Everybody dreams; some just don’t remember their dreams upon awakening. I fall into that category; most of the time I can’t remember what I dreamt the night before. However, I just awoke from a dream that was so vivid that it is fresh in my mind; so I decided to write it all out before the memory of it fades. That’s why I’m here right now, at 3:47 a.m.; all so you too can share in my dreams.
As the dream begins, I’m sitting at the patio table in my back yard listening to some music. In front of me on the table sits a pellet rifle and a tin of pellets. The rifle is empty and the safety is on, and I have not yet fired it; no targets yet you might say. Suddenly I hear a crash at the front door and four heavily armed police officers, all wearing body armor, rush into my house with their weapons leveled at me. One of the officers says something I can’t hear over the music and the other officers head down the hallway towards the bedrooms while he approaches me; his weapon leveled at my chest.
Never taking my eyes off his trigger finger I slowly raise my hands over my head and calmly say, “This is only a pellet rifle, it is empty and the safety is on. What are you guys doing here?” He inspects the weapon, looks at the tin of pellets, and puts it back down. He then says, “We’re responding to a report of an armed man sir.” I tell him I have no other weapons on me, and that he’s free to frisk me to verify that. Then I say, “Would it be alright if I backed away from the table, far enough to be beyond reach of the weapon, so that I could lower my arms?” He stares at me a moment, then says, “Go ahead, but no sudden moves” still pointing his weapon at me.
Once I have moved about six feet from the table I say, “So someone reported me as being armed and dangerous; enough so to have four officers in body armor and automatic weapons dispatched the check it out? I suppose whoever reported this armed man also said something about him having an assault rifle, right?”
The officer shrugs his shoulders, a slight smile coming to his lips, so I continue.
Right out of the starting gate there are a couple of things inherently wrong with the situation I currently find myself in. First off there is the overall ignorance of the public regarding firearms; and this is not a firearm per se. This is the kind of rifle my father gave me fifty years ago when I turned 10; it is a single shot pellet rifle, that were I to shoot you with covered in body armor, you probably wouldn’t even feel the impact of the pellet. Yet someone saw me with it and thought I posed a danger; enough so that four armed men broke into my home; causing quite a bit of damage to my front door by the way, to respond to the call. Who is going to repair my front door by the way?
At this point the officer interrupts me and says, “Sir, I’m going to have to ask that you remain silent at this point.”
I then continue ask, “Do you intend to violate all my rights before you’re finished here?” He says, “What are you talking about, we’re just doing our job here.” I tell him, “I see, just doing your job. That excuse didn’t work out so well for the Nazis at Nuremberg; you may want to think about that before you violate any more of my rights. After all, you’re off to such a great start.”
He does not tell me to shut up again, so I continue:
So it apparently seems to be your job to violate the rights of those you claim to serve and protect. As of this moment you’ve violated my freedom of speech by telling me to shut up; on my own property by the way. Next you’ve violated my right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures by breaking down my door without a warrant; while your men search for God knows what. Finally you’ve violated the premise that I have the right to keep and bear arms on my own property by responding to a call from a ‘concerned’ citizen. How am I doing so far?
Do you mind if I ask you a question? He shrugs, so I say, You take an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies; foreign and domestic, right? He nods, so I go on, I took a similar oath in 1979 when I enlisted in the military. Do you take that oath seriously; because obviously your actions here today say you don’t. You see, the Bill of Rights is part of the Constitution as well; as each amendment was properly ratified according to the process outlined in Article 5 of the Constitution.
But you see, the Bill of Rights neither grants me those rights, nor does it protect me against infringements upon them; all it does is say that government should not violate them. We have laws saying that people should not rob, rape, or murder too; but it still happens all the time; proving how ineffective words on a piece of paper are in preventing crimes from happening; and what is happening right here, right now, is a crime against me, and you are the perpetrators of that crime.
What crime have I committed that justifies you breaking down my front door, holding me at gunpoint, and searching my home? What makes this pointing towards the pellet rifle a dangerous weapon while you’re carrying an automatic weapon; a weapon the law prohibits me from owning? Who is capable of causing more harm, me with a child’s toy, or you with what society calls an assault rifle? What justifies this kind of treatment?
There is a moment of silence as he appears to choose whether or not to answer, then he finally says, “Sir, all I know is that the government has passed a law and we have to investigate when someone is accused of violating it.”
Ah, the government, I say, don’t they also take the same oath to support and defend the Constitution; which includes the Bill of Rights? Yet here you are, acting under the authority of law, having violated 3 of my rights already.
Furthermore, doesn’t the Declaration of Independence say that all men are created equal, with certain unalienable rights? Where is the equality in my right to keep and bear arms when I’m prohibited by law from owning the very weapon you are currently pointing at my chest?
Do you even know the meaning of the word unalienable; it means something which cannot be surrendered or taken away. Yet this government, whose laws you are enforcing, has taken away the right of every citizen in this country to be as EQUALLY armed as you. So, not only do we have you, as a law enforcement officer, violating your oath to support and defend the Constitution, we also have those who write the laws of this land violating their oaths as well.
Have you ever read the 2nd Amendment; do you know what it says; what it means; what its purpose is? As it pertains to my current situation, the 2nd Amendment says, ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.’ The possession of this pellet rifle, and the other guns your partners may find in my home, is my right; as I am keeping arms. The right to bear those arms, however, has been infringed upon by the very fact that you are here; with further instances being the requirement that I obtain a permit to carry a firearm upon my person in public.
