by John Gault
This may break some hearts but as preppers we are obligated to look honestly at future challenges and attempt as best we can to prepare for them. Per the rules of this site I will keep politics to a minimum. I hate rules but like everyone else I try to follow them. This may end up long but your a curious bunch so hopefully you’ll stick it out till the end. Let’s get started….
Fast forward to the year 2019. The balance of power has shifted in Washington as well as the Supreme Court in a dramatic and for many, disastrous direction. Gun control has become the number one issue in Washington. Likely because the previous administration’s 8 year run had been so successful at solving all this countries other problems…chuckle… Per the Presidents directive congress drafts, votes on and passes a new and sweeping gun control bill. Here we could dicker over the specifics and legalities, but toward what end? We know with certainty that the next atrocity “which never happens anywhere but here” would usher in even stricter controls, so for this exercise let’s just go full monty.
“I stand in support of this common-sense legislation to license everyone who wishes to purchase a gun,” she says. “I also believe that every new handgun sale or transfer should be registered in a national registry, such as Chuck is proposing.”
Hillary Clinton
They pass a complete ban on semi-auto rifles, shotguns and pistols. Anything that self loads another round all by its own-self becomes illegal within 8 months. In a calculated ploy to take advantage of the now perpetually under performing economy a generous buyback program is initiated with an incentive paying 2 to 3 times market value, its only money and they have the keys to the vault. To sweeten the incentive they include an up to 10 year prison sentence for anyone in possession of a self loader once the buyback period ends. Possession of a non-permitted machine gun or silencer currently carries an up to 10 year prison sentence. See how well it works….
Home break-ins and gun thefts immediately spike.
A third of the country revolts, but break no laws. There are huge rallies, protests and marches, the government ignores them. Talk of revolution fills social media. “The time has finally arrived, tyranny is at our doorstep”. “Don’t Tread On Me”, “Cold Dead Hands” and all that. “Molon Labe” becomes the clarion call. A thousand + one lawsuits are filed. But they will take forever or near enough to adjudicate and everyone knows what the outcomes will be once SCOTUS has its say. The government is under no obligation to wait for any ‘predetermined’ rulings and besides they tell us…”it’s for the children.”
During the months preceding the vote every brick & mortar and online gun store is stripped of its inventory, every avenue of purchase is exhausted. After the vote gun and accessory suppliers act as if semi-autos never existed. Soon rumors spread of backroom deals between the government and the main players in gun manufacturing. Whispers of lucrative guaranteed contracts, subsidies and zero interest bailouts that need never be paid back are all but admitted to. The smaller manufacturers will either convert to manufacturing legal items such as car parts, or will shutter their doors. Their skilled craftsman forced to trade in their calipers, micrometers and bore scopes for part time service jobs at 7/11, a local Jiffy Lube or if lucky, a full time position at Walmart. New job training is promised, it always is. But like the displaced coal miners in West Virginia and displaced manufacturing workers across the country who were trained for jobs that didn’t exist, the skilled craftsmen are forced to join the hundreds of thousands of others who’s talents grow stale in a country that doesn’t make anything.
“Well, you know, my shotgun will do better for you than your AR-15, because you want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door.”
Vice President Joe Biden
As each month folds into the next government commercials run endlessly touting the benefits of the buyback program and its “stimulus” effects, and the promise of a new, safer America that’s sure to follow. They compete with looped NRA fundraising commercials warning of lost liberty and of encroaching tyranny, but everyone knows the fight has already been lost. Meanwhile the buyback deadline looms. Few guns have been turned in but the effects of the ban are obvious. Webmasters across the interweb proactively begin to scrub any and all content related to the now offensive semi-auto. Once reliable links return only ERROR messages. Trading and enthusiast sites are disappeared. Videos and pictures, now seemingly more objectionable than child porn are deleted. Repeat offenders are banished. Printed publications suffer the same. No more reviews, no more tests, no more comparisons. No more drooling over glossy centerfolds of the latest and greatest in semi-auto weaponry. In their stead are the industries latest in revolvers, bolt actions and new lines of ‘tactical’ lever actions along with ‘refreshed’ tactical pump guns sans the pistol grips and flash hiders which are now illegal. Everything anyone might need to fight off the next round of tyranny….sigh….
