THE ATROCITY ENGINEERS

THE ATROCITY ENGINEERS

Speech by L. Neil Smith

Denver, Colorado, April 18, 1993

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Years ago, I watched a broadcast advertised as "news" in which a 

citizen was about to read a part of the Bill of Rights to a gaggle 

of Colorado politicians holding ILLEGAL HEARINGS with the intent of 

further suppressing the INDIVIDUAL right to own and carry weapons.

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The hearings were illegal, among other reasons, because the 

COLORADO constitution warns us that the individual right to own and 

carry weapons is NOT to be called into question -- which, of 

course, was the publicly-expressed purpose of the hearings.

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We've learned the hard way that the media -- TV, radio, newspapers 

-- never cover this issue with anything resembling fairness, 

accuracy, or for that matter, intelligence. This particular day was 

no exception. Before the citizen had even begun to read what the 

SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND has to say about the individual right to 

own and carry weapons, an inane commentator's feeble-minded voice-

over cut him off.

-

Now an educated and reflective individual, better aware of history 

and the world around him than the average mass media reporter, 

understands that the Second Amendment was drafted SPECIFICALLY to 

discourage authoritarian ambition within the government. By now, he 

also understands that expressions like "assault weapon" are 

AUTHORITARIAN CODE for the hardware which best meets that 

specification. 

-

Thus an educated and reflective individual, better aware of history 

and the world around him than the average mass media reporter, 

refuses to surrender his "assault weapon" -- whatever laws are 

passed to intimidate him -- because, for instance, he never wants 

to see his country taken over by militaristic thugs, as happened 

earlier this century in Germany. 

-

"But that's ancient history", the mass media simper (and to them, 

it is), "such events have nothing to do with NOW." Very well then, 

an educated and reflective individual, better aware of history and 

the world around him than the average mass media reporter, refuses 

to surrender his "assault weapon" because he never wants to see his 

whole community driven from their homes and MARCHED TO DEATH on 

country roads, as happened not too long ago in Cambodia. 

-

"But that was far away", the mass media simper, "such events have 

nothing to do with REAL CIVILIZATION." Very well then, an educated 

and reflective individual, better aware of history and the world 

around him than the average mass media reporter, refuses to 

surrender his "assault weapon" because he never wants to see his 

children or his neighbors' children dragged into the street to have 

their arms and legs BROKEN by uniformed goons, as has happened in 

Palestine under "civilized" Israeli occupation. 

-

"But those are unique circumstances," the mass media simper, "such 

events have nothing to do with AMERICA." Very well then, an 

educated and reflective individual, better aware of history and the 

world around him than the average mass media reporter, refuses to 

surrender his "assault weapon" because he never wants to see entire 

square blocks of his hometown BOMBED INTO ASHES by police 

helicopters, as happened a while back in Philadelphia. 

-

Furthermore, an educated and reflective individual, better aware of 

history and the world around him than the average mass media 

reporter, refuses to surrender his "assault weapon" because he 

knows that politicians ANYWHERE are capable of ENGINEERING such 

atrocities. For 60 bloodsoaked centuries they've demonstrated 

EXACTLY what they're capable of, time and time again. 

-

Down the line, from power-hungry federal "czars" to publicity-

hungry county sheriffs, the ATROCITY ENGINEERS are out of control, 

justifying their latest crimes against the Bill of Rights with a 

phony "War on Drugs" which the mass media -- no more socially 

responsible than in the days of William Randolph Hearst -- WHIPPED 

UP FOR THEM in the first place. The plain, inconvenient truth is 

that a century ago, when today's illegal drugs were as easily and 

cheaply available as aspirin, there wasn't any "drug problem". Not 

until the atrocity engineers CREATED one. 

-

Thus an educated and reflective individual, better aware of history 

and the world around him than the average mass media reporter, 

refuses to surrender his "assault weapon" because he never wants to 

be MURDERED IN HIS OWN HOME in a hailstorm of gunfire and grenades 

because the vice squad got the wrong address -- or simply because 

he told a cop he wanted to be LEFT ALONE. That's happened more than 

once in Colorado. As I speak, it's happening in Waco, Texas. 

Somewhere in America it happens every day. 

-

And now, with their slanted coverage of "assault weapons" and other 

Second Amendment issues, the mass media have handed the atrocity 

engineers another opportunity -- though they may not realize it 

yet, and by the time they do, it'll be too late. When the day comes 

that they're covering a story which authorities don't WANT covered, 

and a tiny, palm-sized .25 caliber "assault weapon" is conveniently 

"discovered" in some reporter's camera bag or glove box, I hope 

they remember that I warned them it could happen. I doubt they 

will. Neither their memory nor their attention-span seems that 

long. 

-

The maintenance of civil order and social democracy is in our 

hands. It has been there all along. It was never anywhere else. In 

a nationwide study, Don Kates at the St. Louis University School of 

Law found that the police succeed in wounding or driving off 

criminals only 81% as often as armed civilians do -- and are 15% 

more likely to be wounded or killed themselves. FIVE TIMES as many 

cops shoot some innocent individual in the process as civilians do. 

-

The maintenance of civil order and social democracy is in our 

hands. It has been there all along. It was never anywhere else. "We 

the people" were naive and lazy to believe that anything important 

can safely be entrusted to "authorities" and "experts" through 

elections, or any other process. Self-defense against individual 

criminals -- or criminals sanctioned by the state -- can no more be 

delegated to somebody else than eating can, or sleeping, or any 

other bodily function. History warns us that delegated 

responsibility becomes POWER and that power is inevitably abused. 

-

The maintenance of civil order and social democracy is in our 

hands. It has been there all along. It was never anywhere else. If 

civil order and social democracy are to be restored to America, the 

emphasis must be on enforcing the Bill of Rights -- on Bill of 

Rights ENFORCEMENT. We must take that power out of the hands that 

have abused it and break it down, BREAK IT DOWN, into units so 

small it can no longer be called "power", but simply 

"responsibility" -- which, unlike power, comes not from the barrel 

of a gun, but from the mind and heart of the individual behind it.

-

L. Neil Smith

Author: THE PROBABILITY BROACH, THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE, 

HENRY MARTYN, and (forthcoming) PALLAS

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