This Page                     Leaflet symbol: A royalty-free leaflet is available Introduction: Why I am fighting gun control Overview of political strategic considerations Teenagers with Guns Guns and the Entertainment Industry Gun control supporters define Bill Clinton as a statutory rapist! (24 year old "juveniles") An open message to Handgun Control Incorporated, Rosie O'Donnell, etc. "Molon labe." Second Amendment links

Introduction: Why I am Fighting Gun Control*

This site defines strategies and tactics for counteracting gun control legislation, and even for destroying the political credibility of organizations like Handgun Control Incorporated. In fact, it introduces military-grade propaganda, the kind that countries use when they are at war, into the controversy. Isn't this a bit extreme? Shouldn't a reasonable person seek compromise or a win-win solution? Everybody agrees that violent criminals shouldn't have guns. Everybody agrees that law-abiding firearm owners should use them safely and responsibly; wouldn't mandatory licensing and registration (as with automobiles, a point the gun control party makes repeatedly) help promote safe and responsible firearm use? Dr. Stephen Covey's Principle-Centered Leadership is a principal reference for my nonfiction books. It contains the essence of how any organization, social group, family, or country should operate. The quest for a win-win solution, e.g. "keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals while promoting safe and responsible firearm use by law-abiding citizens" is a keystone of constructive conflict resolution. I consider myself among its foremost advocates. Dr. Covey also points out (accurately) that "compromise" is lose-lose; neither side gets everything it wants but, since both sides agree the solution is "fair," no one walks away angry. This is the situation:

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger

Here's the basic problem. As soon as someone (including an organization) displays lack of good faith and dishonesty, they lose me. You can and should do win-win with someone who honestly disagrees with you, but you cannot do win-win with someone who is untrustworthy. You cannot even compromise with them, because they cannot be trusted to keep their part of an agreement; Czechosolovakia was not Hitler's "last demand," despite Neville Chamberlain's wishful thinking to the contrary. Handgun Control Incorporated and its allies play dirty, like Messala in the chariot race in Ben Hur. (NRA President Charlton Heston, are you listening?)

1. HCI knowingly and willfully manipulates statistics to deceive the American people. As an industrial statistician with a master's degree and several professional certifications, I know exactly what they are doing. I would consider it unprofessional and unethical conduct to behave like HCI in presenting data to an employer, client, or customer.
• To avoid the chance that HCI is making an honest mistake, a polite and respectful letter to Sarah Brady was delivered to HCI by certified mail on December 30, 1999. No reply was received, and HCI continues to present misleading statistics. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that HCI's misuse of statistics is willful.
• HCI's ally, the Violence Policy Center, has openly stated its intention to deceive the public by capitalizing on the public's ignorance of the difference between semiautomatic military-looking rifles and machine guns.
2. HCI itself boasted that the Brady Bill (waiting period and background check) was merely "the camel's nose under the tent; wait until you see the rest of the camel." The instantaneous background check for gun buyers was win-win because it denied gun sales to convicted felons while allowing law-abiding citizens to buy guns without having to wait. HCI opposed it. What HCI and its allies want is to take a little today, whatever they can get away with, a little more tomorrow, and so on. It's similar to what Hitler did beginning with Austria, continuing with the Sudetenland, and so on. Neville Chamberlain tried to compromise with Hitler, and look where it got him (and Europe).
3. The gun control movement includes people like Dianne Feinstein, Ted Kennedy, and Carl Rowan who want gun control for everybody but themselves (i.e. the rich and influential).
4. Handgun Control Inc. redefines words like "assault weapon" to mean any rifle they don't like. HCI throws around the buzzword "Saturday Night Special," a buzzword with a very ugly pedigree; the complete buzzword begins with the "N" word. It originated among white supremacists during the 19th century as a term for inexpensive handguns that Black people (and later, working-class immigrants) often purchased for self-protection.
5. HCI, its Congressional allies, and Bill Clinton recently enacted legislation that bars people who have been convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from owning firearms. There is room for rational discussion here; is someone who has convicted of domestic violence likely to shoot his/her spouse in a fit of anger? The legislation's promoters, however, revealed their dishonesty when they discussed exempting police officers (who, if unable to carry firearms, could not keep their jobs).
• The legislation's premise is that an ordinary citizen who has committed domestic violence cannot be trusted not to shoot his/her spouse. If this premise is accurate, can a police officer who has committed domestic violence be trusted not to use his/her sidearm on a disorderly, verbally abusive, or even physically abusive (but not at the level that justifies deadly force) stranger? And a police officer's duty requires frequent interaction with disorderly and abusive strangers.
• Here's what I think happened. The people who passed this legislation didn't think ahead; they didn't realize that it would affect some police officers, and they want police as allies. Once they discovered their error, they introduced amendments to control the damage but, by doing so, they revealed that they do not really believe their own premise: that someone who has committed misdemeanor-level domestic violence poses a life-threatening hazard to others. Again, there is room for discussion of the legislation's premise, but its proponents have revealed their lack of character, integrity, and ethics very clearly.
6. When HCI talks about national licensing of firearm owners "just like drivers," this is not what they are talking about. A driver's license from any state is good in all fifty states and in Washington, DC. A real national firearms license would mean that a licensed gun owner from New Hampshire could carry his pistol into New York City, Morton Grove, Chicago, or Washington DC. If someone suggested that, of course, HCI would squeal bloody murder.
7. HCI and its allies continue to press for gun locks even after HCI's own lawyer, Dennis Henigan, proves in public that these locks are likely to get their users killed.

