This is the transcript for the speech this author gave during a guest speaker appearance at South Bay Open Carry's Monthly Rally event on Tuesday, September 20, 2011. Given its relevance in light of recent gun control developments in the Golden State and its warm reception by a room full attendees at the Sizzler's Restaurant in Torrance, CA, the Board of Directors at SBOC felt that a wider audience might also find value in this message.
First of all, I want to sincerely thank each and every one of you for inviting me here today. It is my distinct honor and privilege to be able to speak in front this crowd of fearless, proud, and like-minded patriots who have lent their names, faces, and professional reputations in defense of one of our generation’s greatest and most worthy causes. The struggle to retain our 2nd Amendment Rights has been an animating contest that has captivated our nation’s attention and while those who would seek to deny us of our basic, fundamental, and enumerated civil right to self defense have been largely defeated in the majority of the country, the most intractable and entrenched remnants of the gun control lobby still remain in scattered areas of the nation. Unfortunately, we happen to live in one of those scattered areas. Therefore, like our forefathers before us, it is up to you and I to stand up for what is right and what is just.
Our cause is defined by the impetus of the firm moral center and it is those victims of violent crime who are unable to speak out for themselves who have deputized us to speak in their stead. So, ours is a noble endeavor and one that cannot be afforded the luxury of failure. It is with this intensity of conviction in mind that I am reminded of the immortal words of one of the Greatest Generation’s most iconic leaders, Winston Churchill,
“But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour.”
In so many ways, Churchill is speaking directly to our cause, in our time, especially given the nature and relevance of the widespread civil unrest that has gripped his nation in recent weeks. While many of us may understand our struggle to retain our 2nd Amendment Rights to be confined to the State of California, one must not forget that those views expressed throughout the rest of the world on this critical civil rights issue are not largely sympathetic to our cause.
As with the conquest of Europe that spread like wildfire in Churchill’s time, the gun control lobby’s grip on the world is a threat that must be stopped by those courageous few who dare to stand up and draw that line in the sand in the name of freedom. This condition to limit every American citizen’s sovereignty could not be better demonstrated than through the anti-gun agenda of the United Nations, where the NRA and other prominent gun rights groups are currently standing up against the pending attack of our 2nd Amendment Rights from the international Small Arms Treaty. So, when Winston Churchill speaks of “all that we have known and cared for” sinking “into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted”, I remind everyone here that, while our struggle to retain our 2nd Amendment Rights may appear to be contained to our little corner on the west coast of the United States, the implications of our actions will echo and inspire others who long for their own personal liberty throughout the world.
As in Churchill’s time, the “perverted science” we face today is demonstrated in the lies and propaganda that have long been promoted by the gun control lobby. From not mentioning the fact that the overwhelming majority of “children” killed by gunfire in this country are gang members as old as 25 with violent criminal histories to completely ignoring the daily news stories of innocent American blood and lives saved through capable and lawful defensive gun uses to attacking renowned economists and criminologists whose peer-reviewed work has clearly demonstrated the majority conclusion that Right-to-Carry laws play a statistically significant role in reducing violent crime in society, the gun control lobby has cherry-picked their statistics and twisted the facts and evidence to demonize common, law-abiding gun owners who want nothing more than to be able to protect themselves and their families against violent criminals. These tactics employed by the gun control lobby today are all-too-eerily similar to those that Churchill’s enemies utilized to justify their gruesome atrocities under the cover of world war.
Make no mistake about it, ladies and gentlemen; the ongoing debate over the meaning of the 2nd Amendment is the defining civil rights struggle of our time. Churchill called upon his countrymen to brace themselves to their duties so that, if their nation was to last a thousand years, “men will still say, This was their finest hour.” He might as well have been standing here right now to utter those exact same words to us. As those few who have chosen to stand up and defend our basic, fundamental, and enumerated civil right to self defense, we would be well-served to heed Churchill’s call. What we do, here and now, and the manner in which we do it, will be scrutinized worldwide by generations to come. Will we hold the line, in the name of that which is good, true, and just? Or will we allow those who seek to remove our individual sovereignty and personal freedoms to trample piecemeal over those sacred civil rights that our nation’s forefathers bled and died for in every generation past?
