WAS: What Adults are Saying about a Lost Militia

Gun toters seemingly are better at worrying about tyranny than acting on it

Perhaps the most irredeemable aspect of the American experience so far in the 21st century (outside of the performative toxicity of 47) is the volume of firearms, including automatic weapons, that circulate in our daily lives. On a rocket-ship like trajectory guns per capita in the US has now increased to where we have more of those than people—a rate that is at least 20 times higher than any other developed country.

We are told by gun supporters such growth is righteous in actualizing citizens’ 2nd Amendment protections and necessary so our homes will be better equipped against “eventual” government tyranny. You know the type of tyranny where government comes to your home or workplace and without warrant simply seizes you for any garden variety reason? That type of tyranny—shocking to imagine even—the em-oh of NAZI Germany is sure to appear in America at some point. By god when that happens gun supporters are all in in being outfitted to defend “them and their’s” against the caustic over reach of government.

While this private, decentralized armory was being built from sea-to-shining sea over the last quarter century it also invited many “side effects”. All those guns floating across state lines and international borders meant many more had ready access to firearms on a moment’s notice. Buoyed by a craven arms manufacturing industry and the ideology, but financial sham, of the National Rifle Association (NRA), legally acquiring firearms, including automatic weapons, was never easier. This was “good” because in awaiting that insidious government tyranny now a handy gun was nearby to help protect and adjudicate any and all conflict.

Until now.

As theatrical gangs, presumably deputized as ICE agents, maraud through LA and other cities the vision of government over reach has never been more evident. Daily examples corrode the culture where nativists or would-be citizens—bearing no threat—are scraped off city streets like so many worn pothole patches. With a forced symbolism that seeks to outrage more than ensure public safety, it turns out the only criminality going on is from the folks corralling supposed ne’er-do-wells. Sheathed in cheap cosplay outfits that seldom stretch to cover bulging bellies, these “agents” are creating maximum mayhem to facilitate optimum fear. It is a cheap, weak, misguided approach where the scourge of tyranny rings abundant-and yet—where oh where might we find our zealous 2nd Amendment folk?

Not on the streets of LA where seemingly some of them have traded their own weapons for government issued ordnance. Nor in dozens of other places where this fanatical schtick forces us to gauge what’s rotting more rapidly—our souls or California vegetables that go unpicked lest that industry’s labor gone underground? Meanwhile this textbook example of why 2nd Amendment protectionists have taken up so many arms goes unmatched or even unquestioned. To date there has been no Lexington—no shot—or even defending presence heard or seen around the world or anywhere else. Why?

If one can mouth the 2nd Amendment as though quoting Bible-verse—and believe that to be righteous—how can they also be asleep at the switch during this pivotal time? Mind you its not that actual bullets need to fly. But if a would-be citizen appears for a scheduled immigration hearing, or a street vendor plies her beloved ice cream to city strollers, or ad hoc day laborers gather for work assignment—merely showing up with legal weaponry to ensure no interference is met should also be righteous. For that is the objective behavior, we are told, against which the 2nd Amendment protects. Yet for those self-armed to offer that protection, putting flesh into action seems stuck in neutral.

Is it possible that 2nd Amendment advocates mean only they demand protection when government tyranny directly touches them? If so the entire point is missed. Tyranny, as we are learning, doesn’t manifest itself always like a terrorist’s suicide bombing or military operation or law enforcement raid. Re-enacting Pickett’s Charge is not the modern threshold of tyranny resistance—saying no is. No to cosplay tyrants who love re-enacting anything—except for decency or reality. Yet the self-appointed protectors of our cherished freedom are nowhere to be found as 47’s madness comes to the streets. What does it say about the type of person who has been proactive about prepping for government overreach and then when it happens, simply sits and watches?