(Note: this was an article that I wrote a few years ago that I thought was lost with the server crash- I found a copy on one of my backups and it seems very timely.)...
Throughout many conservative forums and pro 2nd Amendment websites, a common and justified concern is the left’s desire to disarm free citizens through various levels of gun control. On many forums, you will find predictions of armed government squads roaming neighborhoods, kicking in doors, and rounding up gun owners. At the same time, you’ll see promises from ‘patriots’ to fight back, start a civil war (CWII) or new revolution, and enact retribution against the same government agencies, agents, and their families. While this may make a great plot for a movie or novel, it all more closely resembles a world left behind in the mid 20th century or restricted to third world dictatorships. The reality of how society can be disarmed in the 21st century is far less Red Dawn or Hunger Games and much more Thank You For Smoking (2005) or An Inconvenient Truth (2006).
In this story, I will present a fictional scenario on how society can be disarmed not based on fanciful science fiction, but on real examples of what is currently happening, how society has been manipulated toward a common goal, and how intelligence communities and politicians have done this in other first-world nations. This is history, that just hasn’t happened yet.
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It starts with a story we’ve seen before. A shooting at a school. There quickly are the usual cries across the internet of a ‘false flag’ operation, but the sad truth is there are deranged people in the world who do not need a secret government hand guiding them to do such things. Plus, it is far less risky to wait for something to happen and then, not let a crisis go to waste, than it is to try to orchestrate such an event.
Unlike school shootings in the past, this one had a new element that blew up across the country- uncensored video and pictures. Millions of people saw the images of young bodies within minutes of it happening. The horror of the shooting was even streamed live as people went ‘Go Live’ on Facebook. Images that would have been censored by traditional media were shown in their full, graphic nature over and over across social media sites.
Gun control forces saw the crisis and immediately made sure it didn’t go to waste. It didn’t matter that the firearms may have been illegally obtained on the black market or that any number of gun control measures wouldn’t have stopped this, they jumped in to make sure the story went their way. Memes were created, Tweets went out, and every story on the subject was filled with graphic images of dead children in hallways with the caption ‘Enough is Enough’. No story contradicting the narrative went unanswered. For the first month after the story, the goal was to turn the stomach of society.
Pressure was put on sporting good stores and major retailers to stop selling certain classes of firearms or the ammunition that goes with it. Even stores that have stood strong supporting the 2nd Amendment in the past had to cave as protesters blocked the entrances and fliers showing dead children were plastered all over their doors and all over their social media pages. Within weeks, one could not purchase anything other than simple shotguns or .22 rifles outside locally owned mom and pop shops.
The pressure then went against gun owners themselves. Memes started to change. Now, instead of just dead children, pictures of everyday citizens were posted alongside them with the phrase ‘it could have been your gun’ or ‘it could be your neighbor’ pushing the agenda that anyone’s firearm is a danger in the wrong hands. This is pushed as revelations about the shooting come forward that the firearms in the shooting were stolen from regular, everyday, law abiding citizens. Now the memes change from ‘it could be’ to ‘it was your neighbors’. Like smokers in the past, social media pressure is applied to shun and ridicule gun owners.
Hollywood finally joins in, changing the theme of many action movies to have heroes who shun firearms going against crazed gun owners. Gone are the spy adventures with the hero carrying his trusty Walther, and in are psychological thrillers about computer hackers and everyday citizens stopping mass shootings by angry NRA members. These movies have a double goal of making the heroes someone who an everyday citizen can personify themselves as- not an out of reach superhero.
On TV, plot after plot follow the same theme. Even in police dramas, you never see the hero carry a gun and the villain is no longer the synsational serial killer but shown to be an every day gun owner who, by virtue of owning a firearm, is now a dangerous monster. Even children’s shows tackle plots like a child finding daddy’s gun akin to the old plots of children finding a pack of cigarettes and trying some. The media attack is constant and relentless.
While the attitude of society in general takes a slow, relentless campaign hitting all aspects of the media, managing politicians is far easier.
