======================================================================

The Atlanta Declaration: Every man, woman, and responsible child has a 
natural,  fundamental,  and inalienable human,  individual, civil, and 
Constitutional right to obtain,  own, and carry,  openly or concealed, 
any weapon -- handgun,  shotgun, rifle,  machinegun, \anything\ -- any 
time, anywhere, without asking anyone's permission.

======================================================================

L. NEIL SMITH'S \LEVER ACTION\ LETTER                       NUMBER 07b

                       == THE ATROCITY ENGINEERS ==

     I watched a news broadcast today in which a man was about to read part 
of the Bill of Rights to a gaggle of politicians holding illegal hearings 
in the state capital with the intention of further suppressing the individual 
right to own and carry weapons.
     The hearings were illegal, among other reasons, because the state 
constitution warns that the individual right to own and carry weapons isn't 
even "to be called into question" -- which of course was precisely the 
expressed purpose of the hearings.
     Mass media -- TV, radio, newspapers -- have never covered this issue with 
anything even remotely resembling fairness, accuracy, or intelligence. If they 
had, they'd understand that their rights under the First Amendment are no more 
secure than anybody else's under the Second. This particular day was no 
exception. Before the witness had a chance to read what the supreme law of 
the land says about the individual right to own and carry weapons, the 
commentator's inane voice-over cut him off.
     An educated and reflective individual, more aware of history and the 
world around him than mass media reporters, understands that the Second 
Amendment was written specifically to deter authoritarian ambitions within 
the government. By now he also understands that the expression "assault 
weapon" is authoritarian code for the very hardware which, given today's 
technology and circumstances best meets those specifications.
     Thus an educated and reflective individual, more aware of history and the 
world around him than mass media reporters, refuses to surrender his "assault 
weapon", regardless of whatever legislation passes, because, for instance, 
he never wants to see his country taken over by militaristic thugs, as 
happened earlier this century in Germany.
     \But that was long ago\, the mass media simper, \such events have 
nothing to do with now\. Very well, an educated and reflective individual, 
more aware of history and the world around him than mass media reporters, 
refuses to surrender his "assault weapon" because he never wants to see his 
whole community driven from their homes and marched to death along country 
roads, as happened not long ago in Cambodia.
     \But that was far away\, the mass media simper, \such events have 
nothing to do with real civilization\. Very well, an educated and reflective 
individual, more aware of history and the world around him than mass media 
reporters, refuses to surrender his "assault weapon" because he never wants 
to see his children or his neighbors' children dragged into the streets to 
have their arms and legs broken by uniformed goons, as is happening this 
moment in Palestine under "civilized" Israeli occupation.
     \But those are special circumstances\, the mass media simper, \such 
events have nothing to do with America\. Very well, an educated and 
reflective individual, more aware of history and the world around him than 
mass media reporters, refuses to surrender his "assault weapon" because he 
never wants to see entire square blocks of his home town bombed into ashes 
from police helicopters, as happened recently in Philadelphia.
     Furthermore, an educated and reflective individual, more aware of 
history and the world around him than mass media reporters, refuses to 
surrender his "assault weapon" because he understands that politicians 
\anywhere\ are capable of engineering such atrocities. Over sixty bloodsoaked 
centuries they've demonstrated exactly what they're capable of, time and time 
again. These illegal legislative hearings -- happening here, in Washington, 
D.C., and in a dozen other states -- demonstrate it once again.
     Right down the line, from power-hungry federal "czars" to 
publicity-hungry county sheriffs, the atrocity engineers are already out of 
control, justifying their latest crimes against the Bill of Rights with 
a phony "War on Drugs" which the mass media, not one iota more responsible 
than when William Randolph Hearst was at the helm, helped them whip up in 
the first place. The unadorned, inconvenient truth is that before the turn 
of the century, when today's illegal drugs were as cheaply available as 
aspirin, there wasn't any "drug problem" -- not until the atrocity engineers 
created it.
     Thus an educated and reflective individual, more aware of history and the 
world around him than mass media reporters, refuses to surrender his "assault 
weapon" because he never wants to be murdered in his own home under a 
hailstorm of SWAT team gunfire and grenades because the vice squad got 
the wrong address -- or simply because he told a cop he wanted to be left 
alone. That happened -- again --not long ago in Colorado.
     Somewhere in America it happens every day.
     With their biased coverage of the "assault weapon" issue, the mass 
media are handing the atrocity engineers yet another opportunity. When the 
day comes that they're covering a story \which the authorities don't want 
covered\ and a tiny, palm-sized .25 caliber "assault weapon" is conveniently 
"discovered" in some reporter's camera bag or glove compartment, I hope 
they remember that I warned them what could happen. I doubt they will. 
Neither their memories nor their attention spans seem to be that long.
     The maintenance of civil order and social democracy is in our hands. 
It has been there all along. In a nationwide study, Don Kates at the 
St. Louis University School of Law found that police succeed in wounding 
or driving off criminals only 81% as often as armed citizens and are 15% more 
likely to be wounded or killed themselves. \More than\ FIVE TIMES \as many 
cops shoot some innocent individual in the process as civilians do.\
     We "the people" were naive and lazy to believe that anything important 
could be safely entrusted to "experts" and "authorities" through elections 
or any other process. Self-defense against individual criminals or the 
state can no more be delegated to someone else than eating, sleeping, or 
any other bodily function. What's more, history warns us that delegated 
responsibility becomes power and that power is inevitably abused.
     So it has been. These illegal hearings merely represent the latest 
in "a long train of abuses and usurpations".

======================================================================

L. NEIL SMITH'S \LEVER ACTION\ LETTER                       NUMBER 07b
111 EAST DRAKE ROAD        SUITE 7032
FORT COLLINS, COLORADO  U.S.A.  80525

L. Neil Smith is the award-winning author of 16 novels including 
\Henry Martyn, The Crystal Empire, BrightSuit MacBear, Taflak Lysandra, 
The Probability Broach,\ and the forthcoming FORGE OF THE ELDERS 
trilogy, beginning with CONTACT AND COMMUNE.

Your contributions to this effort, while extremely welcome, are not 
tax-deductible.

======================================================================


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