I know that there are times when our struggle to defend our civil right to self defense may seem like a lonely and thankless endeavor. I know that, everywhere we turn, whether it is the resistance from local government, attempting to deny us of our Open Carry rights while attending the Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair, or the blatant cronyism of so many California Sheriff’s who issue concealed carry permits exclusively to their friends and well-heeled political contributors, that we can feel that we are too few who stand against too many.
However, no matter how great the odds are in our struggle to retain our 2nd Amendment Rights in the Golden State, they pale in comparison to those that Churchill and his countrymen faced in their time. Before the US entered the war, all that stood between the seemingly unstoppable Nazi war machine and its sweeping conquest of Europe was Churchill and a handful of RAF pilots.
Seeing the brave minority who stood against such a formidable enemy, Churchill uttered those famous words,
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Flying unreliable and severely damaged planes while facing a near-zero survivability rate, there were times when only a few dozen RAF fighter pilots held the line against the overwhelming German Luftwaffe until the US entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
What made Churchill’s feat during World War II even more incredible was a condition that many people do not know about. Despite facing the near-impossible odds of stopping the German war machine, Churchill had to rally his countrymen with his powerful eloquence in spite of the fact that he suffered from frequent and prolonged bouts of manic depression. As his nation’s leader during the most dire of times, Winston Churchill was able to draw upon a deep reserve of intestinal fortitude to overcome debilitating personal challenges and guide his countrymen through their darkest of hours with inspiring articulacy, confidence, and verve. When duty called and no matter how dark the day, Churchill always found the shining light within himself to answer. Regardless of circumstances, you and I would be well-served to draw upon the strength inspired by his example.
So, despite the fact that AB 144, the Open Carry ban bill, made it further this year than AB 1934 did last year, one should recognize how far we’ve come in re-securing our 2nd Amendment Rights over the past two years. Drawing upon the inspiration of Winston Churchill to push forward no matter how dire the internal struggles or external circumstances, 2nd Amendment advocates in the Golden State should understand that our common fight has now reached a parallel with the point where the United States joined England in the last world war. This alignment of forces cannot be better expressed than through the recent unification of nearly all of the 2nd Amendment groups inside the Golden State. Instead of divided factions with competing directives, the NRA, the CRPA, GOC, Calguns, Responsible Citizens of California, South Bay Open Carry, and nearly all of the remaining Open Carry groups have become allies in the common goal of retaining our 2nd Amendment Rights on the West Coast.
However, this unification does not mean that our side will not experience setbacks. Even when the tide had turned as the US joined the Allies in World War II, it was not all smooth sailing. Regarding our struggle as it is defined today, AB 144, even if signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, will only represent a hiccup on our way to securing Right-to-Carry laws that are more in lock-step with the rest of the country. With efforts like H. R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, gaining momentum on the national stage, many of the 2nd Amendment freedoms that we have fought so hard to secure will arrive in California in a roundabout way. Our duty is to remain vigilant throughout the entire process, open our eyes to all pending opportunities that may arrive from any direction, rally our fellow law-abiding gun owners to the growing Renaissance that has come to characterize our cause, and not allow temporary setbacks such as AB 144's progress to accomplish anything other than to harden our resolve.
And, in closing, it is with that steely-eyed resolve to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with each other to meet whatever challenge is presented to us that defines the state of our struggle to defend our basic, fundamental, and enumerated civil right to self defense. It is in the spirit of this sacred principle that Winston Churchill’s words echo through time to reach you and I today,
“We must show ourselves equally capable of meeting a sudden violent shock or-what is perhaps a harder test-a prolonged vigil. But be the ordeal sharp or long, or both, we shall seek no terms, we shall tolerate no parley; we may show mercy-we shall ask for none.”
Thank you.
Comments