The latest from the internet on guns is an email making the rounds to let everyone know that the federal government has a history of taking guns away from law-abiding citizens.

Incredibly, the example used is Wounded Knee, 1890.

Despite the first part of the mail being lifted from Wikipedia, the key first sentence was omitted. “Wounded Knee was the last battle of the Indian Wars.”  As in… War.

They weren’t American citizens yet, so the government couldn’t have been taking guns away from law-abiding citizens, they were taking guns away from enemy combatants. The fact that they went in to shoot up old men and women and horses is the real tragedy, not the bogus excuse that they were there to “disarm the citizens”.

Same as when Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown. They had to lay their guns down (although Sir Corny got to keep his sword). Wasn’t that the first time that the federal government tried to take guns away? Do we dare disagree with that outcome?

Same as when Lee surrendered to Grant, except Grant magnanimously allowed southern soldiers to keep their weapons to get home with, just no more using them against people. Sherman, on the other hand, did no such thing with Chattanooga or Atlanta or on his burn parade across Georgia to Savannah.

I guess next we’ll hear that the victory telegram that Sherman sent Lincoln really said “I beg to present you for Christmas a fully armed citizenry of Savannah.” Or that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor so that they could take our rabbit hunting rifles away.  Right.

Do we disagree with telling Germany and Japan that, because of their recent misuse, no army or navy was allowed after WWII? If owning weapons is an inalienable right from God, who are we to tell Iran they can’t have the Big One? Or are we hypocrites when it comes to inalienable rights?   Just wonderin’…

Back to the Wounded Knee mail, contrary to the authors assertion, it was in my history texts. The author of the post, wanting us to think that the federal government has hidden it’s actions by scrubbing the history books, must have been home schooled to shield them from inconvenient facts. The supposed ‘real reason’ for the 2nd Amendment, so that we the People could fight the government that is We the People. (there is a psychiatric disease like that, where people hurt themselves on purpose because they are convinced, besides all evidence to the contrary, that they are bad). I guess the NRA supports and will fight for our right to own tactical nukes and remote piloted drones with stinger missiles? That’s what the USAF has. No way to fight that except with comparable firepower. Your skeet gun won’t. My 9mm won’t. Bubba’s Bushmaster won’t. All three of us and the Nazi’s across the river all having Bushmasters can’t fight that, even if we wanted to.

Votes can though.

Can’t even get the Pentagon to scale back the number of nukes, having enough already to kill everybody on the planet 43 times over. So an arms race begins, 200 million people lining up to become individual nuclear powers (er, deterrents?) Who profits, one might ask? Not us. But the Freedom Group will for sure…
Where does it stop, one might ask? Don’t ask is the incredible response we get from the NRA.

Best that we leave the war examples out of gun safety discussions. The NRA, of course, knows that. Like with the GOP that they control, they prefer to lie to us, and fear monger rather than have an intelligent discussion. How does one believe another that lies, misleads and cons them constantly?

I know I can’t.

And when Right is on our side, who ever taught us that we have to lie and cheat in order to prevail? Lying and cheating is never on the side of Right. My Daddy taught me that one too, long before he became a Republican.

Good thing, or I might never have learned it.