Within months of the shooting, many ‘common sense reforms’ (as they are billed) are proposed. They start out small. Every firearm sold has to include a safety booklet outlining the dangers of firearms, including graphic images of gunshot wounds from violence or mishandling. Every firearm sold has to now include a warning label on the firearm. Gun manufacturers now have an additional tax to pay for safety education. Slowly through, the so-called common sense reforms become more and more intrusive. New bills are passed requiring all bills of sale to be collected and stored by the ATF, including historical sales records. All firearms sold have to be ‘barrel printed’ to be able to trace bullets from crimes to specific firearms. And more and more firearm classes are added to the ATF NFA lists requiring registration and tax stamps. Drop by drop, these laws are passed over the years, slowly making the purchase of a firearm more and more expensive and more and more difficult. Even ammunition becomes subject to these restrictions, so even if you own many of the restricted classes of firearms, you find that buying ammunition becomes cost prohibitive and infeasible to go out and practice with what you have left.
As the years go by, purchasing of firearms become limited to the wealthy and well connected. More and more manufacturers find they have no customer base or have to change what they produce to fit the new, changing demand. Mom and pop gun shops go out of business left and right. Add to this lawsuits by victims and then by the government against anyone who manufactures a gun or sells one that is used in a crime.
Yet there are still shootings. All of these common sense reforms fail to address that law abiding citizens that will follow the laws are not the ones prone to pick up a gun and shoot up a school or movie theater- yet they are the ones who are socially targeted and shunned more and more every time it happens. With every shooting, the images and video become more graphic and the politicians become more bold. Soon, common sense reforms are written to make firearm ownership mirror car ownership. All firearm owners must be insured, all firearms must be inspected and registered and pay an annual registration fee and inspection fee. Then, all firearm owners must be trained and licensed. The intrusive nature of all of this training and registration makes legal ownership more and more expensive and tedious.
Of course, the government cares and doesn’t want people to be put into the situation where they are committing a crime because they can’t afford to own their firearms so they set up generous buyback programs or programs to donate your firearms to your local law enforcement for tax credits. Millions of law abiding citizens gladly turn in their firearms for a few thousand dollars they desperately need and avoid any penalties for not registering them.
It then comes down to the patriots. Those who believe in the 2nd Amendment and an individual citizen’s right to protect his life, liberty, or property. Those who refuse to comply with what they see as a government overstepping its Constitutional bounds. Unfortunately for years, they have been bragging on social media and to their friends how they will not comply. They have posted images of their guns or targets, and discussed fantasies of CWII when they use their collection to stand up to tyranny.
For those who do not properly register their firearms or get the correct licensing or insurance, the fines are steep. Reward systems are put in place to turn in your neighbor for unregistered firearms, and with years of social manipulation in place to make a law abiding gun owner appear to be a monster waiting to happen, neighbors and families are gladly willing to help society by reporting these unregistered owners.
The holdouts are easy to find. Simple searches through common internet forums find those willing to talk a bit too much. For government analysts, simply searching for the phrase ‘tragic boating accident’ turns up hundreds of these ‘licensing evaders’. Most are treated like tax evaders with property and bank accounts seized and small jail sentences. A few though, well, there have to be examples made.
One heads to the store one day, only to return and find his home surrounded by federal agents, cleaning out everything he has and digging up what he thinks is his secret cache buried an acre behind his house with his other ‘bug out ‘ equipment he bragged about online.
Another finds himself accidently clicking a malware infected link in an email and suddenly his computer is filled with child pornogrophy and he is arrested a few days later. Another pervert off the streets according to the media.
Dozens of these high profile cases happen, many under different reasons. On the websites and forums they frequented, people know the truth and it spreads fear they are next. Quickly, most comply with the law or go deeper underground.
After a few years, legal gun ownership is gone away, restricted to the wealthy and connected. No civil war, no mass rebellion, no internment camps, no door to door raids. All through social manipulation and small ‘common sense’ intrusions.
Of course, there is one group we haven’t talked about- the criminal class. In all this, the black market booms in firearms and criminals with criminal intent, and complete disregard for the law, find society becoming a disarmed treasure trove like a bank with its vault left open. Home invasions increase, muggings increase, gang on gang shootings skyrocket, and many neighborhoods and cities become too dangerous to walk around in without a police escort.
And all the law abiding citizens wonder how they can protect themselves from the crime……...
