The bridge to the 21st century - off-limits
By Lewis J. Goldberg
web
posted January 31, 2000
While we have been told that the 'era of big government is over,' we, nevertheless seem to have too much freedom on our hands, thus the new usurpations. On December 31, 1999 the documents of martial law were drafted and laid out on a table in the White House, ready for Clinton's signature. Y2K turned out to be the biggest dud-of-a-New-Year's-eve there ever was, and our dictator-in-waiting went to sleep, downtrodden and dejected. Even the spin-meisters of the regime could not make anything out of the non-disaster. Not one to be put down for long, Clinton went to work on his 'Plan B,' to take over a little bit at a time.
President Clinton has oft-spoken about his mythical "bridge to the twenty-first century" and the building thereof...as if it were his, and only his, to build. We come to find out in these first few weeks of 2000 that this bridge will be on 'off-limits' federal land, with BATF agents at the entrance to make sure no one takes a gun on it. Of the 17 new spending proposals introduced by Clinton since January 1, the declaration of 40 million acres of National Park as 'off-limits to everything' and the proposal for 500 new BATF agents are among the most heinous.
Environmentalism has its origins with conservative politics. We all know that Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, started the National Parks System as a way to preserve our wilderness heritage, but never did he envision that his parks would be used as a tool to limit freedom. The original intent was that we do not turn the entire nation into a parking lot (or its contemporary equivalent.) The 40,000,000 acres recently moth-balled will never be available for road-building, natural resources, or even a snack-bar for tourists...in fact, there will be no tourists. If you want to see this land you'll have to take an airplane. Even so, it's not these 40 million that are the real concern, it's the land owned by ranchers, farmers, speculators, and anyone else...right down to the retired couple with 5 acres and a trailer that should be worried. The feds have the capability to seize and regulate any piece of land in the nation, and take it at the point of a gun if you resist. The fact that they can do this goes largely unchallenged by the public and Congress. We do not worry until itis us that suffer, and when we cry out, no one hears because not enough people care to join the fight.
Mentioned also is the proposed addition of 500 new BATF agents to fight gun crime, which is dropping like a rock anyway. We have not had such low crime rates since the sixties (...guess we have to say 19-sixties, now) that it will cease to be an issue. Clinton needs to get his bureaucracy in front of the downward trend so he can take credit for it, thereby justifying more government intervention. Part of this proposed new spending for gun crime is a plan to create 'smart' weapon technology...a mechanism that prevents a gun from being fired by someone besides the owner. This will cause several things to happen. First, if the government can decide who fires a weapon, they can also decide to turn it off. Second, the black market for 'dumb' weapons will be tremendous, and only criminals will have them...'criminals,' as defined by the government. he detailed registration information kept by the government will be used to track down all owners of weapons with no 'smart' device and the outdated gun will be confiscated, since it would be too expensive to retro-fit the device. Perhaps the owner would be compensated with a check for 20 or 50 dollars for the trouble, and told to buy a new gun with it; one which will not fire unless the owner were 'cooperative' with the agents who tracked him down.
The Founding Fathers did everything they could to ensure that we had
the right to private property and the right to defend it against invaders,
both foreign and domestic. Thomas Jefferson once said that the beauty
of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until someone tries
to take it away. Someone is trying to take it away right now, and he lives
at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. At this point, we need to be screaming loud
and clear at our elected representatives, as we can still stop the advance
of tyranny with votes. Let us pray that we do not arrive at the juncture
where bullets, rather than ballots, determine the course of this great
nation. 
Lewis J. Goldberg is a regular contributor and the person behind PlanetGoldberg.