As the buyback period nears its end so to do the rallies, protests and tough talk on the internet. There’s been no bloody confrontations and the protesters are bored and tired of being ignored. Few guns have been turned in and this has created an imaging problem so a week before the deadline the buyback period is extended 2 months. Another $200 per weapon enticement is added. A small price to pay for crime free streets. No matter, the new deadline passes, hardly any guns have been turned in. The totalitarians in Washington declare victory. Two days later a Syrian refugee walks into a Catholic church during mass in New Jersey with an AK smuggled across the Mexican/Arizona border. He kills 33 before killing himself…….
“We have federal regulations and state laws that prohibit hunting ducks with more than three rounds. And yet it’s legal to hunt humans with 15-round, 30-round, even 150-round magazines.”
Senator Dianne Feinstein
And what of all the guns not turned in? Some are hidden or buried, most are simply stashed away and out of view. There are no mass confiscations, no door to door searches. The government doesn’t want a bloodbath anymore than the gun owners do. Besides it wouldn’t play well on the nightly news. Occasionally there’ll be a news story about some poor sap who’s house was searched because of some unrelated issue and will be found to have a couple of the banned semi-autos and a stockpile of 300 rounds. The media will make vague references to militia groups, separatists and the Tea Party, and the countless lives that may have been saved…..
I believe we are much closer to this or something like it than many realize…..
Sad but not an unlikely view of the coming months.
Not a pretty picture. However, you reckon without the imminent economic collapse inevitable to all socialist economies. You can only leverage credit so far and goons don’t work for free.
All those guns not turned in will be very handy.
If you haven’t read it, I recommend “The Evolutionary Psychology Behind Politics”
Headed that way. Marshall law around the corner, call me foolish but by the end of the year–election time.
You mention martial law. I think martial law is definitely around the corner even though with the size of our country, I don’t think it would be effective except in large urban areas. In my opinion, Obama is orchestrating the current violence against the police. Not necessarily by actually issuing orders to do this or do that. Instead, thru his negative rhetoric, he incites violence. As the President of the Police association in Cleveland, OH stated, “he has blood on his hands”. I believe that Obama is attempting to ramp up the violence in the country. Using hate organizations such as Black Lives Matter, he is directly responsible for the current wave of attacks on the police. His lack of positive response encourages such attacks. If you remember last year, in the media there were infrequent reports of blacks attacking whites…male or female whites, made no difference, in their “Knock Out game”. I wonder if this is still going on. Probably with the attacks on the police, there will be a resumption or escalation of this so called game.
If you believe some of the evidence or inferences, his goal is to have such an atmosphere of daily attacks and violence that he will have manufactured a nationwide crisis of collapse of rule of law. This will give him the opportunity to declare a suspension of the election, implementation of martial law and the state of emergency would require that he remain in office to oversee the correction of the problem. Add in the strict gun control measures, and I think you have the complete picture of where the socialist liberals are driving this country.
You know, I like to share my opinion as you can see thru this post. I am afraid that we all need to be thinking of going “grey”. It is now on my “to do” list for my preps.
I don’t think the martial law plan is going to work out for them. Their ‘stirring’ will cause the cities to melt down, but how many troops can they muster and how many of those are special snowflakes that have been ‘affirmative action-ed’ into positions they haven’t the spine for?
I think an attempt at martial law would actually work in our favor, as the gloves would be off. It won’t be pretty, though.
good read and plausible if a dark topic.. well it is dark.. soo yeah no fun .. but necessary to consider.
I doubt that is the scenario now, given recent events.. However disappointing the third grades at the RNC are behaving.. And who said the media could wear Hillary buttons at the convention.. man!!
I digress.. several of the most recent killings didn’t use a gun at all. Not that it will make a huge difference to the left. We won’t have the fiscal wherewithal to do a buy back based on the books and their direction .. But who knows maybe the’ll add a buy back tax to your return.
I suspect you are right .. there will be lots of words and not much action… We have what it takes to defend.. but we lack unity, organizations and cohesion of purpose to act offensively .. We are not powerless.. we are disorganized.
however when you look at history, leaders arise in times of hardship from very unlikely places and with very unlikely persons.
