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COME THE REVOLUTION!
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
I never set out to be a revolutionary. Honest, I didn't. I distinctly remember telling my mother I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up. I learned to fly airplanes, and I learned to repair them. Then came Ruby Ridge. And Waco. I was uneasy, but I wasn't sure why I was uneasy. I wrote Flight From Eden and outlined the next three books during this period. Flight From Eden was submitted for publication in August of 2001. While I was waiting for my galley proofs, September 11, 2001 paralyzed all of America with unspeakable horror. Flight From Eden was released officially on October 1, 2001. In the weeks and months that followed the release of a book that detailed my own personal worst nightmare, I have watched my country's leaders using the horror of the September 11 tragedy to establish the foundation of an all too real police state - all in the phony name of protecting Americans. Flight From Eden is coming true before my very eyes. My own worst nightmare is happening. And it isn't fiction! Benjamin Franklin said: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." All my life, I have always hated politics. Now I am an active member of my county's Libertarian Party. I am Texas Director for Armed Females of America. I have testified before my state legislature on firearms issues. I am actively working to train as many people as I can in the safe and responsible use of firearms. I have finally recognized the true value of the Second Amendment. Self defense is a good thing. Prevention of crime is a good thing. But the real value of the Second Amendment does not lie in these things. We must stop acting like spoiled children and looking to our government nannies to do the impossible. Only a well-armed and trained populace can protect America from terror. It is the mere thought of a well-armed populace that has protected us from tyranny for more than two hundred years, and that thought will continue to protect us from unscrupulous leaders. So I am doing my part to arm my country. Will you stand with me?
Newsletter Dated: 3/24/2002 7:27:09 PMSubject: Come The Revolution! - Second March Edition, 2002About the Author:At a tiny 5'1", Kathryn A. Graham is a licensed private investigator, pilot, aircraft mechanic and handgun instructor in Texas. Also a prolific author, she has written numerous articles, short stories and a science fiction novel entitled Flight From Eden. Ms. Graham is the Texas Director for Armed Females of America, and co-owner and co-founder with John G. Tarsikes, Jr., of Safetynet Associates. ************************************************************RELATED LINKS:Kathryn Ann Graham, Private Investigator & AuthorArmed Females of AmericaArmed Females of America, Texas ChapterSafetynet AssociatesKathryn's AuthorsDen PageFlight From Eden, Kathryn's Science Fiction Novel****************************************************************NOTICE:***I will be signing copies of Flight From Eden at the Barnes & Noble book store at Bandera and Hwy. 1604 in San Antonio, Texas, from 2 PM until 4 PM on Saturday, March 30th. Hope to meet some of you there!*************************************************************ARMED FEMALES OF AMERICA, CURRENT NEWS:OUR BILL OF RIGHTS RALLY, MARCH 23RD, AUSTIN, TEXAS:Saturday was very windy, and the attendees were alternately cooked and chilled on the south steps of the Capitol Building in Austin. It is wonderful to note that attendees were able to walk the halls of the Capitol armed with no search or questions, except that Texas Department of Public Safety troopers still look at women's purses for explosives. I cannot imagine a finer example of how far Texas has come in the last few years! There was a crowd of approximately 200 hardcore people, with a few more from time to time as tourists came and went. There were ten Department of Public Safety troopers working security. My partner suspects there were also three undercover operatives photographing the crowd, although he has no proof of that, but I am sure he is probably right.The rally was opened by Michael Badnarik, a Libertarian candidate for the Texas House of Representatives and a well-known constitutional scholar. Don Crawford covered the First Amendment, along with recent developments in the campaign reform bill (incumbent protection bill) and its assault on our right to free speech. Dave Nalle, Tom Allen and Wes Benedict then covered the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth and Tenth Amendments.My partner in Safetynet Associates, John Tarsikes, then spoke concerning the Texas Concealed Handgun Law, and the incredible progress made in this state over a very few years. Over the last six years, we have watched Texas go from no legal handguns whatsoever to a concealed handgun law - written by our own state police! - and a "shall issue" state. This brought a huge round of applause from onlookers.Rick Stanley