* Original: FROM: Gary Steinweg
* Original: TO:   All
* Original: AREA: CIVIL LIBERTIES
* Forwarded by Linda Thompson
* Forwarded Using QuickBBS 2.76 Ovr
* Forwarded at 17:59 on 07-May-95 
                     THE ATROCITY ENGINEERS
                     Speech by L. Neil Smith
                Denver, Colorado, April 18, 1993
                          Part 1 of 2
Years ago, I watched a broadcast advertised as "news" in which a
citizen was about to read a part of the Bill of Rights to a gaggle
of Colorado politicians holding ILLEGAL HEARINGS with the intent of
further suppressing the INDIVIDUAL right to own and carry weapons.
The hearings were illegal, among other reasons, because the
COLORADO constitution warns us that the individual right to own and
carry weapons is NOT to be called into question -- which, of
course, was the publicly-expressed purpose of the hearings.
We've learned the hard way that the media -- TV, radio, newspapers
--never cover this issue with anything resembling fairness,
accuracy, or for that matter, intelligence. This particular day was
no exception. Before the citizen had even begun to read what the
SREME LAW OF THE LAND has to say about the individual right to
own and carry weapons, an inane commentator's feeble-minded voice-
over cut him off.
Now an educated and reflective individual, better aware of history
and the world around him than the average mass media reporter,
understands that the Second Amendment was drafted SPECIFICALLY to
discourage authoritarian ambition within the government. By now, he
also understands that expressions like "assault weapon" are
AUTHORITARIAN CODE for the hardware which best meets that
specification.
Thus an educated and reflective individual, better aware of history
and the world around him than the average mass media reporter,
refuses to surrender his "assault weapon" -- whatever laws are
passed to intimidate him -- because, for instance, he never wants
to see his country taken over by militaristic thugs, as happened
earlier this century in Germany.
"But that's ancient history", the mass media simper (and to them,
it is), "such events have nothing to do with NOW." Very well then,
an educated and reflective individual, better aware of history and
the world around him than the average mass media reporter, refuses
to surrender his "assault weapon" because he never wants to see his
whole community driven from their homes and MARCHED TO DEATH on
country roads, as happened not too long ago in Cambodia.
"But that was far away", the mass media simper, "such events have
nothing to do with REAL CIVILIZATION." Very well then, an educated
and reflective individual, better aware of history and the world
around him than the average mass media reporter, refuses to
surrender his "assault weapon" because he never wants to see his
children or his neighbors' children dragged into the street to have
their arms and legs BROKEN by uniformed goons, as has happened in
Palestine under "civilized" Israeli occupation.
"But those are unique circumstances," the mass media simper, "such
events have nothing to do with AMERICA." Very well then, an
educated and reflective individual, better aware of history and the
world around him than the average mass media reporter, refuses to
surrender his "assault weapon" because he never wants to see entire
square blocks of his hometown BOMBED INTO ASHES by police
helicopters, as happened a while back in Philadelphia.
Furthermore, an educated and reflective individual, better aware of
history and the world around him than the average mass media
reporter, refuses to surrender his "assault weapon" because he
knows that politicians ANYWHERE are capable of ENGINEERING such
atrocities. For 60 bloodsoaked centuries they've demonstrated
EXACTLY what they're capable of, time and time again.
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