05-27-2017, 04:48 PM
(05-26-2017, 01:33 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(05-26-2017, 09:55 AM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: The 1st Amendment is nothing without the 2nd Amendment.
If you have not already done so, exercise your 2nd Amendment rights to the greatest extent your finances and time allow.
At a minimum, if you can afford it, here is what you need:
1) A close quarters combat rifle. This can be a carbine or longer gun. In this case, ease of handling, rapidity of reloading, and cost of ammo are the key considerations. Given the short engagement distances, ballistics are not as important. In terms of caliber, you should look at .227 to .300.
2) A longer range, more accurate rifle, with optics. This does not need to be a sniper rifle per se. But it does need a reasonable degree of accuracy, easy ability to mount optics, and ergonomics allowing aiming to be easy. Caliber will be .300 or higher. Where legal and if you can afford it, .50 is not unreasonable.
3) A side arm. This is a very personal matter. Most opt for a semi automatic in the 1911 pattern or a Glock. However, if wheel guns are your thing, no problem. For stopping power choose 9MM or higher. Beware of the more powerful ammo, as recoil can become an issue especially if you have smaller hands and are of limited stature.
Beyond these basics, you may also want to consider a semi automatic shot gun. Such arms have seen a vast increase in usage in modern combat theaters and tactical policing.
For more info you can find a plethora of info and videos on line.
Welcome to the world of being a shooter and exercising your Civil Rights.
Remember, all this is moot. If the 1st amendment is not being upheld, as in the case in Montana, then the constitution is moot. The 2nd amendment does not protect your right to bear arms, in that case.
If we must secede from a nation that is trending fascist, then we may need to make sure that CA has the wherewithal to turn back an invasion by the fascists. That will require much more than armed citizens.
President Trump is terribly unpopular. His approval rating is below 30% in New York State and below 40% in such states as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (both of which he won) as well as Virginia. Want to guess about Maryland?
All of the significant centers of communication are in relatively liberal areas -- New York, Washington, Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles. That's before I discuss such regional nexuses as Denver, Dallas, the Twin Cities, Miami, San Francisco, and New Orleans. The most conservative large cities are Oklahoma City, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City.
Donald Trump has done much to offend the military and the intelligence communities. They bit their tongues with Obama -- but Obama didn't leak secrets. He didn't insult America's allies. He gave credit where it was due for whacking Osama bin Laden. The Obama years were bad times to be anti-American terrorists. President Trump promotes anti-American attitudes where they had been rare.
I need to remind you that in the Philippines, the armed forces told Ferdinand Marcos that his time was up. The Romanian Army refused to follow criminal orders that Ceausescu issued -- orders to fire upo0n peaceful protesters.
The big question is whether the US Armed Forces have more loyalty to Constitutional norms than to the President. Guessing that senior military officers in their forties and fifties became junior officers when Carter, Reagan, the elder Bush, and maybe Clinton were President, I would guess that none of them would obey orders to do such criminal acts as interfering in an election or attacking peaceful protesters. The ultimate impeachment is a military coup, with which the USA has no experience.
Can anyone see Donald Trump as a right-wing equivalent of Salvador Allende? I almost can. Now that's scary.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.