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Would you give up your guns?
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<blockquote data-quote="godores" data-source="post: 4987879" data-attributes="member: 11979"><p>I think this question is infinitely more complicated and difficult than a simple answer can do justice. I think the Gulag Archipelago by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn should be required reading as it so clearly shows the path toward oppression using the real story of Russian descent into communism. Get the abridged copy, original is farrrrr too long. Some quotes below show you the perspective of someone who lived it. </p><p></p><p>"At what point, then, should one resist? When one's belt is taken away? When one is ordered to face into a corner? When one crosses the threshold of one's home? An arrest consists of a series of incidental irrelevancies, of a multitude of things that do not matter, and there seems no point in arguing about one of them individually...and yet all these incidental irrelevancies taken together implacably constitute the arrest."</p><p>Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956</p><p></p><p>" And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say goodbye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrest, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood that they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you'd be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. What about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur – what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked. The Organs [Soviet state institutions] would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!</p><p></p><p>If…if… We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation. We spent ourselves in one unrestrained outburst in 1917, and then we hurried to submit. We submitted with pleasure! … We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward."</p><p></p><p>In hindsight it's clear when a line has been crossed, but when you are living in it, it can be extremely gray and complex. I am as pro second amendment as anyone on here, but if you ask me whether I'm willing to die for it, the answer can only be "it depends". Are you the first to be arrested for gun ownership? Or have they already killed or imprisoned your brother and neighbor? Is it the local sherrifs who I know and deeply respect, or some nameless federal agency? Is it just certain guns, or all of them? </p><p></p><p>I don't mean to muddy the waters, but I just think history gives us examples of this and it is never as clear as Hillary Clinton knocking on your door with a swat team out of nowhere. I think if people are serious about protecting the 2A then join the NRA, encourage more people to own and enjoy firearms responsibly, advocate for mental healthcare for those who need it, add value and drive a good economy that reduces crime, and generally don't give the left reasons to be afraid of you. Fear drives radical action, not hatred. If you intimidate other people with firearms and make them scared of you, they are a lot more likely to support restrictions against you. That doesn't mean don't stand up for your rights, that is very important too, just do it in a way that doesn't make people think you want to hurt them. </p><p></p><p>Just my 2 cents. Sorry for the long post.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="godores, post: 4987879, member: 11979"] I think this question is infinitely more complicated and difficult than a simple answer can do justice. I think the Gulag Archipelago by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn should be required reading as it so clearly shows the path toward oppression using the real story of Russian descent into communism. Get the abridged copy, original is farrrrr too long. Some quotes below show you the perspective of someone who lived it. "At what point, then, should one resist? When one's belt is taken away? When one is ordered to face into a corner? When one crosses the threshold of one's home? An arrest consists of a series of incidental irrelevancies, of a multitude of things that do not matter, and there seems no point in arguing about one of them individually...and yet all these incidental irrelevancies taken together implacably constitute the arrest." Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 " And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say goodbye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrest, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood that they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you’d be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. What about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur – what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked. The Organs [Soviet state institutions] would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if… We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation. We spent ourselves in one unrestrained outburst in 1917, and then we hurried to submit. We submitted with pleasure! … We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward." In hindsight it's clear when a line has been crossed, but when you are living in it, it can be extremely gray and complex. I am as pro second amendment as anyone on here, but if you ask me whether I'm willing to die for it, the answer can only be "it depends". Are you the first to be arrested for gun ownership? Or have they already killed or imprisoned your brother and neighbor? Is it the local sherrifs who I know and deeply respect, or some nameless federal agency? Is it just certain guns, or all of them? I don't mean to muddy the waters, but I just think history gives us examples of this and it is never as clear as Hillary Clinton knocking on your door with a swat team out of nowhere. I think if people are serious about protecting the 2A then join the NRA, encourage more people to own and enjoy firearms responsibly, advocate for mental healthcare for those who need it, add value and drive a good economy that reduces crime, and generally don't give the left reasons to be afraid of you. Fear drives radical action, not hatred. If you intimidate other people with firearms and make them scared of you, they are a lot more likely to support restrictions against you. That doesn't mean don't stand up for your rights, that is very important too, just do it in a way that doesn't make people think you want to hurt them. Just my 2 cents. Sorry for the long post. [/QUOTE]
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