The Schoolyard Bully and "Assault Weapons"

Most of us can relate to the schoolyard bully in one way or another. We either were abused by this individual or knew someone who was. Perhaps you yourself were the schoolyard bully in times past. Anyway, most of us are familiar enough with the type that we can use him as a good analogy to our government.

We can imagine going out on the playground as a child to enjoy a break from the boredom of learning the proper order of the alphabet, with or without the little tune, or of reading about places which we would never see, even if we cared to. Heading out on the playground for our precious few minutes of fun, we can imagine being suddenly confronted by this snaggle-toothed goon, getting punched in the eye and relieved of our lunch money. If this happened only once, it would be bad enough; but you know the type. Bullies don’t operate that way. If they get you once, and get away with it, they continue for as long as they can.
Every day, the same scenario plays out: You head out on the playground, minding your own business, but are accosted by the bully. After awhile, you just hand him the lunch money. You adapt. You learn to try to carry extra money in your shoe, hoping that he doesn’t know that you have it. You start to feel as if you have somehow gotten over on him, because you got to keep a little bit of your money for yourself. You are glad that he doesn’t hit you every time anymore. Sometimes he just takes the money and lets you run away.

After ten years of the same thing, let’s imagine that the bully stops assaulting you. He is still there, with the threat and power to start up again at any time, but now he just glares at you and lets you pass by, if you will ask his permission. Suddenly, you feel relieved; even victorious! Never mind that for ten long years, this scum beat, robbed, and humiliated you…..every single day. You are just grateful that it is over; so grateful that you thank him. As you approach his position, you ask his permission to continue on your way, and thank him for letting you pass without harm.

Kids deal with stuff like this all the time.

As gun owners, we also deal with it every day, without realizing it. Our government has for the past ten years banned us from owning the weapons that we want, for whatever reason. Calling them "Assault Rifles", making these inanimate objects seem evil, and banning the manufacture of new "high capacity" magazines. The government set the arbitrary limit of ten rounds for our magazines. Before 1994, "high capacity magazines" were those that held 100 rounds, such as the excellent Beta Mag. Thirty round AR magazines were normal capacity, as were fifteen-shot pistol magazines. It did not matter at all that magazine capacity has never played a role in the success or failure of a criminal act. The government declared them to be evil, so they were banned. Like the lunch money in our shoe in the analogy above, we were happy that we could keep our "pre-ban" magazines, along with flash suppressors and bayonet lugs. Because things such as flash suppressors and bayonet lugs looked evil to some elitist thugs in Washington, they were banned. It wasn’t that anyone had ever been bayoneted in the commission of a crime, or that evil had prevailed because the criminal's flash signature from an AR-15 had foiled his capture.
Let us be clear as to the reason for the "Assault Weapons Ban" in the first place. The government was attempting to ban an entire class of rifles. They stole the term "assault rifle", using it to declare these legal rifles as an evil that must be eliminated from possession by common citizens. The term was used not only to polarize those who owned no guns against gun owners, but to divide gun owners, turning the "reasonable" deer hunter against the Neanderthals who wanted to own such evil weapons. They succeeded. In their narrow-minded reasoning, if they banned bayonet lugs, pistol grips, flash suppressors, and "high capacity" magazines, they could eliminate an entire class of legal semi-automatic rifles.

When the gun manufacturers complied with the law, leaving off the lugs and flash suppressors, and shipping the guns with compliant magazines, the liberal elitist government officials cried "Foul!", condemning the gun makers as those who circumvented the law, when they were only complying with the law.

Anyway, after ten years of living under the "Assault Weapons Ban", it was allowed to go away by a few good men in our Congress who blocked the bill to renew the ban from coming to a vote. If it had come to a vote, it stood a good chance of renewal, because of the many elected representatives who are still waiting on their backbone transplant. Many would have voted to renew the ban who claim to be the gun owner’s friend. Keep in mind that the bill was passed into law in 1994 by many of these same legislators.

Now, like the little kid on the playground, gun owners are grateful that the bill was allowed to sunset. We are thankful to the bully for not hitting us in the eye anymore. We still have to ask his permission to buy a gun, and are thankful when we quickly pass a government background check. We feel privileged to get our "permit" to carry a weapon, just like the little kid being granted permission to go play without being assaulted. The carry permit is our permission from the bully to exercise our God-given right to self protection. We still must ask his blessing to purchase, carry, and use our guns, but we are grateful to him for no longer prohibiting us from owning the very same firearms and accessories that he stole from us for ten years.

The bully is still hitting us in the eye, we just don‘t feel it anymore.

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