One of the emails in my inbox, today, was happily declaring that our nation would never be successfully invaded due to the existence of an estimated 30 million to 50 million hunters across this land. Without doing all the research for the reader, one online conservation source does loosely confirm that about 45 million living men, women, and children have hunted in the USA. That is a lot of people who know how to handle firearms in the fields & woods, but that is NOT an army of resistance fighters. Yet, is it any small wonder that an ignorant, fearful public and power-hungry elitists and politicians seek to strip firearms owners and enthusiasts of our natural Rights, including our First & Second Amendment Rights?
Among all the hunters in our nation, let us consider our military veterans, many of whom may well be hunters. Our country has been involved in so many wars, skirmishes, and "black ops" around the globe, for the last 100+ years, that in recent decades we have also been regularly using our irregular troops, the National Guard, in overseas combat. When our veteran troops return home some stay active and some return to civilian life. In either of those situations each one of those soldiers and former soldiers is a battle-hardened and/or military trained man or woman who could easily pick up her/his military duties once again, if required in defense of our Constitution and our Nation. The Washington Post cited that, in 2012, there were over 21 million military veterans alive in our nation. Is it any small wonder that our political leaders are rapidly stripping our military of some our most decorated and best strategic and tactical leaders?
With firearms owner-enthusiast ranks 'bulging' with all these 45 million hunters and 21 million veterans, who collectively know how to use virtually any and all firearms safely and properly, why is it that we firearms enthusiasts, allow elitists, politicians, power-brokers, and fear-mongers to threaten us and to strip us of our Rights? Why do we fail to go to the polls to regain our Constitution and our Rights? In with all the existing hunters and military veterans, I would add all the constitutionally-minded police and fire personnel and their veterans, too, for they also make up a socially and numerically significant portion of our citizenry.
In 2013, there were an estimated total population of 316 million people in the USA. At least 15.8% of that total are familiar with firearms use and/or military service (conservatively estimating 50 million of the latter). When we remove non-citizens, there are about 291 million US citizens, in which case the hunter+veteran ratio goes up to about 17% of US citizens. Then there is the issue of how many people are eligible to vote versus how many are registered to vote, 206 million versus 146 million, respectively. Since only 146 million were registered to vote, that brings our firearms enthusiast to citizen-voter ratio way up to 34%!! Where is that 34% at election time?
That 34% does not account for collectors and unregistered or unlicensed shooters who have not complied with some registration law or else live where they have no such law. Furthermore, those numbers do NOT take into account all the archery hunters and black powder users in our nation. I am guessing that if a thorough and realistic survey were done, we might find that there may be as many as 45% to 50% of our citizens who either own or have used firearms, and are eligible to vote. What a different set of laws we would have on the books across our nation, IF firearms enthusiasts would just get to the polls! Sadly, given our usual poor candidate support and poor voting habits, we continually allow those who hate us and our guns to strip away more and more of our Rights and our arms. Less than half of all registered voters in Connecticut failed to cast a ballot in the 2014 elections. How many of those were firearms enthusiasts? And, if all of our fellow firearms enthusiasts do not vote in every election, when we are called to defend our Constitution, what makes us think that they would be any more reliable if/when our nation were invaded?
What makes so many of us delude ourselves into thinking that our existing levels of arms will stop anything? Why do we continue to think that the gun-grabbers will only go to other people's houses or take only the firearms of others? That kind of thinking didn't stop Hitler, or the English or Australian governments! That kind of thinking has always cost the citizens of other nations their freedom, because they fail in character and spirit to resist the encroaching evils that surround them. Whether counted by the tens or hundreds of millions, our firearms, now and always, shall NEVER be any more or less effective than the faith, spirit, morality, and general character of the individual people who own and use them. A simple reading of the story of Gideon will testify to that truth. God can save by the hand of many, or by a few. What He wants for us and for our society is our faith and our obedience, in and through His Christ.
Hope in Salvation: http://www.godssimpleplan.org/gsps.html
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