I was driving home last night from a meeting and was listening to the radio. The program was about the riots in Kiev, the tensions between the protesters and Putin, Merkel, and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The show reported on the riots, the battles between protesters, police, security forces and the casualties.

A Russian expert, an academician from somewhere, stated that the western half of the Ukraine was no longer under the national government’s control. Only the Olympics and all the western media in Sochi has prevented Putin from taking action as the old USSR had done in East Germany, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. All the show participants agreed that Putin was starting a new cold war and Washington was clueless.

One of the more liberal, if that description was possible, participants on the show said, “That [anti-government riots] can’t happen here.” My immediate thought was, “Yet.” You see, there is already rebellion in some of our states. Not rebellion as in riots, clashes with police, firebombs, tear gas and water cannon, and gunshots.

No, these rebellions have been a quiet ones, so far. The state of Connecticut has, by the stroke of a pen, created hundreds of thousands potential felons. How? by requiring them to register their “assault weapons.” A few thousand complied with the law; an estimated 150,000 or more, did not. When it came time to register their weapons, they just stayed home…a hundred thousand or more refused to obey the law.

The penalty of non-compliance is a heavy fine and a felony conviction.

There is a similar situation building in New York state. The New York state government is threatening to confiscate ‘illegal’ firearms. Mike Vanderbeorgh, one of the bloggers who investigated the BATF’s Fast and Furious gun sales to Mexico’s drug cartels, wrote an open letter to the members of the Connecticut State Police. He also wrote one to the members of the New York State Police.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

An Open Letter to the Men and Women of the New York State Police. The Deadline Approaches. What do you intend to do?

To the men and women of the New York State Police:

Deadline, noun:

1. the latest time or date by which something should be completed. “The deadline for submissions is February 5th.” Synonyms: time limit, limit, finishing date, target date, cutoff point

2. historical: a line drawn around a prison beyond which prisoners were liable to be shot.

The deadline for registration of semi-automatic rifles of military utility under the the wildly-misnamed “SAFE Act” is 15 April.(1) With this law, Governor Cuomo and the politicians of your state have written a check with their pens that they expect you to cash in blood. This blood could either be that of yourselves or that of their intended victims — the heretofore law-abiding firearms owners of your state — but almost certainly both. Apparently it is of supreme indifference to Cuomo and Company whose blood is spilled or how much, as long as you, the men and women of the New York State Police, work THEIR will upon the people of New York. I am writing you today to remind you that the deadline approaches and to caution you that it doesn’t have to be this way.

A couple of days ago I wrote a similar open letter to the men and women of the Connecticut State Police, entitled, “You are NOT the enemy (UNLESS YOU CHOOSE TO BE.)”(2) It was so well received that many of my New York readers asked me to write one in a similar vein to you. As New Yorkers, I was informed, you appreciate being told the truth, directly, unvarnished and without much preamble, so I will try to make this letter as short as possible. Still, some introduction is in order since I’m certain most of you have never heard of me, nor is there any particular reason why you should.

My name is Mike Vanderboegh. I am one of the citizen journalists who — along with my friend David Codrea(3) — first broke the story of the Fast and Furious scandal on the Internet and who arranged the contacts between the ATF whistleblowers and investigators from the United States Senate, as well as media folks such as Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News. I have been a Second Amendment activist for more than 20 years and the Three Percent movement that I founded has been denounced on the national stage by that paragon of moral virtue, Bill Clinton. Three Percenters are uncompromising firearm owners who have stated very plainly for years that we will obey no further encroachments on our Second Amendment rights. Some of you, if you read this letter carelessly, may feel that it is a threat. It is not. Three Percenters also believe that to take the first shot in a conflict over principle is to surrender the moral high ground to the enemy. We condemn so-called collateral damage and terrorism such as that represented by the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Waco massacre. We are very aware that if you seek to defeat evil it is vital not to become the evil you claim to oppose. Thus, though this letter is certainly intended to deal with an uncomfortable subject, it is not a threat to anyone. However, it is important for everyone to understand that while we promise not to take the first shot over principle, we make no such promise if attacked, whether by common criminals or by the designated representatives of a criminal government grown arrogant and tyrannical and acting out an unconstitutional agenda under color of law. If we have any model, it is that of the Founding generation. The threat to public order and safety, unfortunately, comes from the current leaders of your state government who unthinkingly determined to victimize hitherto law-abiding citizens with a tyrannical law. They are the ones who first promised violence on the part of the state if your citizens did not comply with their unconstitutional diktat. Now, having made the threat (and placed the bet that you folks of the New York State Police will meekly and obediently carry it out) they can hardly complain that others take them seriously and try by every means, including this letter, to avoid conflict.

Like Connecticut, I have been informed that New York state authorities have opened a criminal investigation of me. This began when I visited your state the day after I gave a speech on the steps of the Connecticut state capitol last April entitled “Defy. Resist. Evade. Smuggle.” (4) Since that time, my friends and I have been regularly smuggling 20- and 30-round standard capacity rifle magazines into Connecticut, Maryland, Colorado and yes, New York. I have further irritated Governor Cuomo by sending him a sample magazine in my “Toys for Totalitarians” program. (5)

But as amusing as the Toys for Totalitarians program was, the issue is deadly serious. Cuomo is a typical politician — an empty, expensive suit that is merely wrapping paper for an insatiable appetite for other people’s liberty, property and control of their lives. But his appetites have moved us all, but especially you in New York state law enforcement, into a very dangerous undiscovered country. New York, like Connecticut, Maryland and Colorado, is now in a state of cold civil war, one that can flash to bloody conflict in an instant if someone, anyone, does something stupid. So please pay attention, for Cuomo and Co. have put all your asses on the line and are counting on your supine obedience to the enforcement of their unconstitutional diktat.

I have quoted about half of the open letter. You can read the complete letter at the website. According to Mike Vanderbeorgh, a state of ‘cold’ civil war exists in several states. Those ‘blue’ states think people will kowtow to the all-powerful government, whether it be federal or state. I fear they may be proven wrong if they persist in their citizen disarmament plans.