Foreward:
D Area: Asoc Electrnc News 
From: jcaldwel@iquest.net
http://www.liberty.com/home/kholder/
On Concealed Carry and the NRA
                              by L. Neil Smith
           Many individuals have asked me where I stand on the issue of
      concealed carry
     permits_and whether the Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus which
     I founded several years ago is likely to join in political
     coalitions with other organizations that concern themselves with
     Second Amendment issues. 
          I've put off writing about these matters before now, because
          it isn't easy, knowing
     that you're likely to alienate good friends and allies by
     insisting that they face hard truths. But the press of current
     events_the increasingly obvious reluctance of the new Republican
     majority in Congress to make good on their promises to the gun
     owners who elected them, along with an insane eagerness on the
     part of nominally pro-gun organizations like the National Rifle
     Association to accept utter defeat on the eve of total
     victory_make it impossible to put it off any longer. 
          As Robert A. Heinlein once observed, "The human race divides
          politically into
     those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such
     desire." To take it a step further, there are natural-born Tories
     in life, who only feel comfortable when they're groveling to some
     kind of authority, and there are individuals who won't grovel, no
     matter what it costs them. 
          This nation, America, was created by the latter sort, while
          the former ran away to
     Canada where, for the next eleven generations or so, they could
     comfortably grovel to kings, queens, and socialist bureaucrats.
     And just as some Canadians have since learned better than their
     Tory predecessors_we'll be hearing more and more from them in the
     near future_many descendants of those first Americans have become
     the very thing their ancestors fought so hard against. 
          Those who beg permission from the government to exercise a
          right they already
     possess are not free men and women. They're Tories; they're
     grovelers. They'd beg permission from the government to breathe,
     if they were told it was required of them. If they were told it
     was required of them, they'd beg permission from the government,
     even to grovel. 
          A license_government permission_to carry a concealed weapon
          is nothing but
     the latest kind of gun control, the latest kind of groveling.
     There's no way to euphemize it; there's no way to excuse it. It
     isn't necessary: nobody needs the government's permission to
     carry a weapon, concealed or otherwise. And it's illegal under
     the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution for
     government, at any level, to require it. That's right, it's
     illegal; and it's a primary goal of the Libertarian Second
     Amendment Caucus to jail those in government, elected or
     otherwise, who obstruct the Bill of Rights in any way. 
          It's also dangerous: it converts a fundamental human right
          into a privilege which
     the government may see fit to deny to anyone, for any reason, at
     any time is wishes. How anyone could be aware of history for the
     last hundred years_especially the last fifty_and not acknowledge
     this basic truth is beyond understanding. 
          From their public words and actions, it's clear that those
          who presently control
     the National Rifle Association_I don't mean the duly-elected
     Board of Directors_are Tories and grovelers, no matter what they
     claim to the contrary. Just listen to what they say if you doubt
     it, or read their literature. Half of it is devoted to
     demonstrating to their masters in the government just what
     excellent Tories and grovelers they are. Notice, too, the way
     that some of them claim lately to be "tough"_but how they
     invariably reserve their toughness for individuals ostensibly on
     their own side who happen to disagree with them, rather than for
     real enemies of individual liberty and the Second Amendment. 
          Now those who presently control the National Rifle
          Association want uniform
     laws from state to state regulating the way Americans will be
     allowed to carry weapons. To get them, once again they're
     "wheeling and dealing" in Congress_with my rights as the stake_a
     fool's game they always lose because they're such embarrassingly
     clumsy amateurs, playing against the pros. Instead, they should
     simply demand the immediate fulfillment of Republican promises to
     repeal unconstitutional gun laws which could never have been
     passed without the cheerful assistance of the likes of "Brady
     Bill-Bob" Dole and Newt "Suspend the Bill of Rights" Gingrich. 
          As one who's fought the battle of the Second Amendment for
          more than 30
     years_all the while watching in unbelieving disgust as the
     National Rifle Association bargained away my rights through bad
     tactics, worse strategy, an utter lack of moral principle, and an
     overpowering urge to grovel to authority_I challenge those who
     presently control the National Rifle Association to deny or
     affirm a principle put forward by the Libertarian Second
     Amendment Caucus as the Atlanta Declaration: 
               Every man, woman, and responsible child has an
               unalienable
          individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to
          obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any
          weapon_rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything_any
          time, any place, without asking anyone's permission. 
          If those who presently control the National Rifle
          Association cannot affirm this
     principle, then they are enemies of individual liberty who should
     resign immediately and leave the field forever to those Americans
     who can manage to remember what their country and its
     Constitution are all about. 
          If, on the other hand, they affirm it_and publicly abandon
          their advocacy of
     anything less than stringent and uncompromising enforcement of
     the Bill of Rights (along with their disgraceful eagerness to
     accept excuses and "clever" strategies from Republicans instead
     of decisive and effective action)_I'll be happy to advise the
     many friends of the Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus to join
     with the National Rifle Association in a coalition to advance the
     cause of individual liberty. 
     L. Neil Smith is the award-winning author of 19 books including
     The Probability Broach, The Crystal Empire, Henry Martyn, The
     Lando Calrissian Adventures, Pallas, and (forthcoming) Bretta
     Martyn and Lever Action. An NRA Life Member and founder of the
     Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus, he has been active in the
     Libertarian movement for 34 years and is its most prolific and
     widely-published living novelist. 
     Permission to redistribute this article is herewith granted by
     the author_provided that it is reproduced unedited, in its
     entirety, and appropriate credit given. 
http://www.liberty.com/home/kholder/
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Talk to me!: lneil@ezlink.com 
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Why I am particularly impatient with gun control advocates:
 
"This just shows what you can expect from Jews if they lay their hands on
weapons."  
Diary of Joseph Goebbels
--- Blue Wave/386 v2.30 [NR]
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