Originally Posted by atctimmy

A long time ago I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against ALL enemies foriegn and domestic. Even though I am no longer on active duty I still feel bound by that oath. I feel that during Katrina the police crossed to the side of the enemy. You may infer from that what you wish.

Originally Posted by cdwolf

A little off topic but related, I have been a manager at a building supply place for many years in central MS. The day after Katrina Even up here it was a mess. I own 3 acres and lost 3 of my very large oaks, one took out my power a full hour before my neighborhood( I was without power for 8days) I had a generator but it was hard to get fuel. We cleared as many trees off the roads as we could, and I went straight to work! We had the P.D. there to stop people from coming in we were selling truckloads of generators, tarps, flashlights, all with out power. One of my employees come up to me and asked if I would come talk to a customer up front, O.K. I get up there there is a 72 year old man, he asked if I would walk outside (it was a madhouse inside). He was on the interstate with his 75 yearold wife and 2 10lb mutts when it hit. There were dents on all 4 corners of his car, people were pushing them out of the way on the interstate! He told me that he had run out of gas and asked if i knew where to get any? I had 4 5 gallon cans in my toolbox and two of them were full. He told me he was trying to get to his daughters in St. Louis, AUG. 30th in MS it was hot and his wife didn't look good. I went to my truck and gave him the 10 gallons I had and 3 gas cans. He tried to pay me 30 times, I told him to keep his money he still had a long way to go! All the gas stations were out of gas and when a truck rolled in there was a three to four hour wait in line and most were cash only with a $50.00 max. I asked one of my P.D. friends they had their own station set up for city cars. They let him fill up and fill all three of his cans! There were shootings at gas stations for three days and fuel was only short for about 5 days and I'm 4 hours inland and it missed us! It hit Gulfport come up thru hattiesburg, and thru meridian. I had a generator for my t.v, 1 lamp, 1 fan. I seen how people act up here, They would not have gotten my guns. We had a few crew's stake out our neighborhood, but soon got the message we were not sheep and left. Let somethig happen that shut's down fuel supply for more then 5 days and see what people will do.

Originally Posted by agentmel

This is an interesting thread and a situation we may very well face in our lifetimes. I think our founders understood this dilemma perfectly. I think that the most proper (although probably most costly) response is the one originally mentioned. "You can have my guns when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers." Kerbouchard was almost right: there is nothing we can do in such a situation to prevent the unjust confiscation of our weapons... except be willing to employ those weapons against those doing the confiscating. What is the point of having arms otherwise? Our right to keep and bear arms becomes a paper tiger the moment we are unwilling to employ them in our defense. It is a sad day when most of us seem to have forgotten that our primary self-defense need is not against civilian theft or assault, but from goverment theft or assault.

I have never been robbed by a street criminal, yet I never fail to be robbed every paycheck. In fact, I'd rather be held up in a dark alley, because I carry. I'd have a fighting chance and the criminal could only take what I have now. Against theft by the gov't, I (alone) have no fighting chance and they continue to take every chance they get, meanwhile trying to make it seem legitimate. Additionally, even if the thief killed me, he'd only get what I had on me. The IRS will steal from me even after I'm dead.

Force perpetrated by the gov't (or its agents) is no different from force perpetrated by common street thugs and should be opposed by whatever means necessary. That said, passive opposition, as in hiding your guns and lying to the "authorities" may be the best option for the short term.

Our land has come a long way from what the signers of the Declaration intended.

Mel

Originally Posted by Kerbouchard

...And you are right about how much our government has evolved and strengthened for the 'common good'.