then spoke about his arrest and the blatant disregard of the Second Amendment and U.S. Constitution in Denver. He also covered the complete illegality of the I.R.S. and the way the Federal Reserve works. He concluded with a call for concerned citizens to rally at least once a month and to work toward peacefully voting out unconsitutional laws or getting them thrown out one way or another. Rick also told my partner that he had not touched his handgun in 17 years when he deliberately staged his arrest in Denver to make the point that the Second Amendment is all that stands between the American people and tyranny. We can bring about peaceful change - provided our leaders know we have the muscle to back it up.Afterward, many of the attendees retired to a local eatery for an excellent question and answer session.Quite a success for the first time! Our next rally is scheduled for April 20th. More information on this later!HATE MAIL IN SEVERAL LANGUAGESLeMonde, the Parisian newspaper, ran a recent piece on guns and America that mentioned Armed Females of America (yes, that is Paris, France). For some days afterward, we were all answering some amazingly psychotic hate email in several languages. The gist was that we were all sick murderers and we were somehow responsible for the fall of the Twin Towers, but most of it was fairly incoherent. For a people who get snotty with tourists who don't speak their French perfectly, they certainly seem to have a lot of trouble with our English (all except for the gutter variety).Needless to say, we had a bit of fun with our answers. I doubt if we converted anybody, but those with the guts to write us a second time were certainly more civil!The mail has slowed down now, so it's time to stir the pot again!NO MORE PHOTO ALBUM!We have taken down the "Photo Album" on the national Armed Females of America web site! These pictures were used by some people for very unwholesome purposes. Some have been posted on message boards around the net. After we get the Member Section completed we will repost these pictures and ask our members to provide additional pictures for us to publish and only for us to see.WEB TRAFFIC SKYROCKETING!Because of the recent "hit" pieces on AFA, our web statistics have gone through the roof. So far this year we have recorded 193,000 pages viewed. I must say most of these have been from people who only want to ridicule AFA and our message. There may even have been an attempt to slow down our server by overloading it.AFA NOW TAKES CREDIT CARDSAFA has added a secure server to the web site. We now have the ability to take credit cards for membership and Contributions.*************************************************************THIS ISSUE'S HAIR-RAISING ADVENTURE IN PRIVATE INVESTIGATION:This somewhat interesting tale actually took place some months ago, but it was too good to pass up.John and I were yet again asked to serve a capias warrant for a local bondsman. This time, our fugitive was wanted for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, so we knew from the very first moment that this case was going to require a bit of care.We interviewed co-signers and family members in our area several times before we turned up a decent lead on our fugitive. We obtained information that he and his sister had been staying with a nephew in Irving, Texas (in the mid-cities area between Dallas and Ft. Worth) - and we obtained the information on the very same Christmas Eve that Officer Aubrey Hawkins was killed outside the Oshman's store in Irving by the Connally Seven. These escapees from the Connally unit in South Texas were some of the most vicious and dangerous criminals ever to escape from any prison.The day after Christmas, we loaded up the car and headed north. I lived in the Dallas area for forty years, so I contacted a close friend of mine, Terry Lynn, by cell phone on the way, and she agreed to meet us with her van at a nearby McDonald's in Irving. We arrived there at about 9PM and transferred our base of operations to Terry's van. It was a frigid night, and her van was much warmer than my little Honda. We drove over to the address we had been given and settled in to watch the house for awhile. We soon discovered that we had an interesting problem that would almost have been funny if it hadn't been so uncomfortable. The whole area was so terrified of the Connally Seven that, by midnight, every convenience store and every service station for miles around had locked their doors tight and were not willing to let anyone use the bathroom.If you've ever done any kind of surveillance, you realize what a dreadful calamity this was!Finally, one service station took pity on Terry and me (John T. could go behind a discreet bush) and let us inside to use the facilities because she said we "looked harmless." I thought with some amusement at the time that she had probably never encountered a better armed woman. Looks can be deceiving!Activities over the course of that night mostly included stealing the garbage from our