Re: [MV] Politics and MV's

Rick (lathrrs@mainsite.com)
Tue, 02 Mar 1999 00:38:51 -0500

John,
You have just illustrated my point. The logic behind all these government
actions is one of simplification. If ___ (fill in whatever, tank, guns, cars,
cigarettes,etc) are illegal then the only ones who have them are criminals. No
more grey areas no more stopping to think if the owner is a legitmate owner or
not. Think of everytime you have heard of a police raid going down at the wrong
address and JQ Public gets shot for displaying a weapon. Under the
simplification process that goes away. This is what is happening in the
government.

Maybe the government should address some of the grevences and the fringe
elements will go away. Remember the abolitionists & states rights people were
once considered fringe elements and we wound up fighting a Civil War because the
issues were never addressed. I don't think that a civil war will happen I am
just illustrating a extreme example of what happens when issues are never
addressed.

Rick

JOHN SEIDTS wrote:

> Well,
> I think that some short-sighted individuals within our "elected"
> government would probably like to go home at night feeling safe that some
> military vehicle nut won't come tearing throught his house with an armored
> vehicle. Laughing at this?
>
> You shouldn't. There are lots of people out there who really have lost
> complete faith in the ability of the Federal Government to justly and
> reasonably govern the Citizens of the United States. Including many members
> of the US Government. And they are afraid of fringe elements. Don't you
> think that every government worker doesn't look at rental trucks parked
> outside their offices with some sort of trepidation? They do. And
> government workers are having unprecedented numbers of hours of training in
> counter-terrorism, disaster management, etc. I know, as I work for the
> Department of Defense.
>
> The Citizens and Government workers are not afraid of you in your little
> WWII jeep. But they are afraid of groups who buy tanks and armored vehicles
> and perform combat training with them. And that is what this executive
> branch wrangling is about. They essentially cut out the availability of
> armored vehicles to the public by demilling the majority of them. But they
> could not control the importation of foreign vehicles. Or at least they did
> not have a reason to mess with this practice. Evidently, they feel that
> they need to stop this flow into the country, for whatever reason. Are the
> reasons benign, like trying to control access to armor by hate groups, ultra
> left and right, etc? Or do they just not trust any US citizens with this
> type of technology any more? Hey, all you have to do is watch Jerry or
> Oprah to realize that John Q Public with an easily available destructive
> device and a tank will not resolve his conflicts in a positive and
> constructive manner.
>
> You can cry and moan about how your freedom is being subverted when they ban
> tanks, and cannons, and other devices. But do you really want them openly
> available to anybody who has a checkbook? You need to REALLY think about
> that one before you answer. With twelve years in the military, I feel
> reasonably secure in the knowledge that if I personally own any type of such
> devices, I will maintain them properly and not engage in any activities
> which would offend my neighbors. But how does a Government determine which
> people are 'safe' to own such devices? Let's use the Littlefield Scud as an
> example. I don't know Jacques Littlefield, but to my knowledge, he has
> never committed a felony, or belonged to any organizations which openly
> advocate the overthrow of the United States Government. He imports a Scud.
> His intention is to have the vehicle and missile as a part of his
> collection. But is he accompanying the missile and transporter through all
> phases of its movement? No. Does he personally supervise the proper safe
> rendering of the missile (or even know how to do it)? No, and it bites him
> in the ass. How difficult would it be for a 'bad' organization to get hold
> of this non-demilled missile, fill it with anthrax, and send it?
>
> Well from personal experience training to perform ship raids, and some
> knowledge of the practice of launching missiles, not very. These are very
> real threats. How difficult would it be to drive a privately owned armored
> vehicle down to the center of the city, and start firing Sarin shells
> randomly? Very easy. Remember Tokyo? Three ziplock bags of Sarin. 5500
> victims.
>
> Wake up, guys. While they may be fighting the citizenry, and depriving
> rights, and quashing hobbies, they have bigger fish to catch. Important
> dangerous ones which may be out there to hurt you and your family. And if
> you get caught in the net, that's your problem. And if it really bothers
> you, start electing people who really work to resolve social conflicts which
> lead to the proliferation of radical fringe elements in the beginning,
> instead of playing them off against each other in political games.
>
> Let's say this was my 5 cents worth.
>
> john@astory.com
> http://www.astory.com
>
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