ARMIES OF CHAOS

                          ARMIES OF CHAOS

-

     Before anyone proposes more gun control, he or she should know 

about a simple, deadly weapon 4 times as powerful as Dirty Harry's 

legendary .44 Magnum -- and at least twice as concealable -- that 

_can't_ controlled.  

     This simple, deadly weapon can be made by anyone -- even a 

child -- with unpowered hand tools in an hour's time using $5 worth 

of materials, most of which are available around the house anyway.  

In traditional form it's reusable an unlimited number of times, and 

modern plastics have rendered its disposable version electronically 

undetectable.  You can clear a room with such a weapon (more of a 

hand-held directional grenade than a gun -- sort of a recycleable 

Claymore mine) and it's just one of hundreds of similar time-proven 

designs.  

     Complete instructions for building this simple, deadly weapon 

could be given in half the space I'm using here and not require a 

single illustration.  Or it could be done as a line-drawing and not 

require a word.  Either way, the results would Xerox splendidly and 

reduce, for effortless distribution, to the size of a 3X5 card.  

     No, I'm not making this up.  

     Self-styled liberal academics and politicians generally suffer 

an ancient Greek prejudice against the manual trades and often fail 

to comprehend what it means, with respect to banning weapons, that 

we're a nation of basement lathe-operators.  Americans unknowingly 

tend to follow Mohammed's precept that, whatever a person's station 

in life, he or she should also do something manual, if only to stay 

grounded in reality.  And if there's any lingering doubt about the 

ease of basic weaponscraft, ask the Israelis who, early in their 

nation's history, turned out submachineguns little more complicated 

than what I'm discussing here, in automotive garages lacking even a 

lathe.  

     Civilized restraint precludes my describing the weapon in any 

greater detail here.  Many gun enthusiasts will know by now exactly 

what I refer to, anyway.  It's in everyday use in much of the Third 

World, especially where governments foolishly believe that they've 

outlawed weapons.  But that, of course, is impossible -- unless the 

same governments want to try repealing the last 1000 years of civil 

engineering.  

     Now suppose somebody went ahead and wrote out those easy-to-

follow instructions, made that line drawing, or simply Xeroxed it 

from any of 100 sources already in print.  Suppose the plans for a 

reusable, undetectable weapon 4 times as powerful as a .44 Magnum 

and twice as concealable began circulating on every junior high 

school campus in America.  Or suppose they were simply sent to the 

media who can never resist giving viewers step-by-step directions 

for committing a crime -- even as they bemoan the terribleness of 

it all.  

     So what, you say.  So this:  within hours, every self-styled 

liberal academic and politician extant would begin to weep, wail, 

and whimper (the only thing they're really good at) and before the 

media-amplified screaming was over -- but after the legislature had 

met -- we'd find that the rights protected by the First Amendment 

(not created or granted, mind you, only recognized and guaranteed) 

are no more secure than those supposedly protected by the Second.  

Free expression would be trampled under without another thought or 

a moment's hesitation by the same jackals, vultures, and hyenas 

currently leading the stampede to outlaw weapons -- using exactly 

the same excuses.  

     When Xerox machines are outlawed, only outlaws will have Xerox 

machines.  

     Human rights are indivisible because there's really only one 

-- the right to remain unmolested by the government or by anybody 

else.  Those who threaten one right threaten them all -- and aren't 

really "liberals" by any definition of the word.  Suppressing the 

human right to own and carry weapons is a step toward suppressing 

the human right to read, write, and think.  Ask Canadians, for whom 

censorship is a fact of daily life, and for whom certain "assault" 

books (many of them published by Paladin Press) are on the "hafta 

smuggle it in" list.  

     The same thing can and will happen here.  Haven't we had ample 

warning in the way self-styled liberals, assisted by the corrupt 

media, suppress their opposition on these and other issues?  Or in 

their willingness to present lies as truth while the truth is 

called a lie?  Or in the fact that elected officials who advocate 

gun control -- which is a felony -- are still at large instead of 

behind bars where they belong?  The very existence of a gun control 

lobby gives the lie to any claim they make to liberalism.  The word 

"liberal" itself is false advertising, and the question arises, why 

do we go on applying it when the word "fascist" is so much more 

appropriate?  

     A popular bumper sticker proclaims that "GUN CONTROL IS PEOPLE 

CONTROL".  More to the point, and far more sinister, gun control is 

MIND control.  The relationship only begins with ludicrous attempts 

by self-styled liberals to convince a population protected by the 

Second Amendment that the Bill of Rights doesn't mean what it says.  

Weapons consist of more than machined steel or wood, cast aluminum 

or plastic.  As John M. Browning or Sam Colt would tell you, their 

second-most vital component is an idea.  (The first, for better or 

worse, is the will to use them.)  Without that idea behind it, all 

the steel, wood, aluminum, and plastic in the world doesn't make a 

weapon.  

     Those who would outlaw weapons must first outlaw the knowledge 

of weapons.  And those who would outlaw the knowledge of weapons 

must outlaw knowledge itself.  

     Similarly, civilization consists of more than just impressive 

public buildings and a battery of arbitrary rules.  Its continued 

existence depends absolutely on the day-to-day good will of each 

and every individual.  History (especially recent Soviet history) 

proves that this good will depends on how well individual rights 

are respected.  Alienate the individual, lose his good will, and 

you lose civilization itself.  

     Think I exaggerate?  Take another look at Beirut, Los Angeles, 

or the World Trade Center.  

     Every day we learn again how dependent we've been all along on 

individual self-restraint.  Self-styled liberals label this lesson 

"terrorism" because it makes them feel better and helps them to 

forget until tomorrow.  But it doesn't matter what they call it.  

In sufficient numbers, disaffected individuals become armies of 

chaos, reducing whole civilizations to archaeological rubble.  And, 

as with most violence in our culture, it is self-styled liberals 

who will make it happen here.  

-

L. Neil Smith

Author:  THE PROBABILITY BROACH, THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE, 

HENRY MARTYN, and (forthcoming) PALLAS

LEVER ACTION BBS (303) 493-6674, FIDOnet: 1:306/31.4

Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus

NRA Life Member