Gun Rights: Power to the People
by Jeff Dantre' Posted 11.30.00

Why don't the politicians want us to own weapons? What are the
politicians afraid of? That we're all going to kill each other? I don't
think so. The politicians are afraid of an armed populace. And
they're supposed to be. The tension created by an armed
populace is a method of keeping the politicians honest. Some
people theorize that in an age of nuclear weapons and
technological warfare, an armed citizenry poses no threat to the
force of the military. This is an erroneous conclusion. The purpose
of any military takeover would be to takeover what makes America
America. The infrastructure and at least some of the people must
survive. And the military, with as much high tech weaponry as it
has, could not win a street fight with millions of armed Americans.
That's pretty powerful stuff.

The sick proponents of gun control want each of us to turn our
lives over to an all-knowing government that will protect us and
provide for all of our needs. But what is the cost of relinquishing
the control of our lives over to that government? We have to bow
to its demands. We have to allow whatever demoralizing and
social mandates it offers. We will have succumbed to that
disgusting intellectual elite that wants to rule us all. These are the
people of the world that know what's best for us. These are the
Feinsteins, the Clintons, the Boxers and the Kofi Annans. These
are the Rockefellers and the Ted Turners. These are the smug
professors at the elite schools. These are the feminists, the
technologists and the sociologists. Each of these groups thinks
they know more about what we want in life than we do ourselves.
THEY know what's best for us. Are we really sheep?

If you are a woman or a minority, I find it impossible to fathom
how you could be for gun control. The only thing that equalizes a
fight between a man and a woman is a firearm. You can learn all
of the defensive techniques you want, but if an assailant has their
own gun, you lose. Even if the assailant does not have a gun,
most women can't successfully fight a 200-pound man in
reasonably good shape. You put your life in the hands of chance,
the chance that someone will hear you screaming (if you can) or
that a police officer just happens to be passing by.

Face the facts: Police cannot protect everyone. If they could
arrive at the scene of each crime in 30 seconds, maybe they
could. And courts have determined many times that police are not
liable in cases where they have unable to provide protection to
citizens. Suppose you are an older black woman or black man
living in a bad part of town. How can you protect yourself against
an attack? The only (somewhat) sure way is to brandish a gun.
Otherwise, you're at the mercy of a sick person that has no
mercy. The thought that you, the minority or the woman, would
give up your right to protect yourself is one of the most
disconcerting things I have ever conceived.

Recently I was reporting on a story in a particularly bad part of
town. Many of you have probably seen places like this, at least on
TV- burned out cars, closed stores, trash everywhere, and bars
on the windows. A woman had been strangled in her apartment. I
arrived on a sunny day with police cars and the media everywhere
to be seen. I watched the residents of the federal project
watching the police. Many stood near their doors with their kids. I
thought to myself - what if you could arm these people, at least
the law abiding ones? What would happen the next time someone
is attacked and a whole community responds brandishing guns?
Would the hoods and thugs look for a "safer" place to hit? That is
power!

This country was founded on violence. I would never wish the
conflict of any of our wars on this country, but it is important that
each and every law-abiding citizen owns a weapon and is trained
in its use. It is important that each of you teach your children a
rudimentary knowledge of firearms. For those of you who don't
own weapons, ask a gun owning friend to teach you. Give yourself
a chance to get used to the idea of a firearm.

Like anything empowering in our lives, the power of a weapon and
the responsibility of owning one are something to get used to. But
a gun is something to be respected, not something to be afraid of
(unless you're on the wrong side of one). Lets remember that
most of our forefathers owned guns, many for hunting. Guns were
a part of most rural families. I remember going to my
grandmother's house for Thanksgiving each years. My uncle had a
case of guns in the den area where we all congregated. The case
was never locked. But believe me, I would never have touched it
and none of us youngins ever did.

The closest many Americans have come to a firearm is on a
passing police officer. For most people, guns are only a part of the
violence they see on television each day. If you grew up and have
spent your entire life in a big city, as a growing number of
Americans unfortunately have, this is the most likely scenario.
How are you ever to have an understanding of firearms if you
have never been around them? You can't. All you know is what
the media is feeding you- that kids are shooting up schools,
citizens of the middle east are killing each other, drug dealers are
shooting up the ghettos and an occasional police officer is shot.
This is a distorted picture of the life we live that is being
perpetuated by forces that want to ultimately control our destiny.
Read the facts about gun rights and gun control. Run a search on
the topic. Investigate the sites. Educate yourself. Learn beyond
the established media. Then make your call.

I will buy guns. I will encourage my friends to buy guns and learn
to use them responsibly. And let's not forget about loading up on
the ammo.

I will never, never let the politicians take away my right to
self-determination. I will never let them take away my right to
defend my family my friends and myself. I now know that I am one
of millions that feel this way. We're not just military, ex-military or
hunters. We are simply Americans; Americans like the family down
the street or the guy who owns the hardware store or the woman
who's a teller at the local bank. We must let our voices be proudly
heard throughout America again and again and again. We must
never stop defending our rights. Never.

The phrase "power to the people' conjures up thoughts of hippies
protesting the Vietnam War or Black Panthers holding a fist to the
sky. I hope the phrase can now be repurposed as our call for
Second Amendment Rights.

"The right of citizens to bear arms is just one
guarantee against arbitrary government, one more
safeguard against the tyranny which now appears
remote in America, but which historically has proved
to be always possible." -- Senator Hubert H.
Humphrey (D-Minnesota)

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.
The decayed and degraded state of moral and
patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war
is much worse. The person who has nothing for which
he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important
than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature
and has no chance of being free unless made and kept
so by the exertions of better men than himself." --
John Stewart Mills

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India,
history will look upon the act of depriving a whole
nation of arms, as the blackest." -- Mahatma Ghandi

"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and
debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with
arms for our defense? ... If our defense be the real
object of having those arms, in whose hands can they
be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us,
as in our own hands?" -- Patrick Henry

Jeff Dantre' is a 25 year veteran of the broadcast business involved
in both radio and television journalism. He is a winner of the
prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for his production of the
CNN special "Coup d'etat: Seven Days that Shook the World",
about the Soviet Coup in 1991. He is also the winner of numerous
Associated Press and Georgia Press Association Awards. Jeff is
currently a news anchor-reporter for a major radio station in the
Southeast, where he resides with his wife Anne and their dog and
cat, Raleigh and Oscar. He was born and raised in Raleigh, North
Carolina