After the recent shooting in Oregon (and San Bernardino, California and the Pulse Nightclub in Florida) the Obama Administration has made it a high priority to further degrade the ability of American citizens to have access to firearms by pushing more gun control. Hilary Clinton, once again trying to garner attention away from her email fiasco, has let her opinion be known on gun control as well.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters yesterday that he would “quibble” with anyone who criticized the president regarding specific gun control proposals. The White House is preparing more executive actions on gun control and ignoring the view points of the people. Governor Jerry Brown made a massive push to control citizens rights in California. Government works for the people and not the other way around but this is lost on Obama.
An academic report called, “A Review of International and Some Domestic Evidence” in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy by Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser points to studies all over the world over with great detail in its footnotes. What conclusion can we draw from their report? Firearms
Gun control does not work but critics will continue to ignore the evidence in order to press their laws and beliefs on everyone else.
Despite having the toughest gun control laws in the country Chicago remains one of the most violent and deadliest cities. Critics want to point out the example of a low percentage of deaths in England due to gun control but they aren’t going to tell you that death by knife attacks are high. People who want to commit crime will always find a way around the system. Gun control has, is and will always be about control and not about guns. Gun control laws only impact those who obey the law. Gun control doesn’t work in Washington D.C., has not worked in New Jersey and politicians will not stop pushing restrictions onto the good guys.
In Ancient Rome anytime a unit or a large group was found guilty of a capital offence the senior commander of the Roman Army would use a vicious tactic to punish the offender. Roughly 520 soldiers, known as a cohort, were rounded up for punishment whether they were guilty or not and had to prepare for the worst. Of that larger group, they were then divided into smaller groups and had to draw lots, and the soldier on whom the lot fell was executed by his nine comrades.
This act was known as decimation and the name is derived from the Latin meaning for “removal of a tenth”. The remainder of the soldiers who remained alive divided up the rations of their dead comrade and were further punished with guard duty. This form of punishment didn’t always work to tame men that Rome wanted to control.
In 286 A.D. Emperor Maximian Herculius of Rome had men of his many Legions murdered. 6600 men of the Theban Legion of Egypt, led by their brave commanders Maurice, Exuperius and Candidus, defied Maximian and paid a price. The Emperor Maximian was none too pleased with the dissident Legion on refusing to obey his orders. Every tenth man was removed from the ranks and beheaded while his comrades looked on; the Theban Legion’s point of view did not waver.
The commanders told their men to stand strong and so once again, groups of ten were separated from the remaining cohort and beheaded; the Thebans still did not change their point of view. In all 6600 men were slaughtered because they refused to give in to the Emperor’s unlawful commands. What was the Theban Legion’s crime?
All 6600 defied the orders of Rome to renounce their faith and to also persecute their fellow Coptic Christians and to extirpate the Christians of Gaul.
History has shown us that the slippery slope of tyranny starts slowly and gains speed. I am hardly stating that Obama is a tyrant but the seeds of ignorance are often placed by those who do not understand the devastating future effects their actions sprout; Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and his decision-making on local affairs are nightmares. We must look at Obama’s workmanship over a period of these last seven years in order to be fair and then to draw our own conclusions about what he reaps and sows. A democratic government leader that does not respect the people, that bypasses Congress, and utilizes a fawning media can be well on its way to appearing as such. A government that has a leader who makes examples of his people will not be respected or followed.
What are the key elements of a dictatorship? Other than the constitutional dictatorships established to deal with governmental emergencies, while acknowledging there are various combinations and modifications, here are the key elements:
(1) Exclusivity and arbitrariness in the exercise of power. Dictatorships are characterized by the absence of a division of power, the suppression of competing, legitimate political and social groups and institutions, the concentration of political power in the hands of a dictator or of an autocratically governing group of leaders (elite), and the utilization of an autocratically guided and manipulated ruling apparatus to develop a monopoly of power.
(2) Abolition or loosening of the juridical bonds of political power. The constitutional state is eliminated, or a new revolutionary or counterrevolutionary law created, merely as an instrument of rule. Related to this feature is the difficulty or impossibility of regulating the succession of the dictator in a lawful fashion.
(3) Elimination or substantial restriction of civil liberties. Instead of voluntary cooperation of socially and politically autonomous groups and associations in the erection of the commonwealth, emphasis is placed on the citizens’ obligation to perform compulsory labor or collective services.
(4) The predominantly aggressive, impulsive form of decision-making. The domestic and foreign policies followed by the dictator and/or the leading political elite are usually made impulsively and are inspired by a dynamic political activism, often based upon an ideological Messianism and aimed at transforming or disciplining the society.
(5) Employment of despotic methods of political and social control. Such methods range from intimidation to propaganda, from imposing the duty of obedience to methods of terror.
Many states are defying the federal government with local laws across the country. There is great dissatisfaction with the U.S. government on this issue. The president, and the majority of Congress, both in the House and Senate, are completely out of touch with how people feel about Second Amendment rights. Any government that tries to force its view on its people will soon find a society in revolt. The only question to ask when dissatisfaction happens is how long will a society put up with the force before it pushes back. Push back does not have to be done in violence but to be successful there has to be unity.
Upon the way to Saint-Maurice, Switzerland there is a marker for the place where 6600 men fell. The Theban Legion did not follow the law of the land rather they followed their own convictions that they were ruled by God. How odd then that Switzerland has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world yet it has a low crime rate. Guns are a major part of Switzerland’s culture. The symbolism from the Thebans act of defiance is remembered today. Many brave men understood that the decrees of Rome did not trump their core beliefs and that they were standing up to tyranny. We cannot be certain the story of the Legion is true. Three detailed manuscripts tell of the martyrdom of the Theban Legion during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (284-305) and his co-emperor Maximian (286-305). However we need only remember the lesson from their example and ask if authority is always to be followed.
The ultimate source of the motto below is murky. Some scholars believe that Benjamin Franklin made it up. Thomas Jefferson appropriated it. Make up your own mind on what you believe and what you would follow.
“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third president of the United States.
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originally publisihed Oct 5, 2015 @ 16:20