Second Amendment - Lessons from Lithuania

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
AMENDMENT II
Constitution of the U.S.

I know not what others may do. But as for me, give me liberty or give me death. Patrick Henry

180 • BEHOLD A PALE HORSE William Cooper

EXPLANATION

I had intended to write a long and thoroughly referenced chapter on the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, the right of the people to keep and bear arms. I had to eat humble pie when I read the following text entitled "Lessons from Lithuania'' by Neal Knox. It was contributed by a member of the Citizens Agency for Joint Intelligence. I was impressed by its simplicity and ability to deliver with very few words the precise message that I had intended to convey in twenty pages. Since I believe that sometimes less is more, and since my ego has nothing to do with this book and its message, "Lessons from Lithuania" has been printed in its entirety, with no changes, as the complete chapter on the Second Amendment. Try as I might, I could never improve upon Neal's simple statement. My deepest appreciation to Neal Knox and The Firearms Coalition for permission to use "Lessons from Lithuania."

LESSONS FROM LITHUANIA
by Neal Knox

Those who avoid and evade the reason for the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution would surely admit that if Lithuania had a Second Amendment, Mikhail Gorbachev violated it on March 22,1990 — Russian troops seized arms from the Lithuanian militia. Or was "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" actually violated two days earlier, when Premier Gorbachev ordered private citizens to turn in their hunting and competition guns to the Russian army within one week "for temporary safekeeping" or have them confiscated and their owners imprisoned? Or was "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" initially violated many years before, when the people were first prohibited from possessing guns without permission of government and laws were passed requiring every gun to be registered? In fact, the Soviet Constitution guarantees the people the right to keep and bear arms, and Lithuania is part of the Soviet Union — or so Gorbachev contends. But obviously the Soviet government pays no more attention to that constitutional freedom guarantee than do the majority of the U.S. government, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, or CBS and the Washington Post. What is the difference, precisely, between the confiscation of private firearms in Lithuania and the confiscation ordered by S. 166, the Graves bill now pending in the New Jersey Senate? What is the difference, precisely, between the registration law in Lithuania — which makes confiscation possible — and the registration of Chapter Ten Lessons from Lithuania military-style firearms required by California's Roberti-Roos bill, which went into effect January 1,1990. What is the difference, precisely, between Lithuania's law prohibiting the people from owning military-style firearms and the so-called "assault rifle" bans now pending in both houses of Congress and in many states? The difference is that the people of the
United States are free men and women who can trust their benevolent government. FOREVER?

NOTE: Nothing has so clearly demonstrated the reasons for the Second Amendment and the reasons it must be defended than when on Dec. 14,1981,when Gen. Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland, placed all press under total government control, and declared all firearms licenses and gun registration certificates void — requiring the licensed owners to turn in their registered guns within 48 hours. Of course, since the government knew where every gun was — except those in the hands of criminals — they had no choice but to comply. Please download this file, print it out and send it to your local newspaper

Neal Knox
The Firearms Coalition
Box 6537
Silver Spring, MD 20906

Author's Note: This is a lesson that we hope to learn only from reading and not in the manner learned by the Poles and Lithuanians. After reading the above, I hope you will agree with me that anyone who attempts to subvert the Second Amendment or any other section or legal amendment of the Constitution is a traitor and should be arrested and tried for treason. I hope that you will copy this chapter and distribute it as widely as possible, to as many people as possible. Education is more than half the battle. In case you have not guessed by now, the fact that most Americans own at least one firearms weapon is the only thing that has kept the New World Order at bay. A Ray of Hope: As of January 8, 1991, less than 10% of all California gun owners have registered their firearms. Many Californians stood in the streets
with weapons in hand and publicly burned the registration forms. Network news did not cover these demonstrations, and no mention has been made on television that California gun owners have ignored this unconstitutional gun registration law.