THE RADICAL LEFT AGENDA’S FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS: DISARM THE PUBLIC

PART FOUR

THE PURVEYORS OF COLLECTIVE GUILT: ANDREW CUOMO AND ERIC SWALWELL

“False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty. . . . and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree.” ~ From the essay, “Of Crimes and Punishments,” by Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria, Marquis of Gualdrasco and Villareggio (born March 15, 1738 – died November 28, 1794); Italian criminologist, jurist, philosopher, and politician; widely considered as the most talented jurist and one of the greatest thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment. What the jurist, Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria, pointed out most eloquently in the Eighteenth Century, concerning the disarming of the civilian population, is no less true today. Yet, radical Left politicians, in the Twenty-first Century are spouting the same inane remarks about firearms’ ownership that antigun politicians evidently spouted in the Eighteenth Century, which, then, would account for Beccaria’s essay, and, tacitly, for Beccaria’s scathing rebuke of them. And, what are those absurd remarks that antigun politicians, and antigun advocates, and zealots crow endlessly, mindlessly about? It all boils down to this:In order to enhance public safety, it is necessary to confiscate firearms. This is done for your [the public’s] own good. Gun violence will be curtailed, once confiscation of guns has been accomplished. Fewer guns means less crime. And, if you do not surrender your firearms, we will make an example of you—all for the public good, of course!Antigun politicians evidently recited  words to that effect in Eighteenth Century Europe, just as they do today—thus, Beccaria’s strong rebuke. But, whether any of the antigun politicians and antigun zealots of the Eighteenth Century, as with their counterparts today, truly believed in their own imbecilic remarks, that is debatable. But, what isn’t debatable, today at least, is that antigun politicians intend to harass law-abiding gun owners to the point that most of us—as these antigun politicians and zealots undoubtedly hope—will relent, and surrender, albeit reluctantly, our firearms to Government authorities.Of course the criminal element, ever disdainful of laws--then, in the Eighteenth Century, as Beccaria points out, and in any other period of history, up to the present time--will continue merrily along to obtain their firearms with relative ease. Law breakers such as criminals and lunatics and other assorted flotsam and jetsam in America, today, obtain all or virtually all the firearms they utilize to commit acts of violence, through unlawful means: namely, on the black market, or through theft, or through deceit. Should that come as a surprise to anyone? And there will, of course, be no concomitant decrease in gun violence in the U.S. through mass confiscation of firearms from the law-abiding citizenry. But, then, gun confiscation to reduce crime isn’t really the radical Left’s reason to confiscate firearms from the civilian population of this Country, anyway. It never was. That is mere pretext. It plays well in the Press. The goal of the radical Left here is, and always has been, population control, not gun control. it is the tens of millions of law-abiding gun owners that is of paramount concern to the radical Left in this Country, and not the criminal element, the gang-banger, or the lunatic. A bloated overbearing, overarching power hungry Government and an armed, wary citizenry would make for strange bedfellows, indeed. Is it any wonder, then, that the radical Left's gun policies are directed predominately to the eradication of gun ownership and possession existent among the tens of millions of law-abiding citizens, and that less attention is directed to and less time is devoted to the criminal element and lunatic that present laws dictate should never possess firearms? Why aren't the myriad number of Federal and State gun laws and the myriad municipal gun codes, regulations, and ordinances already on the books, not adequately enforced? Does the radical Left truly believe that denying the average, law-abiding citizen his fundamental right to keep and bear arms obviate misuse of firearms by those who are not permitted to have firearms in the first place? Not Likely. It is the tens of millions of law-abiding citizens whom the radical Left is determined to rein in, as the noose tightens over every other elemental natural right, as well; and, inversely, Governmental control over all thought and action grows and at an accelerated pace.A perfect case study of this point, and ongoing at this very moment, is the situation presently playing out in Venezuela, under the Madura Socialist Dictatorship. A reporter for the Washington Examiner, Claude Thompson, poignantly pointed out, on April 30, 2019:"Videos emerging from Venezuela Tuesday show anti-Nicolás Maduro protesters being reportedly shot at and run over by military members while civilians are unable to use conventional weapons to defend themselves following a private gun ownership ban in 2012.Videos circulating on social media show an unidentified helicopter reportedly shooting at protesters and armored military vehicles running over groups of citizens protesting the continuing reign of Maduro, who refuses to yield control