But not all. We are not living on a deserted island
somewhere in Southern Pacific, but in a rather complex society, in which the
individual's civil rights are being more and more restricted in favour of an
anonymous administration. Gore-spirited journalists
have meanwhile zeroed in on the private gun owner. Not concerned to facts or
evidence, any time something happens with weapons in legal private property, we
have to face weeks of artificial hystery. That civilians' handling firearms is
causing far less casualties than street traffic or such healthy sports as
soccers or riding on horseback seems to be less important. Not to mention
football hooligans...
Shooters and terrorists have less in common than
daisies and reinforced concrete. Shooting sports are a good way to teach
discipline and responsibility. The evidence for this is the fact that crime
rates are significantly lower with legal gun owners than within the average
population. No-one is absolutely safe when fools run amuck, but armed people
just have the better chances to suvive these situations. The unprecedented
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 have shown that it is worth the effort
to fight back on criminals: the jet which was downed in Pennsylvania could not
be saved, but at least those exerting resistance could prevent themselves from
being abused for further mass homicide. Looking for heroes, we should look at
these people.
Canceling civil rights in times of peril is a common
reaction from governments and administrations, but it is of no use in the fight
against terrorists. What did our government led by Chancellor Schmidt promise to
us in 1973 when our Gun Control Act was issued! At that time, A. Baader &
company used to set department stores on fire. The terrorist war from 1975 to
1977 took place without one single terrorist ever applying for a gun license...
At the moment we are to take such massive a restriction
of our civil rights that is far beyond the limits of the bearable. Phones are
being tapped at will, bank accounts are completely supervised by the state, data
from various sources are being used for a virtual digital witch hunt, a mass
investigation where not even a defined suspicion is necessary. We are treated as
a people of 82 million suspects. And all that in order to find some so-called
sleepers of whose existence no-one has ever brought any ecvidence. Terrorism can solely be
controlled by destroying the political and economical base, but definitely not
with the means of a 19th century police state which confines his actions to what
he can do best: bother the law abiding citizen.
Firearms are in the same measure responsible for
violence as flies are for cow dung (anonymous rancher)
Why should we trust a
government with tanks, armored cars, fighter planes, missiles and even nukes
when this government does not trust a citizen with a rifle?
Copyright © 2004 Rick Biele