amendment is therefore moot. I used to think the same thing. In fact, this was the major if not the only lasting upshot of the Cold War! the Cold war wasn't about one opposing ideology against the other; it wasn't about the East vs. the West. In the end, it was about the respective governments against their own peoples. The Cold War resulted in the repression of the peoples in those countries, and likewise, of peoples around the world.

But, it is still a myth that the US citizens are powerless against their government, a government that has become tyrannical and has usurped our democratic rights. We are not powerless against it. If we get organized and armed, and form a force of hundreds of thousands, we can overcome this government, or pose enough of a threat to have power. The government cannot drop a nuclear bomb on DC. It cannot risk the lives of whole cities, without revealing its own contradictions that is. Further, there is no guarantee that the military will remain loyal to a government that continually reveals itself as imperialistic and ruthless and having no real concern for its own personnel. The Iraqi occupation is teaching many of them that hard lesson. They are realizing that not Hussein, but the Bush regime, is their real enemy.

So I ask you, isn't it time that left-leaning liberals and leftists exercised their 2nd amendment rights and got organized and prepared? Isn't it time, before it's too late? Isn't it time, before another Bush coup and the following four years of increased repression and economic ruin?
http://www.legitgov.org/essay_southwell_arming_the_left_is_the_time_now_102203.html

The article was written in 2003 and since that year we voted and basically eliminated the power of the Republican party and gained control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. The results are mixed and sometimes lead me to wonder if we have in reality a one party system in our country. A party that wears a two faced mask.



But we are still be able to effect change through the ballot box. It's far from the time to buy arms for an uprising. Since it would lack popular support, it would fail and the result would be a disarming of American citizens at the worst and new draconian gun laws at the best.

I do agree that more liberals should consider buying firearms for hunting, target shooting and even for self defense. Violent crimes rates have dropped significantly in the last two decades just as gun sales and concealed carry permits were skyrocketing. There is no reliable research to indicate that more guns and more concealed carry permits cause crime rates to drop and there are many variables to consider as reasons for the drop in crime. However, it obvious that more guns and more concealed carry licenses have not resulted in more crime.

[DonP]

23. 2003!! What the hell does this have to do with the here and now? ntxt

[Name removed]

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[Katya Mullethov]

30. Try to buy Lake City if you can

Nothing more irritating than crappy battlefield pickups .

[Name removed]

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