address, driving to a service station dumpster a block away, and going through the trash a bit at a time behind the van where we couldn't be seen. Terry thought this was great fun , and I was quite content to let her help John do it. Playing in potties and garbage cans never appealed much to me, and I absolutely hate the cold. Terry and John found lots of old envelopes, etc., (along with a lot of much less pleasant things!) for the nephew, but none for our fugitive or his sister. The next morning, we followed the nephew to his business. We watched for awhile, then finally decided that we'd learned all we could learn without talking to the man, so we decided to interview him. We went inside, gave him identification and were very frank about the problem.To our surprise, he greeted us with considerable relief and wanted to talk to us. Our fugitive and his sister had been staying with him, but a week earlier, someone had called the house claiming to be F.B.I., and had made all sorts of threats to our fugitive and his sister. They had become frightened and fled in the sister's car. The nephew produced phone records showing the caller's number, which we recognized. It not only wasn't the F.B.I., it was another private investigator, one we know to be particularly unscrupulous. We explained this to the nephew, and he explained that his uncle was absolutely terrified of any kind of police, and with good reason. The last officer to arrest him had been rather brutal. The nephew also told us that our fugitive had fled with his sister to Karnes County (the back yard of the prison where the Connally Seven had escaped!), where he often worked as a ranch hand, but although the nephew was able to give us an FM road, he didn't have an address. We thanked him, got cleaned up at Terry Lynn's, and headed back south to our home base.After a few (very few!) hours of sleep, we drove the two hours or so to Karnes County. The FM road that the nephew had given us turned out to be several miles long. John drove it back and forth, while I checked the license plates of all the vehicles we could see.Pay dirt! We spotted the vehicle belonging to our fugitive's sister parked outside a large ranch house with several out buildings.Parking up on the highway, we used binoculars and spotted our fugitive working on a fence line.Now we had a minor problem. We were in a small population county that probably had a sheriff with an attitude problem. We were talking about invading a prominent local citizen's property to make an arrest. To avoid being the ones arrested, it behooved us therefore to talk to said citizen. We reversed the address and obtained a phone number for the rancher.John T. spoke to the young rancher on our cell phone and told him exactly what was going on, and also that we wanted to make our move before our fugitive had the opportunity to go back to the ranch hand's little house and start drinking. The ranch owner agreed for us to do it, but asked us to wait until he could get his wife and infant daughter off the property. Of course we agreed.Then the ranch owner dropped the nightmare bombshell. Because of the escape of the Connally Seven, he had recently given our fugitive a handgun for his own protection.This was not shaping up to be the best of days. Just to put things in perspective, this is exactly the kind of situation that modern cops like to call S.W.A.T. to handle. Our fugitive was wanted for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He'd been on the run for thirteen months. And now we knew without a doubt that he was armed with a firearm. Not a good situation. Not good at all.Being the gentleman that he is, John T. asked me straight up if I wanted to participate. I wouldn't have missed it for the world, but I was glad he asked.On their way off the property, the ranch owner and his wife stopped at our car to wish us well, then he took his wife and child out of there. We decided that if we waited much longer, a hot and tired fugitive was going to get some alcohol in him and become many times as dangerous.When we pulled into the driveway that ran between the ranch house and the smaller bunkhouse where our fugitive lived, another vehicle pulled in as well, offloading numerous women and kids. This was not going according to plan! I was scared to death! We climbed out of our car, and John T. shoved roughly in front of me when he saw the butt of the pistol in the front of our guy's trousers.John T. told our guy why we were there. John T. stayed calm and gentle, no guns came out of any holsters, and our guy gradually began to calm down. We explained that we didn't care about any firearms violations, that we were not police, and that he had nothing to fear from us worse than a straight up arrest. Believe it or not, our guy actually surrendered his firearm to John without a murmur.It turned out it was his birthday, and all the women and kids were showing up for the party. So we all sat down while our fugitive had a piece of birthday cake and discussed his options. We