with the final step, as the national police authorities will be ablernto encourage voluntary compliance by requiring individual citizensrnto produce specific weapons or face incarceration. Thisrnwill also decrease the likelihood of a significant number ofrnweapons remaining in the hands of citizens, where they mightrnembolden their owners actually to resist future plans for theirrnsafety and welfare.rnThe BATF and the Carter White House attempted to createrna National Gun Registration by issuing new regulations. However,rnsince 1978, the Treasury appropriations bill has declared:rn”That no funds appropriated herein shall be available for… expensesrnin connection with consolidating or centralizing .. .thernrecords or any portion thereof, of acquisition and disposition ofrnfirearms maintained by Federal firearms licensees.” Thesernrecords are the “yellow forms” you filled out when you boughtrnyour family AR-15’s last year. Each year, the BATF has attempted,rnunsuccessfully, to strike this provision and get permissionrnto computerize the sale records of dealers. In 1986,rnSec. 926 of the 1968 Gun Control Act was amended to prohibitrn”records required to be maintained under this chapter or anyrnportion of the contents of such records, [being] recorded at orrntransferred to a [federal or state] facility . . . nor that any systemrnof registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactionsrnor dispositions be established.”rnUnfortunately, the government is not obeying the law. Inrnthe spring of 1994, BATF Special Agent Pat Hynes gave ABCrnDav One host Forrest Sawyer a tour of their new West Virginiarnrecords center. “Right now, there’s 20 million [out of businessrngun dealer] records here,” he said. “We’ve already computerizedrn60 million.” When Representative Istook asked TreasuryrnUndersecretary Ron Noble about it, he confirmed that thernBATF was computerizing records “by the semi-truck load.” Hernassured Congress that this was perfectly legal because thesernwere not dealer records but former dealer records. Keep inrnmind that the version of the Gun Ban recently passed by thernSenate included mandatory registration.rnWhile the American gunowner was coming to grips with thernmagnitude of the threat posed by pending legislation in Washington,rntwo outrages, perpetrated by the federal government,rnturned out to provide the rallying cries of the populist revolution:rnRuby Ridge and Waco. Both of these incidents beganrnwith the BATF. In the case of Randv Weaver, he was “created”rnby a BATF snitch and his Agent Handler. When he refused tornwork for the bureau as an informant, he was entrapped intornshortening the barrel of a shotgun to a length that required paymentrnof a federal tax. The revenue agents then went on to describernWeaver as a probable bank robber and contract killer whornwas planning to kidnap some children from a nearby boardingrnschool. The bungled BATF raid on David Koresh and his followersrnwas also based on a tax deficiency. In each case, innocentrnpeople lost their lives, and in each case, the elite paramilitarvrnarm of the FBI was brought in to “resolve” the crises, asrnthey did, right on national TV.rnRightly or wrongly, a large number of gunowners saw theirrnfuture in the ashes of Waco. They saw a militarized nationalrnpolice force running amuck with no one in the mainstreamrnmedia crying foul, no congressional oversight and no prosecution,rneither federal or local, of the parties involved. They believedrnJudiciary Committee Chairman Jack Brooks when, duringrnthe first House Waco hearings, he told the head of thernBATF that he’d have killed the Branch Davidians sooner. Theyrnbelieved Diane Feinstein when she said on 60 Minutes that “IfrnI could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate for an outright banrn[on guns], picking up every one of them, Mr. and Mrs. Americarnturn them all in, I would have done it.”rnGunowners finally figured it out and began to act. Followingrnthe passage in Ma’ 1994, by a one-vote margin, of the gun banrnin the House, millions of Americans started stocking up onrnsemiautomatic rifles, pistols, magazines, and ammunition. Irngot calls from several right-wing academics who had neverrnowned a gun before, but were going to get one now and wantedrnsome advice on what to buy. My advice was pretty straightforward:rnanything you can find and as much as you can afford.rnGood equipment was in short supply because the word wasrnout—the British were coming, again.rnThe much-maligned militia movement, for the most part,rndid not exist prior to the passage of the federal gun ban. In therneyes of a majority of the American people, the federal governmentrnhad broken the social contract and violated the Constitution.rnA significant percentage of these patriots apparently intendedrnto exercise the Jeffersonian mandate to resist injusticernand, if attacked, water a few trees. These same people forgave,rnfor the moment, the Republican duplicitv in the passage of thernCrime Bill and voted solidly Republican last November.rnSome conservatives disagree with Speaker Gingrich on anyrnnumber of topics, but no one would deny his political shrewdness.rnMr. Gingrich not only understands the political appeal ofrnthe gun issue, but he, unlike most Republicans, actually understandsrnthe significance of the Second Amendment:rnThe Second Amendment to the Constitution has nothingrnto do with deer or duck hunting. It has nothing to dornwith target practice or owning collector’s weapons. ThernSecond Amendment is a political right written into ourrnConstitution for the purpose of protecting individual citizensrnfrom their own government. The lesson of the EnglishrnCivil War and the American Revolution was thatrnpolitical freedom is ultimately based on the courage andrnpreparedness of those who would remain free. If thernLexington and Concord minutemen had not keptrnweapons, they could not have fired the shot heard ’roundrnthe world. If the American colonists had not beenrntrained in how to shoot and fight, they could not havernbecome American citizens. The history of the last quarter-rncentury has been a brutal reminder of the wisdom ofrnthe Founding Fathers. Poland and Hungary were disarmed,rnand when their citizens tried to rebel, they hadrnno weapons with which to defend their country or theirrnfreedom. Afghanistan was an intensely armed country,rnon the other hand, and the Soviets found it impossible tornbreak their spirit of freedom. Those who believe in thernright to bear arms felt more than vindicated by the remarkablyrndifferent results in the struggle for freedom betweenrnarmed and unarmed populations.rnThe political battle today is between the Tory Republicansrnand their new populist rivals. Clearly, the Tories control thernmoney and the “conservative” print media. On the other hand,rnthe populists have a lock on the grassroots side and control thernswing vote that put the Republicans in power. If the Tories canrnkeep from alienating the populists with schemes for NationalrnID cards and by opposing serious hearings on Waco and RubvrnRidge, we might keep this powerful coalition together.rnDECEMBER 1995/23rnrnrn