Scott County Guns

This is the kind of government action that plays into the agenda of paranoid fanatics and does nothing to protect our rights as gun owners. What has caused so many normally sane people to do this? Did the local politicians pass this simply to please local voters at the next election? Do they really believe the government is planning to swoop down any day and take away our guns? If they do believe this, isn't it their duty as public officials to get the facts, present them to the public, and let us all make an informed decision?

Let's all stop for a minute and look at reality: There are between 100 and 200 million guns in the US. (Nobody really knows for sure) This is several times the guns as used by the entire Nazi death machine of WW2. I can go to Sam's Gun shop In Bristol, Virginia and for less than $500 buy a better quality weapon then the bolt-action Mouser which most Germans used.

In April 1943 a few thousand starving Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, armed with a few guns, Molotov cocktails, and kitchen knives, fought off the Germans for 30 days! Only when they brought in tanks, artillery, and flame thrower's were they able to crush these brave Jews.

Anyone who has been to Nam knows what a determined man can do even if poorly armed and out-gunned. Vietnam proved it to us, the Afghans to the Russians. Does anyone really think the government can take away our guns? The entire US military and every cop around couldn't do it and most wouldn't obey the orders anyway.

A major myth is poverty. Two-thirds (or more) of all poor people in America are white and the vast majority live in rural areas. Big city poverty gets more attention because it is easy to see. Rural regions all over America have taken an economic hammering as farming, mining, logging, and manufacturing give way to automation, NAFTA, corporate farms, and environmental regulations. While overall good for the country, we pay a heavy price. What is seen as natural beauty and a clean environment to urban folks is often economic hardship for us. Face it, which pays more, a job at Eastman Chemical or a part time tourist job?

See Worlds Apart by Cynthia Duncan
Empty Platitudes on the Poverty Tour by Bill Bishop

All of this is not some Satanic plot or secret group planning to overthrow America. There is nothing evil at all, it is just how the capitalist system works and some folks are the losers. Americans want cheap consumer goods, low inflation, and a clean environment. Driving down wages by raising interest rates, immigration, automation and imports is how it is done.

In fact is the two biggest costs for the average worker in America isn't welfare, it is transfer payments to the elderly (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) and interest payments on public/private debt. NASA, EPA, AFDC, etc are pennies. That is the way it is, get off the welfare myth.

All of this does make a lot of people angry, it breeds resentment, frustration, prejudice and hate. There are plenty of people who exploit this for their own ends: New Age Christian fundamentalists, environmental wackos, and gun control fanatics, etc all use fear, paranoia, and misinformation as tools to achieve their agendas.

Randy "Ruby Ridge" Weaver in Sullivan County
Willie Martin and Christian Identity on Trial
Militias Take Aim in Virginia
McVeighs's Former CO Speaks Out
Tim McVeigh, an Angry Young Man

What does all of this produce? It produces people like Tim McVeigh and Terry Nickels who decide to blow up a federal building and give the gun control nuts a field day. It produces environmental wackos in California who spike trees injuring and killing loggers. NO gun or any other laws would have stopped them any more than the drug war has stopped drugs. If one has the money, it is easy to buy illegal guns or make explosives or buy crack.

What would have stopped Tim and Terry? All it would have taken was one fellow veteran, gun owner, or a friend to speak up against of this right-wing (or left-wing as well) paranoia and finger pointing. What did their friends do? Went along with it or ignored it and we know the results.

What can we really do to make a difference?

First we have to understand most laws have a good purpose. Chemical companies are regulated because they pollute and won't regulate themselves. Their own actions give those seeking regulation all the ammunition they need to convince the public (rightly or wrongly) to force the government to do it. If the industry had cleaned up their act there would be no EPA.

If we as veterans, gun owners, Christians, atheists, or whatever don't reign in the crazies in our own ranks, the government will come down on everyone. "We the people" have to shut down this culture of paranoia, rumor mongering, and doomsday bullsh**. Somebody claims the government is plotting this or that, demand proof. Talk to your friend, fellow vet or gun owner, etc. Be there, reason with them. don't go along with it!

To my Christian friends, stop letting racists, self-proclaimed prophets and wackos use the Bible to justify their ravings. If one leaves a church feeling full of anger and hate, is that what Jesus is about? Does the Bible really say what someone claims it says? Does it say the earth is 6000 years old? That America is the new Israel and the Tribulation is due on January 1, 2000? Who has done more damage to Jesus? Jim Bakker, Oral Roberts and Pat Robertson or an occasional atheist? What does Scripture say of false prophets? Of paying taxes? Of public prayer? Render unto Ceasor what is Ceasors....

But Scott County has other problems including some of the highest poverty in the state and no jobs. These folks should worry about real issues and not get into this fundamentalist silliness that could convince another McVeigh/Nickels to go off the deep-end and do something stupid.

Special thanks to Stanley C. for his input and pointing out a need to bring in the pro gun side on these issues and for the link to GunCite, a site devoted to protecting our second amendment rights.

Scott County supervisors back gun ownership resolution
by KEVIN CASTLE

GATE CITY: The Scott County Board of Supervisors is supporting a resolution originated in Buchanan County concerning gun ownership.

The supervisors voted unanimously last week to support the locally originated legislation, which states the county "supports the constitutional right of all law-abiding citizens in the United States of America to keep and bear firearms."

"It seems like there is something coming out every day that tries to take things away from us as citizens or take away our rights. We have never gone along with anything like that, so we will support this resolution," said Supervisor Chairman Kenneth Hensley.

Ray Buchanan, chairman of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors, said the origin of the resolution of support came from a local gun/hunting club in that county asking the board for its support of the country's Second Amendment right.

"I am for the protection of our right to bear arms 100 percent. I think a lot of the concern being shown toward this issue is due to the current presidential race," Buchanan said.

Some think that if Vice President Gore gets into office he will be anti-gun, so some of these organizations are trying to get as much support as they can get to send the message.

"Our county attorney wrote up the support resolution and we, as a board, support the language in that statement."

The resolution says that proposed federal legislation regarding the ownership and registration of guns will "infringe" on a gun owners constitutional rights.

The resolution also states further that the board supports the ownership of firearms for "legitimate purposes," adding, "with the understanding that this board also vigorously supports the prevention and prosecution of gun violence and further supports a zero tolerance for guns being carried onto school property except by law enforcement personnel."

Supervisor for Scott County's Fourth District Riley Boy, who is also a rifle sportsman in his spare time, agrees with the resolution and its ties to gun owner protection.

"We hope this will prevent any encroachment on our rights as citizens. Personally, myself being a sportsman and a person who has been brought up to respect the right to hunt and own a gun, we have to keep this issue in perspective," Boy said.

"We live in the rural areas where there is still respect for a gun and for it to be used in a proper manner, not just for personal protection, but as a privilege we have had since our nation was founded. I think this resolution is a reinforcement of that."

Published July 8, 2000
Kingsport Times-News