Date: Fri, 4 Aug 1995 13:11:55 -0700
From: [bc 654] at [scn.org] (SCN User)
Subject: Real Police
In view of the prohibitionist's claims to support from law enforcement,
based on the parrotted opinions of politically appointed administrators,
I thought you might be interested in a real cop's viewpoint.
Doug
A Speech by Lt. Harry Thomas, Cincinnati Police Division, Fountain
Square, Cincinnati, Ohio. Delivered February 27, 1994.]
Welcome to the People's Republic of Cincinnati!
As usual, since I am speaking publicly, I must make the
following disclaimer: I am not speaking to you as an official spokesman or
representative of the Cincinnati Police Division. If I don't say that, I'm
liable to have visitors waiting for me when I get back to work.
For the past 21 years, I have been a member of the Cincinnati
Police Division. On three occasions, I have sworn a solemn oath; once when
I was promoted from cadet to patrolman, once when I was promoted from
patrolman to sergeant, and yet again when I was promoted from sergeant to
lieutenant. That oath was to support the Constitution of The United States
of America.
I have buried almost a dozen of my fellow police officers who
died defending that oath. The last one died right before my eyes in the
major trauma room of University Hospital. I signed the receipt for his
body so that he could be transported to the morgue. I think about those
men often, and I think about what they died for. And that is why I become
furiously angry when I see our Constitution, the most remarkable document
ever written in the course of human existence, being used as toilet paper
at every level of government.
The Brady Bill is now a reality. For the first time in the
history of our country, American citizens must request the government's
permission to exercise a constitutional right. And if the government sees
its way clear to grant permission, we must wait 5 days to exercise the right.
But even this is not enough to please our keepers in
Sodom-By-The-Potomac. Gun laws are not being passed quickly enough to suit
our federal law enforcement agencies, so they have formulated their own
plan to discourage gun ownership.
In Ruby Ridge, Idaho, Sammy Weaver, age 14, the son of Randy
Weaver, a man who had taken his family to the mountains to escape the
tyranny of a government run amok, was hunting in the forest near the
Weaver cabin with his dog. He wasn't the only person hunting in that
forest that day. Sammy Weaver was ambushed and fatally shot in the back by
two United States Marshals. And lest anyone accuse the US Marshals of not
being thorough in the performance of their assigned tasks, I would point
out that they also shot the dog, also in the back.
Later, Vicki Weaver, Randy's wife and the mother of the Weaver
children, opened the door of the Weaver cabin to admit her husband, who
had been in a nearby shed to visit the body of his son. Vicki Weaver was
holding her 10 month old infant daughter in her arms. That proved to be
only a slight inconvenience to FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi, as he shot Vicki
Weaver through the head. She fell dead to the floor, her skull exploded,
still clutching her daughter in her lifeless arms. It would appear that it
is now a capital offense to be the son, wife, or dog of a gun owner.
Waco. "Waco" is a word which, among American patriots, engenders
the same anguished feelings of outrage as the word "Alamo." Last year, at
the NRA Convention in Nashville, my wife and I returned to our hotel room
and flipped on CNN to see the latest developments in Waco. The Branch
Davidian compound was burning. My wife cried. She knew that there were
many children in that compound. She asked me why. Why are they burning
the compound? I told her the simple truth: They have to burn it. Has
anyone here seen and read the Waco search warrant affidavit? It's crap. It
didn't establish enough probable cause to even knock on the Branch
Davidian's door.
When the FBI took over from the BATF (which some people say
actually stands for Burn All Toddlers First) they knew that they would
find no illegal weapons in the Branch Davidian compound. They were between
a rock and a hard place. 4 ATF men dead, and an unknown number of Branch
Davidians dead, the FBI had only one choice: destroy the compound, so that
no one could ever prove whether illegal weapons were present or not.
For hours, the FBI pumped supposedly non-lethal CS gas into the
compound. Those of us in law enforcement and the military know
differently. CS gas, in high concentrations in an enclosed area, is
lethal. The first ones to be affected, by vomiting, convulsions,
unconsciousness and death, would be the children. The same children that
the feds claimed they were trying to rescue from the evil cultists. The
same children that local Texas authorities found to be happy and healthy
under the care of the Branch Davidians.
The FBI did not pump CS gas into the Branch Davidian compound to
force its occupants to come out. They pumped that gas in to make sure the
occupants couldn't come out. Dead gun owners, and dead gun owners'
children, tell no tales.
The time has come for us to openly discuss something that up to
this time we have mainly whispered about. The purpose of the 2nd amendment
is to threaten the government. The framers of our Constitution knew that
government is a necessary evil, which, as in the case of the British
government, could easily become more evil than necessary. The Founding
Fathers wanted to ensure that should that situation again come to pass,
the American people would have the capability to reclaim their country by
force of arms.
I believe that we are dangerously close to that day when we will
have to use the 2nd Amendment in exactly the manner that our forefathers
anticipated. When I was a boy, my father could buy firearms through the
mail. It was rightly believed at that time that such a transaction was the
business of the buyer, the gun dealer, and no one else. I lost that right
with the passage of the GCA 68 [Gun Control Act of 1968]. In my lifetime,
I have been able to walk into a gun store, select a handgun, and walk out
of that store with that gun in my hand. My children lost that right with
the passage of the Brady Bill. I'm not giving up any more rights.
I sincerely hope that a political solution to this problem is
still possible, and I will continue to work on the NRA Board of Directors
to try to find that solution. But if that solution cannot be found, I say
this to the megalomaniacs in Washington:
Pass your gun laws. I will not beg the government for a license
to continue to be a handgun owner. I will not submit to being
fingerprinted, or photographed, or interrogated like a criminal for
claiming my birthright as a free American. I will not register a single
gun that I own. I will not surrender a single gun that I own. I will not
apply for an "arsenal" license because I own more than 20 guns or more than
a thousand rounds of ammunition. I will not attend mandatory safety training,
nor will I submit to a test to prove that I'm fit to be a gun owner.
And Miss Reno, I have this to say to you: If you send your
jack-booted, baby-burning bushwhackers to confiscate my guns, pack them a
lunch; it will be a damned long day. The Branch Davidians were amateurs;
I'm a professional.
Patrick Henry, while addressing the Virginia House of Burgesses
on March 23, 1775, put these concepts into words in a manner far better
than I can ever hope to:
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased
at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty
God! I know not what course others may take, but as for
me, GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!"
###
Reprinted from Aid & Abet Police Newsletter, 4/94, Volume II, Number 6,
pages 12-13. Address: P.O. Box 8787, Phoenix, AZ 85066.
[Original editor's note from Officer Jack McLamb, Retired: Praise God, our
colleagues are awakening to WHO it is they have sworn to protect and serve!
None swear to protect government crooks and killers from the People.
Remember, if tyranny comes to any American's door, it must come in uniform.]