You don't seek a win-win solution with someone like that, because their goal is win-lose (they win, you lose). You don't negotiate with someone like that, any more than you negotiate with a malignant tumor or with plague bacteria. You stop them- period. You stop them by using all lawful and socially acceptable means available.

* An American (prior to the United States' entry into the Second World War) asked Winston Churchill why England was fighting the Nazis. Churchill answered, "If we stop, you'll find out."

Assessment of the American gun control movement

Sincere if misguided idealists; they genuinely believe that gun control will make society safer. I do not agree with them, but I respect them because they "walk their talk."	Unknown.	Hypocrites, limousine liberals and would-be lords of the manor who want gun laws for everybody but themselves, outright liars, and political opportunists. Scum, gutter trash, the dregs of civilized society.
Former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) (Any politician who tells the public the truth about Social Security- that it's a pyramid scheme- has my respect.) Former Senator John Glenn (D-OH) "Mr. Clean" "Right Stuff" Marine war hero, faithful husband to Annie Glenn. A person of character who happens to be on the other side. Senator John McCain (DR-AZ) I was thinking of voting for him in the 2000 primary, now I'm glad I didn't. Million Mom March leader Mary Leigh Blek, probably duped into supporting the agenda of liars like Donna Dees-Thomases	Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) SLAM Records Sarah Brady (has stooped to lying with figures)	Former Congressman Mario Biaggi (D-NY) Bill Clinton (and Hillary Clinton) Chicago Mayor Richard Daley (D-IL) Donna Dees-Thomases, founder of the Million Mom March New York Mayor David Dinkins (D-NY) Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) Vice President Albert Gore Jr. New York Mayor Rudolph Guliani (R-NY) No better than Dinkins, for allowing violence in Central Park Former Senator Carol Mosely-Braun (D-IL) Rosie O'Donnell  Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), the fat drunk from Massachusetts NAACP head Kwesei Mfume Washington Post columnist Carl Rowan

Overview: Political Strategic Considerations

This is the basic political goal:Any questions?

(When the Romans destroyed Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War, they salted the nearby ground so nothing would ever grow there again.)

Tentative half-measures and rational discourse do not work when one is dealing with demagogues and dishonest propagandists. The following quotes convey the political/ public relations spirit in which we should work:
 

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage... --King Henry V at the siege of Harfleur

"Germany looks not to Prussian liberalism, but to Prussia's might. . . . Not through speeches or  majority decisions will the great questions of the day be settled -- that was the great blunder of 1848 and 1849 -- but through Iron and Blood." "Nicht durch Reden und Majoritätsbeschlüsse werden die großen Fragen der Zeit entschieden - das ist der Fehler von 1848 und 1849  gewesen -, sondern durch Eisen und Blut."