Do you know the meaning of the word infringe? Allow me to enlighten you. Infringe means to limit or restrict in any way. Using that as your definition, is not the fact that I must obtain a permit to carry, to bear, a firearm in public an infringement upon my right? Is not the very fact that you are here investigating me proof that my right to keep and bear arms is being infringed upon; as the public believes I am worthy of a 911 call for carrying a pellet rifle outside my home on my own property. It matters not what my intentions are, as long as I bring no harm to others, or their property, nor do I lessen their ability to enjoy their rights, I have the right to do exactly as I have done; without being treated no better than a common street criminal!
Addressing the fact that you currently have in your possession a firearm I am prohibited by law from owning, do you even know the meaning of the word arms? In the 18th Century, when the Bill of Rights was written, the Oxford English Language Dictionary defines arms thusly, ‘weapons of war; of the type carried into battle by warriors.’ Would that not include the very weapon you are holding; yet which the LAW has said I am forbidden from keeping or bearing?
That brings us to the question of why we have the 2nd Amendment in the first place. It is not, as many people believe, so that we can hunt or defend our homes; with that last part being heavily restricted by law as well. We retain the right to keep and bear arms so that we, the public, can defend ourselves against the kind of shit that is happening to me right here, right now; to defend ourselves against tyrants and their minions who carry out their orders.
I may have violated the law, but as Jefferson once said, ‘the law is often but the tyrants will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.’ Have I brought harm to anyone by sitting out here with this rifle? If not, you have no right to barge into my home and treat me like a criminal. Remember, you took an oath to support and defend the Constitution; which includes the Bill of Rights. What is it lawyers like to say, ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse’? So what is your excuse for being here; for violating my rights?
The Declaration of Independence tells us that governments are instituted among men to secure their rights; yet here we are, living in a country where the government runs roughshod over those rights, and you call it ‘doing your job’ when you enforce those laws. Yet you wonder why cops get such a bad rap; why people no longer respect you. Well it is because you no longer respect the rights of those you profess to serve and protect.
If you truly served me, and took your oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, you wouldn’t be here right now violating my rights; you would be in the halls of our government arresting those who write the laws that you enforce without ever questioning their legality. That is why you guys have no respect. You have been trained to treat the public as your enemy, and sometimes they are; but only when their actions violate the rights, or threaten the lives, liberty or property of another individual. I have done none of those things, yet here I am being treated like a common criminal.
I don’t know about your oath, but when I took mine it concluded with the words, ago. Mine concluded with the words, ‘so help me God.’ Well if yours was anything like mine, you’re going to have some serious explaining to do when you stand before God and try to justify what you are doing to the rights of those you profess to serve and protect. I don’t believe the police union will protect you when that day comes; nor will you have some high priced shyster lawyer at your side to defend you; your actions were choices you made; whether to take your oath seriously, or do whatever you were told to do by your superiors. I hope I have opened your eyes a bit, and you will cease and desist in your violations upon my rights, and the rights of anyone else in the general public; for there will be a reckoning some day, and God’s verdict is for all eternity.
At this point I awoke from my dream. I don’t know whether it was due to the fact that my brain was telling me that this was too good to let it fade into the fog of my mind, or whether I just woke up. In either case, here I am relating my dream to you now. However, I would like to add a few things to this; things that weren’t in my dream.
Have you ever heard the name Charles A. Beard? Charles Beard was a professor of history at Columbia University in the first half of the 20th Century. Now remember that was a hundred some odd years ago, yet during his time on earth Beard wrote, “You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is o go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence.”
How true those words are; as I have found that most people treat me as if I’m a threat to them, and their way of life, for simply wanting to live my life free of all the restrictions upon my rights and liberty that government has imposed upon me. In that regard I am much like those who participated in the great struggle for America’s independence; although I am not nearly as courageous as they were.
Yet to most of the people in this country, and to my government, I am treated as if I am a threat; a danger to the public welfare. How one who only wants their liberty back can be treated as a threat is difficult to wrap my head around; unless our government has truly become tyrannical, and you have become slaves content to live your lives devoid of any semblance of liberty.
Yet the Declaration of Independence tells us that governments are instituted among men to secure their liberty; not annihilate it. So if that is the purpose our Founders believed that government should serve, then why in God’s name do you still support it? Does the thought of someone enjoying all their rights and liberty frighten you that badly? Does that fact that you may be required to exercise your rights and enjoy unrestricted liberty frighten you?
The Declaration of Independence says one other thing too; that being, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Unlike you, who ask government to do things it was not authorized to do, to take from those things that it has no authority to take, all I want from government, and from you, is the ability to live my life free of any restraint; so long as I do not harm another in their life, liberty, or property when I do so. Yet apparently that makes me a danger to you, and to your government; which if your brains were functioning properly ought to be enough to cause you to drop your consent for it and join me in opposing it.
I am no prophet, no oracle, but I see dark times looming on the horizon if people don’t wake up, and wake up soon. It is my prayer that the people do wake up, do see the nature of the beast that enslaves them; for as long as people think that voting will fix what’s wrong in this country we will continue to march steadily towards absolute despotism; with the train of abuses against our rights and liberty growing longer and longer, until liberty of any kind no longer exists. When that day comes, you’ll wish you had listened to me; trust me on that!
April 2, 2021
~ The Author ~
Neal Ross, Student of history, politics, patriot and staunch supporter of the 2nd Amendment. Send all comments to: [email protected].
If you liked Neal’s latest column, maybe you’ll like his latest booklet: The Civil War: (The Truth You Have Not Been Told). Life continues to expand for this prolific writer and guardian of TRUE American history.