- Georg Hegel (1770-1831), the father of dialectical idealism,
which Karl Marx transmogrified and misappropriated as dialectical materialism,
lamented that what we learn from history is that man does not learn its
lessons! Despite what we have learned about the deleterious effects of
draconian gun control in other countries, particularly during the last
bloody century, politicians with authoritarian leanings, mostly Democrats
but also some Republicans, continue to beat the drums calling for more
gun control.
-
- Gun control features prominently in the police state
designs of totalitarian states with which any student of history is familiar.
Take for instance: Federalization of the police force with a vast network
of surveillance and informants to spy on citizens.
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- National identification cards for all citizens.
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- Civilian disarmament via gun registration, licensing,
followed by banning and confiscation of firearms.
-
- Once this mechanism of oppression is firmly in place,
persecution and elimination of political opponents follows, and every social,
political and economic policy the Total State desires can be implemented.
This has happened in National Socialist states such as Nazi Germany, Fascist
states such as Italy under Mussolini, and Communist powers such as the
former Soviet Union (and its satellites behind the Iron Curtain) and Red
China. It is therefore astonishing and disturbing Americans have been assailed
in the last several years by politicians putting forth dangerous proposals
leading to the construction of the type of freedom-eroding scaffold which
is anathema to the individual liberties our Founding Fathers bequeathed
to us as responsible citizens capable of self-governance.
-
- Construction of this scaffold reaching up to an authoritarian
tower is the case with several bills that were introduced in Congress in
2000, all of which could be reintroduced in this Congress, requiring that
all "qualifying firearms" in the hands of law-abiding citizens
be registered. One of them is Sen. Dianne Feinstein's, D-Calif., bill,
S-2525, also sponsored by Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.,
and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.
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- This dangerous proposal requires that all persons be
fingerprinted, licensed with passport-size photographs, and forced to reveal
certain personal information as conditions for licensure. As the measure
itself elaborates, "It is in the national interest and within the
role of the federal government to ensure that the regulation of firearms
is uniform among the states, that law enforcement can quickly and effectively
trace firearms used in crime, and that firearms owners know to use and
safely store their firearms."
-
- Another such bill is that proposed by Sen. Jack Reed,
D-R.I., S-2099, mandating gun owners to, likewise, register their firearms
(in essence, establish a national gun registry), and treats handguns, for
purposes of federal statue, like machine guns, short barrel shotguns, grenades
and other specialized weapons. It gives gun owners one year to register
all handguns. This will be effected by a vigorous public campaign funded
by the taxpayers, as is already the case in Canada today.
-
- The Canadian experience itself is instructive. Lorne
Gunter, in the Edmonton Journal (Oct. 13, 2000), reveals the Canadian Outreach
program to register all gun owners is falling short. The result and cost
of this Outreach campaign not only has failed to bring in the expected
1.4 million gun owners (to only one-third of that, 486,000), but it has
exceeded the projected price tag. The latest estimates project the cost
of the registry from December 1998 through March 2001 at $600 million,
seven times the original estimate of $85 million," Gunter wrote.
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- Americans, and now Canadians, have pointed out that rather
than helping track criminals and their guns as claimed, registration of
firearms is dangerous to the liberties of law-abiding citizens, and as
we shall see, counterproductive against criminals.
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- Gun Registration and Tyranny
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- Unbeknownst to many Americans, who having seen and experienced
mostly the goodness of America, gun registration is the gateway to civilian
disarmament, which often precedes genocide. In the monumental book "Lethal
Laws," published by Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership,
we learn that authoritarian governments that conducted genocide and mass
killings of their own populations, first disarmed their citizens. The recipe
for accomplishing this goal went as follows: demonizing of guns, registration,
then banning and confiscation, and finally total civilian disarmament.
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- Enslavement of the people then followed with limited
resistance, as was the case in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Red China,
Cuba and other totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Adolf Hitler encapsulated
the deceptive intent of this type of legislation stating while addressing
the Reichstag on April 15, 1935: "This year will go down in history.
For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets
will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our
lead into the future!" What German civilian disarmament portended
was a descent into barbarism!
-
- Frequently, when presented with these deadly chronicles
and the perilous historic sequence - namely, that gun registration is followed
by banning, confiscation, civilian disarmament and, ultimately, by authoritarianism
- naive Americans opine that it cannot happen here.
-
- As to the dangers of licensing of gun owners and registration
of firearms, they frequently retort, "If you don't have anything to
hide, then you don't have anything to fear!" Followed by, "I
see nothing wrong with gun registration because we have to do something;
there are just too many guns out there that fall into the wrong hands."