General George S. Patton, Jr.: "We're going to hold on to them by the nose, and we're going to kick them in the [pants]."

Field Marshal Alexander V. Suvorov (1729-1800) "Stab once and throw the Turk off the bayonet. Bayonet another, bayonet a third; a real warrior will bayonet half a dozen and more." (Tsouras, Warriors' Words, 1992, 23)

This is the essence of the Western (Greco-Roman) Way of War: the idea of closing with the enemy, getting in his face, and achieving decisive results. In the political sense, "using the bayonet"- or hitting through the enemy line with the bayonet, as endorsed by Suvorov- means that, when an opportunity arises (as presented by Dianne Feinstein, Carl Rowan, and Dennis Henigan; see below)- you seize it and make it into a decisive victory. When they drop the ball, you grab it and run with it. You drag the issue through the national media and never let up. You never let up. Suvorov rarely* let his enemies retreat without a pursuit to the death: Cossacks were to seize the enemy's colors and guns, lance or saber any of his men who wouldn't surrender, and scatter him to the four winds. "Pursue the last man to the [river] Adda and throw the remains into the river!" Suvorov's army rarely had to fight the same troops more than once.

* "rarely"- pity sometimes compelled Suvorov to spare a retreating enemy, as in, "It's a real pity that I don't have any fresh cavalry available."

NRA and Gun Rights Supporters: 
Pay attention, these two quotations describe the techniques the bad guys are using against you.

"All propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent of those towards whom it intends to direct itself." -Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), Vol. I

"...there was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger, 'and this will always be the man in the street.' Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology... Hatred and contempt must be directed at particular individuals." -H. Trevor-Roper (ed), The Goebbels Diaries, p. XX, cited in Regan, Geoffrey. 1987. Great Military Disasters. New York: M. Evans and Company.

I am not holding Goebbels and Hitler up as desirable role models. On the other hand, if you are going to tell the truth, you had better use the same techniques, or the other side will run over you. I believe that, had Germany's Jews used public relations and propaganda techniques similar to the Nazis', against the Nazis, they would have saved not only six million Jews, but also the four to seven million Gentile victims of the Holocaust, plus the millions of soldiers who were killed in Europe during the Second World War. They would have had to do this, of course, before the Nazis became so powerful that they could prevent their opponents from expressing any ideas.

"Hatred and contempt must be directed at particular individuals." The antigun groups are doing this, for example, to NRA President Charlton Heston. They are demonizing the firearm industry and the National Rifle Association. They stereotype NRA members as beer-swilling semiliterate rednecks and closet white supremacists... go back 40 years and you'll see a stereotyped Black person with big lips and a bestial expression, or 60 years (to Nazi Germany) to see a Jew with a hooked nose and exaggerated Semitic features. Same technique, different issue. Here's my answer to them- people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

"Hatred and contempt" must be directed only at antigun figures who are obvious hypocrites or liars. No gentleman or lady of character directs personal attacks at someone who honestly disagrees with them.

Teenagers and Guns

Handgun Control Inc.'s latest crusade- "keeping guns out of the hands of children and teenagers." HCI and its allies focus on exceptional criminal acts like the Littleton Colorado shootings to push for more gun laws. Here's what HCI doesn't want you to see:

• "A 14-year-old Plymouth Township, Wisconsin girl was getting ready for school early one morning when she noticed a man peering through the bedroom window. The frightened girl, whose parents had already left for work, responsed by retrieving a double-barreled shotgun. That image was apparently enough to send the man fleeing, The girl's father had set out both the shotgun and a pistol for exactly such a contingency after she reported seeing the same man the previous day." (The Janesville Gazette, Janesville, WI, 3/24/99, seen in the Armed Citizen feature of The American Rifleman, June 1999)
• Unlike Carl "Warning Shot" Rowan, the girl did not fire the shotgun at a man who was merely trespassing; she merely held it ready in case the incident escalated to something more serious. This shows that a teenager can be far more responsible with a deadly weapon than an adult like Carl Rowan or Dianne Feinstein.
• Police firearm instructor Massaad Ayoob writes in The Gravest Extreme (p. 124), "I know children of eight that I would, and do, trust to walk behind me with a loaded shotgun in a game field. I also know highly trained veteran police officers so irresponsible with firearms that if I walked into a gunfight situation alongside one of them, my first impulse would be to get out of his line of fire."
• In the 18th and 19th centuries, children were not only often trusted with loaded firearms, but were sometimes required by their parents to carry and use them. For example, children (usually boys, but girls also learned to use guns) often had the chore of shooting game or protecting livestock. In ancient times, boys might carry slingshots- not children's toys, but weapons that were quite capable of killing a dangerous animal or a person- witness David and Goliath, and the Romans' employment of slingers in their army- to protect livestock from predators.
• HCI and its allies have apparently forgotten that "teenagers" between 18 and 21, the people whom they don't want to have guns, can vote, sign binding contracts, enlist in the Armed Forces, sign up for the draft (men), marry, and be held accountable as adults for their actions.

Guns and the Entertainment Industry

Hollywood uses guns lavishly in its movies, while actors (including, I think, Sylvester "Rambo/Cobra" Stallone and Sigourney "Ripley" Weaver) argue for gun control. The actor is not the character, but he or she must "get into" the role to play it convincingly. It is hard to see how someone like Stallone can act out a story in which a gang of criminals terrorizes and murders innocent people, and in which the hero finally takes them out with heavy-duty hardware, and then say that people shouldn't have guns with which to protect themselves from the real-world equivalents of "Cobra's" villains. In "Aliens II," Sigourney Weaver performs a scene in which her character uses a coaxial submachine gun/grenade launcher/flamethrower (eat your heart out, Rambo) to protect a child from an alien monster. How can she object to, for example, a mother's wanting to own a gun to protect her children from humans who are as, or more, monstrous than the creatures in "Aliens?"

Then there is the entertainment industry's portrayal of gun safety (or lack thereof). In "Star Trek, Deep Space Nine," there is a scene in which one Federation soldier points his phaser at another. The second objects, "Watch where you point that." The first says, "Don't worry, the safety is on." AAARRRRGGGGHHHH! At least one merit of those "terrible" "first person shooter" videogames is that the player loses points, or lives, for shooting the wrong people (innocent bystanders or hostages).

Gun control supporters define Bill Clinton as a statutory rapist

The following is from columnist Jill Labbe's "Anti-gun -- and anti-rights as well"

[President Clinton], along with Vice President Al Gore and former Sen. Bill Bradley, have repeatedly cited the statistic that 13 children are killed daily in this country by gunfire.

Except that it's not true* unless one considers 18- and 19-year-olds to be children.  Some of the reports used by Handgun Control Inc.  -- where the
Dems get many of their figures -- to calculate the number of "youths" involved in gun violence include people as old as 24.

In which case Clinton was messing around with a "juvenile" when he and 22-year-old Monica Lewinsky were trysting in the Oval Office.  Aren't there
laws against that sort of thing?

* "Bill Clinton said it" and "it's not true" are redundant statements.

An Open Message to Handgun Control Incorporated

And to Rosie O'Donnell, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Ted Kennedy, Charles Schumer...
 

What part of this don't you understand? Something to go with "Molon labe" at right: "Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,  With all the speed ye may;  I, with two more to help me,  Will hold the foe in play.  In yon strait path a thousand  May well be stopped by three. Now who will stand on either hand,  And keep the bridge with me?''  Thomas Babbington, Lord Macaulay , Horatius Horatius Cocles ("the One-Eyed") online: (1) (2) (3)

Here's one the entire Second Amendment community has been awaiting eagerly: "Molon labe." ("Come and take them.") King Leonidas' answer to the Persians (left) when they demanded that the Three Hundred Spartans (right) surrender their arms at Thermopylae. When the Persians boasted that their arrows blotted out the sun, Leonidas answered, "Good, we will fight in the shade."

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