explained that we were not allowed to cross a county line with him under arrest, so if he made us arrest him, we would have to take him to the Karnes County jail. It would be several days, if not weeks, before he would be extradited to Bexar County where he could be magistrated and get bailed out again. If, on the other hand, he was willing to come voluntarily and turn himself in, we would give him a ride to Bexar County. Needless to say, he decided that turning himself in was the way to go.It was a two-hour drive back to the Bexar County jail. On the way, we learned the rest of this man's story. His English was not good, but between his English and our pidgeon Spanish, we managed to learn what had happened to him. The aggravated assault was a family dispute with another nephew (shot his car full of holes in a drunken rage). Our guy was actually in the courtroom when his court appointed attorney had told him that he needed $1500 under the table, or he would roll over and our guy would go down for the * (our guy had one misdeamenour and one felony - he wasn't even eligible for habitual offender!). Our fugitive had panicked and run out of the courtroom. Understandable under the circumstances!We became friends on the way, and came to genuinely care what happened to him.What did we learn from this? Never prejudge a human being. You will be wrong about him every single time. And I learned that John T. would try to take a bullet meant for me. I have never forgotten, and I will never forget.*************************************************************DIFFICULT CHOICES by Kathryn A. GrahamI am a veteran and a patriot. Such a remark often makes a writer the target of ridicule or worse, but I refuse to withdraw it. It happens to be the plain, unvarnished truth. In September of 1972, on my own 18th birthday, I raised my right hand and swore solemnly to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I served my country faithfully and was discharged with honor.I am a veteran and a patriot. That has not changed, yet that very oath I was so proud to swear has troubled my sleep for many, many years now.In my youth and foolishness, it never, never occurred to me that those words meant exactly what they said. ". . . all enemies, foreign and domestic." I was too young, too innocent, to really believe that the Constitution could possibly have domestic enemies. If I considered that phrase at all, I would have thought of something like Robert Philip Hanssen of the FBI - a traitor, a criminal and a spy - not other ordinary citizens like myself. I took that oath for the purpose of serving in the U.S. military - therefore, the enemies expressly mentioned in that oath had to be foreign. Didn't they?My discharge from duty with the armed services did release me from that oath, didn't it? Or did it?Today we watch the painful, day-by-day erosion of the freedoms promised us in the Bill of Rights. Those lawmakers who propose and pass legislation that strangles or even negates those rights - they are not foreign. The police who all-too-often trample on what few rights are left, rather than protecting and serving us, are just as American as you or I am. They may indeed be criminals, but they stand accused of no crime. No warrants exist for their arrest. Yet they are the worst enemies - domestic enemies - that our Constitution has ever faced.I am a veteran. I am not afraid of the word "duty." Where does my duty lie today? If I am to embrace the concept of "freedom," then I must answer this difficult question for myself. No one can give me the answer. I can't suck up to the state nanny and beg for an answer. I must seek the one and only answer that satisfies my own mind, my own heart and my own conscience. The only answer I can live with is no compromise! The Bill of Rights means precisely what it says - every word - and every law that has been passed contrary to the Bill of Rights is null and void under the highest law of this land. Every individual who has voted for or attempted to enforce such a law is himself (or herself) a criminal. Cut and dried. The Bill of Rights was written to protect the rights of individuals, not groups. Every word in the Bill of Rights concerns an individual's right to something - whether to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to due process, or what have you, these are each and every one individual rights. There should be absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind that the Second Amendment protects the individual right to keep and bear arms, not the right of the military to do so. That means that the individual's right to self defense is sacred.Period. No compromise.So if I strap my Kimber in plain view on my right hip and stroll down the streets of my city, it is absolutely legal under the highest law of this land.Of course, cold reality says that if I do so this week, the police will arrest me and remove me from circulation for some considerable period of time. There is even a colder reality that says that a poorly trained