Guns, fear, hate, and profit – the true American way

In the news today, another state relaxes their “conceal and carry” laws, the gun show loop hole close bill died on the floor today, another child was shot to death when she was caught in the cross fire of a drive by shooting.
Terry Nichols will again escape capital punishment for his role in the Oklahoma bombing. A married couple fatally shot each other in an argument over a TV remote. Colt Firearms announced the 10th record breaking quarter in a row. Details at 9:00 p.m. 

In contrast, the America I perceived I was growing up in, as a young boy, is best exemplified by the paintings of Norman Rockwell.  Country streams, sweet open fields filled with bright sunshine, forests abounding and a nation filled with the warm hues of happiness.   

We had our heroes and our muddled heroes like the James Gang, John Dillinger, and the likes. We heard stories of the valiant Elliot Ness, who was to have single handedly taken down the miscreant, but likeable teddy bear, Al Capone.  

And with thunderously, awe inspiring fireworks displays on the Fourth of the July – the day we celebrated our way of life and the model we had created for the world. For it was about values and pride. It was about truth, justice and the American way. It was about how this country came to be. 

In our beginnings the colonies expanded in the new world through the 17th and 18th century and Cotton became the king.  But to effectively capitalize on cotton one needed vast lands to raise the cotton plant and many hands to process it. This created a growing market for slaves. Slaves, armies of them, were needed to harvest and nurture the expanding cotton trade.  The slaves were necessary to carry the heavy burden while the rest of the new world sought to understand the higher purpose of their lives through the teachings of the Bible.   

In 1776 our wealthy aristocrats wrote “all men are created equal” as a prelude to informing England the colonies were divorcing them from the Commonwealth of England.  But all men were not created equal, for the framers would not hear of, or consider, abolishing slavery. 

The second amendment to the Constitution was written by James Madison and he served his masters, the cotton states and the slave trade, well.  It was through the threat of violent and deadly force that kept the slaves from taking the “all men are created equal” to heart.   

Cotton was the gross national product and the profit center of the time. Anything that threatened to disrupt the money flow had to be stopped by any means.  Madison provided the means for an ad-hoc militia, actually vigilantes, which could be mobilized and take hostile action using deadly force as the insurance policy against slave insurrection – nothing more, nothing less.  The militia tracked down run away slaves, the captured slave always seemed to meet an ugly end and the body was dragged back as a gloomy case in point.   The slaves were extremely well informed of, and shown, the perils that awaited them should they step out of line. 

From all of that, this is what has evolved. 

We have people today, many people, whose view on life and the government absolutely stops at the Second Amendment to the Constitution. In their opinion we must be armed to fight the monster of civil and criminal law that governs our society.  And, all men are not created equal. 

We are being taught to fear and hate everything and everyone.  Arm yourself because your rights are being ripped from you by the rapier sharp talons of an oppressive government – nobody can say exactly what rights are being torn away from us except the freedom to carry a gun at all times and use it as we see fit.  

When people posing as experts write books heralding a study that was never done in support of GUNS, they are hailed as a patriot.  When they are caught lying, the liars call the critics liars.  Their pay-rolled lackey ‘scholars’ declare, as the voice of God, 98% of all crime would be exterminated if everyone carried a gun.   

Those who are in opposition are branded as treasonable slanderous heretics. Mr. Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President & CEO, NRA Board of Directors, sums it up best when he said: “What fakes, frauds and liars! ... [A] shadowy network of extremist social guerillas”, and the reaction to the opposition is seething illogical temper tantrum outbursts of profanity and malignant venom on par with a pubescent armed with a new box of color crayons  (www.nraleaders.com)   

What is fueling the arming of America is the profit from hatred and fear. The gun manufactures and after market products are a multi billion dollar profit center.  Their paid legions banter freedom and self-protection from a frightful specter of unseen enemy that lurks every where just out of sight and in the darkness of our streets, homes and the government. The bottom line is no fear, no hatred, no gun sales and an outraged horde of shareholders.  

Even now as I write, laws are being passed to nullify any and all gun control and these same forces deliberately ignore that there are those who should not own a gun with the exception that all men are not created equal.   

They want to be able to brandish their weapons and terrify into submission anyone who might cross their path, and to use deadly force as they see fit avenging all slights, real or imaginary, with complete impunity.  They want to enforce their rights over your cold dead remains if need be (preferably).  

There never was a ban on assault weapons, only smoke and mirrors. American firms have been making assault weapons and selling them openly for the last 10 years (http://www.vulcanarmament.com/cgistore/store.cgi?page=/new/catalog.html&setup=#AGENTID&cart_id=). An assault weapon made in a country overseas is bad (cheap); the same weapon with very few cosmetic differences made in America is good (expensive).  Regardless, we need to whip up the foam of rabid emotions as we have always done. 

A true red blooded Texan to the end and a servant to the masters of death said he will extend the ban. Will he make sure that the cheap overseas versions do not infringe on the prosperity of the American arms industry?  

But, then again, not being able to get the cheap versions are upsetting people too and they claim this is a violation of their rights. But the cheap versions are violating the rights of the shareholders of the arms industry who demand a king’s ransom profit, and a CEO’s rights to have a far above mortal man compensation package.  

Now, everyone's rights are being violated diametrically equal in the endless and bottomless vortex of dichotomies, half truths, and contradictions.

M J Berglin