BTW I don’t think offensive action is a good idea.. lest anyone think I am advocating it.. I am not. It’s a fact that small arms can in no way go against Smart Mechanized and well supported large groups. Short of the military abdicating and taking it over .. never happen. RE:Turkey.
But I also suspect that what will happen will be due to a crescendo of independent outbreaks of violence.. Except they are not I do not believe.. independent. Regardless of the groups it takes funding and organization, and they don’t have either.. IMO this is deliberate to attempt to bring about something like is written above… or worse.. at the least to a tipping point so stupid people will clamor .. or bray for safe places UGH!!
As has been said .. maybe it will work in true Americans favor.. maybe not.. But if it doesn’t happen on a international scale.. we’ll be a target for both insurgents and invasion.. So I think an economic collapse while no less damaging would work better while allowing a reset in the US if we have the courage to keep it. Whatever we do it must go back to basics and sound thinking… and obviate special interests. Majority rules.. period.. Don’t like it .. run, vote or leave
Guns needed to fight off the “Next round of tyranny”? It’s been about 200 years or more since you’ve had to fight off a”round of tyranny”? Pretty weak excuse for the wide availability of firearms in the US. But maybe in another 200 years you’ll finally have a “round of tyranny” and your AR’s will have gone the way of the flintlock rifle. I don’t think lasers are in your constitution.
Joe, please accept my most humble apology for holding the expectation that you would understand subtle context. I was merely trying to be clever. I can assure you that I did not mean for you to get confused. And I certainly never meant to offend your delicate anti-gun sensibilities. I would suggest that you educate yourself, perhaps study the latest crime survey from UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) or similar studies done by the DOJ and FBI. Or even the gun control study’s by the CDC in (2003) and The National Academy of Sciences (2004), but I won’t. The burden of carrying around that indefensible narrative of yours is likely all you can handle.
Joe. I see what you are saying .. but I disagree.. assuming we can do that civilly .. and maybe we’ll agree to disagree. regardless.. Anyone that lives in an Urban environment should consider self defense a primary importance. One can persist in thinking that people are attacked an hurt or worse elsewhere.. In my location they no longer report anything but deaths, as they would never stop reporting them otherwise.. There are routinely shootings every day and multiples often.. Let alone rapes, and robberies. Not Chicago or LA BTW.. Tyranny comes in many forms..
tyr·an·ny
ˈtirənē/
noun
cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary use of power or control.
“she resented his rages and his tyranny”
I would submit one need not look at a national level. as the thugs doing what I mentioned very much fit that definition. Perhaps we will never experience it nationally. However If trends mean anything it is likely the the thuggery/brigands will increase,and should a severe economic clime ensue, you will either defend your family and possessions (food etc .. ) or you will submit to the bad guys. That is certain. It’s not a problem for lawful citizens to own any weapon, as they will not misuse them. How one chooses to serve ones family is up to them I suppose. Are you saying that is not reason enough ?
I would also submit that it is no ones business what I own or don’t at all.. and that extends to many other categories. By definition a sovereign state is not subject to federal control for anything but what is expressly given it in the constitution. We incorrectly refer to America as “The United Sates” when it is correctly “These United States”. Subtle perhaps, but significant and legally and lawfully defined as such. We cold then move to wherever suits our ideology. IMO, and you need not agree, I must take care of my own family, as the only thing a LEO can do for me today, is document the aftermath. They can prevent nothing, as they are too few, fearful, too far away and too constrained. Enforce the laws in place first.. and exhibit no further control. Talk to any LEO in a metropolis and they will tell you the same. How then will we do that ?
Bad guys by definition do not obey laws, unless it suits them.
I am not trying to be offensive and do not believe I have been.. but only voicing my understanding and rationale. I hope we at least agree that we might see it differently and leave it there, understanding each other a little better.
GG58
Well, I was doing so good in a great card game in New Orleans with a guy named Boudreaux. I mean, I just met him and he seemed like an okay guy. Unfortunately, his poker face was good. I thought I was going to take all his money, but instead he got all my guns. I have no idea where he is now. Good luck finding him, but I can’t say I would be to happy to see him again as I think I got taken for a ride.