They're Coming to Take Me Away

by Edgar J. Steele

July 26, 2003

"They're coming to take me away, ha-haaa!!
They're coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-haaa...
You thought it was a joke and so you laughed..."
     ---"They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa," 1975, Written and sung by Napolean XIV

I recall getting strange looks, several years ago, from people whom I told it was time to buy their guns and ammunition at gun shows - for cash - off paper - no records.  Now, of course, it is all but impossible to buy a gun of any sort without getting into the Federal and state databases, thanks to the background checks.  Unless you're a criminal on the street, of course - business as usual there.  It's just America's law-abiding gun buyers of whom they're keeping track.  It will make it real easy to collect them when the time comes.

I still get strange looks.  Today, however, it is because my advice in regard to guns has shifted to:  "It's time to bury your guns and ammunition."  

Yes, they actually are confiscating certain types of weapons in certain parts of the country - especially California, of course - and Washington, DC, too - anyplace where there is skyrocketing crime is where they are taking the guns away from honest civilians.  Leaving guns only in the hands of street gangs and other assorted thugs - such as the local police forces.

But, it isn't the escalating confiscation that causes me to say bury them now.  Time enough for that when we see them going door to door in the big cities, after all.  Rather, it is because the authorities are starting to use innocent gun ownership as a basis for labeling those of us who speak out as "domestic terrorists," to be thrown in jail.

Yes, I know exactly how that sounds. No, I am not being excessively paranoid.  Yes, they now are investigating perfectly ordinary people.  People just like you.  Yes, they now are arresting law-abiding people who merely speak out against the current American regime.  People just like me.  Guess what class of people is due to be arrested next?  Consider me your canary-in-the-coal-shaft.  When you stop hearing from me, you know that you will be the next one to be picked up.  Of course, by then there will be nobody left to speak out on your behalf.

Here's a link to a story written by a fellow, who just happens to be a journalist, who recently was investigated and interrogated by two FBI agents in Atlanta because somebody reported that he was reading a story entitled "Weapons of Mass Stupidity," while standing in a coffee shop line:  http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2003-07-17/rant.html .  Here's a link to the article that got this guy in trouble, merely because he was reading it in a public place:  http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/newsstand/2003-06-04/news_cover.html . 

Interrogated.  By the FBI.  For reading.  In Public.  Think about that for a moment.  Okay, now you're ready to move on to the next outrage.

Meet Artie Wheeler.  Artie is in jail today.  Arrested by the Baltimore Police and labeled a domestic terrorist.  Because he owned guns and gunpowder.  All his guns and all his reloading supplies and equipment, including the gunpowder, are perfectly legal under existing city, state and federal laws.  He's being held on a charge of "reckless endangerment."  

Speculation is that the charge against Artie arises from the gunpowder, both black and smokeless, being kept in plastic jugs.  Problem is, gunpowder routinely is resold to the public in plastic jugs.  It's the best and safest way to handle it.  Black powder is used for old-time guns, like flintlocks, and smokeless powder is used for modern bullets, which Artie reloaded himself in order to save money.

I can hardly wait for them to come out here to Idaho and start arresting people for this sort of thing.  Almost everybody has guns and many reload their own ammunition in order to save money.  And there are lots of black powder aficionados who shoot privately and in competition.  America's South is full of them, busily reenacting the War of Northern Aggression (you may think of it as the Civil War) on weekends.

Artie wasn't home when the Baltimore SWAT team broke down the door and then handcuffed his 72-year-old wife to the bedstead for seven hours, while they ransacked the couple's home.  Elizabeth is a proud grandmother, in fact, great-grandmother to three youngsters.  They took the couple's computer equipment, private papers and $8,000 in cash which the couple kept in their home for safety...for safety.  Now, with her husband in jail and out of work, Elizabeth has no money with which to buy groceries, let alone hire an attorney.  But the police have the couple's $8,000 savings, don't forget.  (Before I forget:  Elizabeth Wheeler, 512 South East Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21224-3913.  Be generous, if you've a mind to.)

Remember, in this day of the Patriot Act and Homeland Defense, the police no longer require probable cause.  They need merely use the magic phrase, "domestic terrorist," and all remaining constitutional protections disappear.

Artie is being held on a misdemeanor charge, under $2,000,000 bail.  Yes, $2 million.  You heard me right.  For contrast, another name in today's news, star basketball player Kobe Bryant, is out of jail on his rape, assault and battery charge (of a 19-year-old white girl), having posted just $15,000 bail.  And he's rich.  

Artie Wheeler is broke since they took the couple's $8,000 savings, yet he is in jail under $2 million bail.  Of course, Artie is white.  No, you are the one being naive if you don't think that skin color and fame make a difference.

So, you say, why Artie?  What makes him such a target?  Well, he and his 72-year-old wife have been passing out National Alliance literature.  The National Alliance has been targeted by the ADL, one of the truly evil terrorist organizations in the world today, as being "hateful" because it objects to the favoritism given to other races at the expense of whites.  Here is the National Alliance's web site:  http://www.natvan.com/ .  You can read an in-depth interview of great-grandmother Elizabeth there.

Why didn't they arrest Elizabeth, too?  Because the trumped-up charge is based on the perfectly legal guns and gunpowder owned by her husband.  Also, the spectacle of locking up this great grandmother was probably too much for even these modern-day Gestapo jackbooted thugs in Baltimore.

Another National Alliance member, Chester Doles, was arrested a couple of months ago.  His collection of twelve pistols and rifles, all legal, figured prominently in his being labeled a domestic terrorist.  In Idaho, that would be a merely average collection, believe me.  

I used to ski pretty earnestly and still own about twenty pair of skis.  At any one time, if you are serious, you really need at least 8 pair of skis, each with a completely different set of characteristics:  slalom, giant slalom, ice, bumps, rocks, powder and slush.  Guns are kind of like that.  

Of course, if you really are a domestic terrorist, bent upon killing people from a distance, then you really need only a single weapon.  Ironically, it's those with a great many guns who prove that they are the true sportsmen.  It's kind of like not needing to worry about the country with lots of nuclear missiles; rather, the real concern is the fellow with a single nuke.

So, boys and girls, that is why I say it is time to bury those guns.  Before they use them as a pretext for arresting you because you were seen reading something critical of the President.  But, hold back one or two.  You'll need to give them something when they come to your door, collecting the guns, as they inevitably will, or they will be suspicious.  Bury the ones you bought off paper (no registration or background checks).  Or, someday you may need a couple of holdouts in order to fight your way to your main arsenal.  Either way, it is time.

New America.  An idea whose time has come.

Copyright ©2003, Edgar J. Steele

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