5/08 Diplomad Goes to a Gun Show

Among the Bitter People: The Diplomad Goes to a Gun Show

by
The Diplomadic
As published in The Diplomad

After many, many years serving or otherwise living in nanny states or outright dictatorships in Asia, Latin America, Western Europe, Massachusetts and New York, I currently have the pleasure of living in one of the few places still dedicated to the principles of Western Civilization, most notably that of individual rights and responsibilities. Yes, friends, you guessed it; I speak of that bastion of civilization known as the American South.

Maligned and ridiculed by Hollywood and the “highly educated” products of our decayed university system as a bunch of no-tooth extras from Deliverance; sneered at by endless numbers of late-night comics, pundits, and politicians; its proud traditions twisted and misrepresented by the “anointed ones” of the liberal Northeast and the loony LA-SF-Seattle axis, it is the South that gets the last laugh. Its population grows in numbers, as does its economic and political strength while the sneering liberal bastions see theirs shrink. It comprises the greatest repository of patriotism and selfless sacrifice in the nation: the men from the states of the old “stars and bars” Confederacy responded in disproportionate numbers to defend the “stars and stripes” when Muslim maniacs attacked the liberals’ home base, New York. Southerners and other rural folk who “cling to” their religion and guns form the backbone of our armed forces, and, lest we forget on this Memorial Day, in disproportionate numbers populate the lists of the dead and wounded in the ongoing war against the Jihadists. For this the “elite morons,” such as John Kerry and Stephen King, reward them with a sneer for being uneducated boobs.

This weekend I got to do something I hadn’t done in a while. I got to enjoy one of those great spectacles of freedom that we increasingly are losing in our nation. I speak, of course, of a good old “Gun and Knife Show,” an event now hard to find outside of the South. That is a shame. They are a fun place to find genuine bargains — e.g., a great deal on a Colt Government Model .45 (the greatest handgun ever made. I brook no dissent!) Much more important, however, they provide a powerful venue for the expression and the defense of individual liberty.

Let me digress a bit. One of my great beefs with condescending liberal politicians, such as Hillary, is that when they seek the votes of gun owners they talk about hunting and the joys of plinking tin cans on a summer afternoon. It is as though the Second Amendment addresses some lesser “right,” some vague “right to have fun,” a “right” granted and subject to rescinding by the state. Don’t get me wrong. I have done my share of hunting and plinking all around the world and have enjoyed both immensely, but that is not what the Second Amendment to the Constitution addresses. I am certain that when drafting the Bill of Rights, the Founding Fathers didn’t give a passing thought to hunting, target practice, or enjoying the great outdoors. Today’s putative defenders of the Second Amendment make a serious mistake when they get sucked into the “defense of hunting” argument. Once you equate “the right to bear arms” with hunting, you have stepped on a slippery slope. “So gun ownership is about hunting, eh? Well, you don’t need a handgun to go hunting, or a semiautomatic rifle. You live in Brooklyn: when are you ever going to go hunting? Who in today’s America actually NEEDS to go hunting?” And so on.

The Second Amendment is right in there with the other nine in the Bill of Rights restricting the powers of the state, making the argument that certain rights belong to the people merely because they are human beings. Among those rights is the right to self-defense. A free country need not fear an armed populace. An armed populace provides a serious restraint on the state by denying it the exclusive possession of the implements of violence. It is not about hunting.

The participants at the gun show I attended understood this quite clearly. There was relatively little in the way of hunting gear. The items on sale and display were overwhelming about self-defense. Speaking of the participants, they were a wonderful mix of whites, Hispanics, and blacks. All of them friendly and open folk who would at the drop of a hat engage you in conversation and offer their advice and opinions on guns, the economy, and politics. I would note that support for Obama and Clinton was, uh, about zero. I loved one t-shirt for sale that showed a picture of Obama over the phrase, “In Your Heart You Know He’s Wright.” I kept remembering the question from a British friend who, upon hearing about gun shows, asked me, “Are they safe?” Well, friend, it is just about the safest place on earth. No mad gunman or terrorist would dare make an appearance there!

I had one thought I am embarrassed to admit having had; please don’t tell anybody. As I stood near a table, haggling over a couple of .45 magazines, an elderly gentleman dragging a tank of oxygen rolled up in his wheelchair next to me to look at some Smith & Wesson revolvers. I had the stupid question pop into head, “What is he doing buying that?” Fortunately, I immediately corrected myself and answered the stupid little liberal we all carry around inside and who must be fought at every opportunity, “He is precisely the person for whom the Second Amendment is so important.” I can just about guarantee that he was not going deer hunting.

Enough said. Must go to bed. God bless the South.