This is not only a naÔve but also a dangerous attitude because governments
have a penchant to accrue power at the expense of the liberties of individual
citizens. Civilian disarmament is not only dangerous to one's liberties
but also counterproductive in achieving safety.
-
- This has been further attested by two other great books.
One is University of Hawaii professor R.J. Rummel's "Death by Government"
(1994). The other book is StÈphane Courtois' "The Black Book
of Communism" (1999). These books make it clear authoritarianism and
totalitarianism are dangerous to the health of humanity. During the 20th
century, an excess of 100 million people were killed by their own governments
bent on destroying liberty and building socialism and collectivism.
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- Our Founding Fathers recognized the danger of tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson had admonished us long ago, "Eternal vigilance is
the price of liberty." I can personally testify that when Cubans lost
their guns in 1959, they also lost their ability to regain freedom. Thus
today, Cubans on the other side of the Florida Strait remain enslaved in
what was supposed to have been the dream of a socialist utopia, the ultimate
Caribbean Worker's Paradise. What they ended up with was the nightmare
of a police state in a communist island prison.
-
- Although with the new administration in Washington, registration
may not be a politically viable option, other freedom-eroding measures
remain a real concern, particularly if they continue to be passed, hidden
in the voluminous legislation passed by Congress year after year. Americans
must remain informed and vigilant to preserve their sacred tradition and
their liberties and prevent enactment of piecemeal gun control legislation,
e.g., closing of gun shows with burdensome regulations, rationing lawful
gun purchases, and the banning of the importation of certain magazines
and firearm accessories, etc. Gun control should be directed against criminals
and felons, and should best be referred to as crime control rather than
gun control.
-
- Registration and the Law
-
- Another fact Americans need to understand is that registration
is directed to law-abiding citizens, not criminals. Not only do convicted
criminals by definition fail to obey the law, but they are constitutionally
protected against any registration requirement. In Haynes vs. United States,
the U.S. Supreme Court in 1968 ruled 7-1 that compelling registration by
those who may not lawfully possess firearms amounts to a violation of the
Fifth Amendment's proscription against forced self-incrimination. In other
words, the court said that if someone "realistically can expect that
registration [of a firearm] will substantially increase the likelihood
of his prosecution," the registration requirement is unconstitutional.
-
- Astonishingly as it may sound, some courts have ruled
that registration of firearms only applies to lawful citizens, not to felons.
This has been pointed out by Legal scholar Don B. Kates in "Firearms
and Violence - Issues of Public Policy" (1984; pp. 14-21) mentioning,
for example, the Kastigar vs. United States, 406 U.S. 441 (1972) decision.
Does exemption of felons from gun registration sound irrational? It certainly
does! Were gun registration to be implemented in the United States, criminals
and felons could very well not be expected to register their weapons, since
they are already felons proscribed from legally owning firearms. Requiring
them to register their guns, some courts may opine, would necessarily incriminate
them, and this would violate their Fifth Amendment rights.
-
- Although with the new administration in Washington, registration
may not be a politically viable option, other freedom-eroding measures
remain a real concern, particularly if they continue to be passed, hidden
in the voluminous legislation passed by Congress year after year. Americans
must remain informed and vigilant to preserve their sacred tradition and
their liberties and prevent enactment of piecemeal gun control legislation,
e.g., closing of gun shows with burdensome regulations, rationing lawful
gun purchases, and the banning of the importation of certain magazines
and firearm accessories, etc. Gun control should be directed against criminals
and felons, and should best be referred to as crime control rather than
gun control.
-
- In short, with the historically crucial and potentially
fatal issue of progressive civilian disarmament, perhaps, we should once
again summon the words of our wise Founders; this time those echoed by
Jefferson's fellow Virginian, Richard Henry Lee ("Letters from the
Federal Farmer," 1788): "To preserve liberty, it is essential
that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike,
especially when young, how to use them." Yes, the easiest way to enslave
citizens is to disarm them. ___
-
-
- Dr. Miguel A. Faria Jr. is the editor-in-chief of Medical
Sentinel, the official journal of the Association of American Physicians
and Surgeons, author of "Vandals at the Gates of Medicine: Historic
Perspectives on the Battle Over Health Care Reform" (1995) and "Medical
Warrior: Fighting Corporate Socialized Medicine" (Macon, Ga., Hacienda
Publishing Inc., 1997). He is a contributor to NewsMax.com and a columnist
for LaNuevaCuba.com. Advance copies of his book, "Cuba in Revolution
- Escape From a Lost Paradise," will be available in the fall 2001.
http://www.haciendapub.com.
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- http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/8/31/200747.shtml
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