of the country to Juan Guaidó, who multiple countries, including the United States, recognize as the legitimate president of the country."Are the scenes coming out of Venezuela, in recent days, a foreshadowing of what we can expect with the installation of a Socialist Dictatorship in our Country? That can very well happen if the Collectivists in our Nation come to power. They will begin the dismantling of our Free Republic by instituting a massive gun confiscation program. That will be the radical Left's first order of business.We know that the radical Left--these followers of  the tenets of Collectivism--disdain the very idea of fundamental rights, as natural rights, preexistent in the individual—rights bestowed on each American citizen by Divine Grace rather than by grace of Government.After all, the very existence of an armed citizenry galls the radical Left—the Collectivists—who are intent on creating an omnipotent, omnipresent central Government, a Government that isn’t answerable to its citizenry. The founders of our Nation would be appalled. But, then, the Collectivists don’t give a damn about what the founders thought, or would think, about the Collectivist agenda.The Collectivists envision a new world order, where sovereign, independent Western Nation States, including the United States, will cease to exist. The Collectivists envision  the erection of a new political, social, cultural, economic, financial, and legal system of governance; one where edicts emanate from the European Union’s Executive arm, the European Commission, whose headquarters is in Brussels, the Capital region of Belgium.Recall the Globalist President Barack Obama’s address to the European Union, delivered in Hannover Germany, on April 25, 2018. In pertinent part Obama said,“And this is what I want to talk to you about today—the future that we are building together—not separately, but together. And that starts right here in Europe.” Was Obama’s remark mere pleasantry, or was it something more; a portentous foreshadowing of something sinister; something ominous in store for Americans: heralding the dismantling of our institutions, the destruction of our Free Republic, the loss of sovereignty; the subordination of the United States to a foreign power; the subjugation of a free people, the abrogation of our Constitution; the rescission of our Nation’s fundamental, unalienable, sacred and inviolate rights and liberties?But whether these Collectivists know it or not, their vision will lead to Armageddon. Our citizenry will not bow easily to subjugation. They did not do so in the 1700s, as the British Empire learned well. And they will not do so now. If the Collectivists seek to thrust their vision on Americans by force of arms, they will be met with force of arms. If the Collectivists seek to thrust their vision of America on the citizenry through subterfuge, they should know that Americans are not easily duped and the Collectivists' efforts will be severely repulsed.It is absolutely galling to hear people like Governor Andrew Cuomo and Representative Eric Swalwell, sanctimoniously bellowing, by turns both belligerent and flippant, for ever more restrictions on the sacred right of the people to keep and bear arms. Indeed, Cuomo and Swalwell, like other radical Leftists in our midst, are no longer maintaining the pretense that the right of the people to keep and bear arms is worth securing at all.While some remarks still invoke the notion that fewer guns means less crime—regardless of the fact that it is not the number of guns in circulation but whom it is that has access to them that is the salient factor —antigun politicians, such as Cuomo and Swalwell, no longer really pretend that gun confiscation will translate into less crime. It is, rather, the tacit implication of their message—namely that guns signify something bad in and of themselves and, so, no one, aside from the police and military should have access to them—that is the real message blared out, behind the banter of gun violence, that they seek to convey to the public.So it is that Cuomo and Swalwell, and other radical Leftists—using the pretext of gun violence, perpetrated by the occasional maniac, lunatic, criminal, and gang-banger—denigrate tens of millions of average, rational, law-abiding American gun owners who do continue to cherish their sacred right to keep and bear arms and who do not take lightly nor kindly to the attack on both them and on their responsibly owned and possessed firearms.It has become patently clear that Cuomo and Swalwell place the law-abiding gun owner in the same camp as psychopathic criminals and the maniacs who happen to use firearms to commit violence. Cuomo and Swalwell dare impose collective guilt on all gun owners despite the fact that it is only a few—the lowest common denominator in society—that is responsible for gun violence. That becomes evident through both the words they utter and through the policies they endorse, which they seek to translate into law.Cuomo and Swalwell remain unperturbed at the outlandishness of their remarks and of their policy goals. They continue to castigate, taunt, and deride gun owners mercilessly—people like you and me who seek merely to exercise our God-given right—YES, GOD-GIVEN RIGHT—to keep and bear arms.______________________________________________________Copyright © 2018 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.