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The Hunker Factor
by Skip Coryell
Ammo is hard to find, guns are in short supply, and the waiting lists continue to grow. Many people are wondering: What does it all mean? Why is it happening? I won't pretend to be smarter than the rest of you by venturing a guess. Truth is I have no secret knowledge and I'm just as confused as the rest of you. But it seems to me that this isn't something affecting only gun owners. It appears to be pervading all of society, perhaps the entire world.
Every morning I wake up and turn on the news, wondering: Is this the day the world ends?
How will it happen? Swine flu epidemic? Earthquake? Volcanoes? Economic collapse leading to total anarchy? North Korea and nuclear war? One thing is for certain: life is not boring these days.
The Nobel Prize winning poet TS Eliot once wrote in his poem “The Hollow Men”:
“This is the way the world ends...
This is the way the world ends...
This is the way the world ends...
Not with a bang, but a whimper.”
I am seeing people all over the country begin to stockpile. They are gathering up and storing food, guns, and ammo. They are planting gardens and canning food and more and more people are hunting for their own meat. I think that's a good thing and I applaud it. Self sufficiency and independence have long been part of the American way of life and I welcome its return. We have long grown soft and spoiled and it's high time for a correction.
As a child I was active in Boy Scouts and I took their motto to heart and it's a part of my life even today at age 51. It is quite simply “Be Prepared”. And I still remember the Scout Oath:
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
That sounds like some pretty good advice to me. That's a code I can live by and on which society can flourish. But I'm seeing less and less scouts out there nowadays. I think all of us scouts are seeing premonitions of hard times ahead and are starting to hunker down. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. In and of itself preparing for hard times is wise and commendable. I've been doing it myself now for over a year.
But there's something else I'm seeing that disturbs me. I see good people withdrawing from the fight to keep and bear arms. They are hunkering down below the radar screen, hoping that when the crap hits the fan, in whatever form it takes, that they'll be safe to weather it out. But I just don't think that's going to work when it comes to the Second Amendment. Just as the Second Amendment has been protecting us for over two centuries, we must also actively defend the right to keep and bear arms with loud, bold and relentless activism. For over six months now people have been warning me of the mighty wave of gun control that is about to hit our beaches, but we've yet to see it. In fact, one could argue that the reverse has been true. Both houses of the overwhelmingly Democrat-controlled Congress have just passed a law that would make it legal once again for us to carry concealed in our National Parks. A few months back when draconian antigun bills were introduced, 65 Democrat Representatives rose up and said “No! Not on our watch!” Two Democrat Senators from Montana also rose up and warned the anti-gunners “No!”
Of course I'm not so naïve as to think that the future of the right to keep and bear arms is all a bed of roses. I believe we're in for a tough fight and that the anti-gun forces are simply waiting for the right time to move. But the truth is more and more people are becoming gun owners. More people are getting prepared. More are clinging to that Scouting attitude of their youth that says always be prepared.
Yes, it's okay to be prepared and to hunker down before a storm hits; that's just good, common sense, but to hunker away from a good and righteous fight is nothing noble and is worthy of your shame. There are some fascinating and terrible things happening in our country these days and I encourage you to prepare, not just by stockpiling, but by speaking out and becoming more politically active than ever before. Go ahead and hunker down, but never hunker away. Never withdraw from the fight for your liberty. Now, more than ever before, the Second Amendment needs your protection. Because if you don't protect the Second Amendment; it can't protect you.
~~~~~
Now for an update on the Second Amendment March. Things are going quite well. We are setting up Second Amendment Town Hall meetings all across the country and I will be personally attending many of them. In fact, Michigan is well represented in the Second Amendment March with five Town Hall meetings being overseen by the new Michigan Coordinator, Brian Jeffs, of Lansing. We have also recruited State Coordinators for Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Montana, Missouri, and Maryland. More State Coordinators are being appointed on a weekly basis and will be announced on www.secondamendmentmarch.com. State Coordinators are meeting once a week via conference call to organize and plan the march.
Our event application is with the National Park Service in Washington DC. The date we have requested is April 19th, 2010 for the national march. Many of you will recognize the date as the anniversary of Lexington-Concord. Also, our nonprofit paperwork is in the works and should soon help us out in our fundraising efforts.
More good news! Starting in two weeks we'll have our own one-hour weekly radio show as well. I'll be interviewing guests, taking callers, passing on the latest information as well as answering all your important questions about what' going on in the world of guns and the right to keep and bear arms. You'll be able to listen live via computer or telephone or you can pod cast it at whatever time is convenient for you. It's just one more tool we'll use to help build this grassroots movement into a huge success story!
That's all for now, but stay in touch and don't forget: It's okay to hunker down when times get tough, but never hunker away from defending the right to keep and bear arms.
(Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter at www.secondamendmentmarch.com.)
Skip Coryell lives with his wife and children in Michigan. He is the founder of the Second Amendment March and the author of six books including his newest “RKBA: Defending the Right to Keep and Bear Arms”, the Ted Nugent-acclaimed book “Blood in the Streets: Concealed Carry and the OK Corral, the hunting novel “Bond of Unseen Blood”, and the Second Amendment novel “We Hold These Truths”. He is an NRA Instructor and co-owner of Midwest Tactical Training, teaching CPL classes in Michigan.. He also owns and manages White Feather Press. To find out more about Skip, his classes and his writing, go to www.skipcoryell.com and www.mwtac.com.
NRA annual meeting and 12th Annual Firearms Law Seminar
By: M. Carol Bambery, Board member, NRA
The NRA annual meeting was a huge success this month. Held in Phoenix, Arizona, the annual banquet was the largest (6400 people) that have ever sat down to a meal together in Arizona. Close to 70,000 NRA members attended the floor show and enjoyed the exhibits. One of the highlights of the NRA annual meeting is the NRA Firearm Law Seminar now in its 12th year. It has grown from 20 participants to over 200 lawyers who represent firearm clients and the Industry. Below is a picture of former NRA President, Sandy Froman, who many of you know, receiving a token of our appreciation for serving as the Seminar's luncheon speaker that day. If you know of any practicing lawyers who would like to attend the Seminar, pass the word. The Seminar does qualify for continuing legal education credits which are necessary for continued practice of law under some state bar associations' requirements.
Carol Bambery (pictured on right) is a NRA board member and serves as the MCRGO Foundation's president. She is also the moderator and chair of the Firearm Law Seminar. Questions regarding next year's Seminar can be directed to
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.
Did You Know: Our Michigan State Flag Coat of Arms portrays a man with his right hand raised in peace. His left hand holds a gun to say that although we love peace, we stand ready to defend our rights. The latin motto just above the man "Tuebor" means "I will defend".
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"There exists a law, not written down anywhere, but inborn in our hearts; a law which comes to us not by training or custom or reading; a law which has come to us not from theory but from practice, not by instruction but by natural intuition. I refer to the law which lays it down that, if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right." -- Marcus Tulius Cicero (106-53 BC)
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