and frightened police officer could very easily shoot me stone dead at his first glimpse that I am carrying a firearm. The fact I would not be threatening him - and that this young cop would probably feel terrible about it afterward - is cold comfort indeed. I may yet do this one day. It would certainly be the easy way out. No more worries, no more struggle. And my conscience would be clear.Or would it?While I live and remain free, I can educate others about firearms and about their constitutional rights. While I live, I can continue the fight to restore the country I love. Dead - or imprisoned - I am just one more statistic, one more episode of police overreacting to a perceived threat. By the time the press gets through with me, I will probably have fired at least three magazines of .45 hollow points at the poor young cop.Just for the record, if the local police or ATF try that dodge concerning my demise, I ask my readers to remember that I am a better shot than that. If the officer who shoots me is still walking around and breathing without a respirator after my death, count on one plain and simple fact - I didn't shoot at him. Period. If there are other police on the scene, it's starting to look like a better bet to check their ballistics. Friendly fire seems to be killing more cops than criminals are killing these days, and that is a sure sign of uncontrolled panic on the part of society's finest.Now I am faced with the most awful decision of all. Believing as I believe, it is itself a compromise for me to obtain my concealed handgun license. I should carry as I believe - asking no one's permission. Or should I?As I stated before, while I am alive and free, I can continue the struggle. I do have my concealed handgun license. I scrupulously obey the laws concerning concealed handgun carry in my state. I now have my instructor's license, too. While taking my instructor training, I was pleasantly astonished to learn that many of my state police believe in the Second Amendment - and quite passionately. They are our friends, not our enemies.I will teach a class every time I can find enough students for a reasonable class. I will give discounts and even free classes to those with a sincere desire for this license, but who are strapped for cash. And in every single class I teach, I will encourage the exemplary students to obtain their instructor's licenses, too - and pass the work on.Do the math!If I can do this or any reasonable portion thereof, it won't be many years before half of my state will be "packing iron" - and at least that half will have lost the infantile terror of firearms that seems to go along with those who want to disarm us.While I remain alive and free, I can spread the word and teach the principles of true freedom to anyone with the slightest inclination to listen. I can volunteer time and my personal assets to help elect true Libertarians to office (believers in Libertarian philosophy - not necessarily party members) - and remove the statist criminals from their positions of power and privilege.What helps more to advance our cause? Becoming an obscure statistic forgotten almost overnight? Or training a large number of people in the safe and effective use of firearms and applying every ounce of determination, intelligence and courage that I have to political campaigns that advance our cause?Do I believe in no compromise? Absolutely! I argue for the repeal of every single gun law ever passed every single time I get the slightest chance to bend a legislator's ear, and I will continue to do so for as long as there is breath in my body. If the day ever comes that the state attempts to confiscate my firearms, they will find themselves armpit deep in blood. Absolutely no question at all about that!But until that day comes, I have found my answer, the one I can live with. I obey the illegal laws so that I can remain alive and free to work and to teach.I will sleep tonight. http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewnewsletter.asp?AuthorID=4579
Newsletter Dated: 3/24/2002 7:27:09 PMSubject: Come The Revolution! - Second March Edition, 2002About the Author:At a tiny 5'1", Kathryn A. Graham is a licensed private investigator, pilot, aircraft mechanic and handgun instructor in Texas. Also a prolific author, she has written numerous articles, short stories and a science fiction novel entitled Flight From Eden. Ms. Graham is the Texas Director for Armed Females of America, and co-owner and co-founder with John G. Tarsikes, Jr., of Safetynet Associates. ************************************************************RELATED LINKS:Kathryn Ann Graham, Private Investigator & AuthorArmed Females of AmericaArmed Females of America, Texas ChapterSafetynet AssociatesKathryn's AuthorsDen PageFlight From Eden, Kathryn's Science Fiction Novel****************************************************************NOTICE:***I will be signing copies of Flight From Eden at the Barnes & Noble book store at Bandera and Hwy. 1604 in San Antonio, Texas, from 2 PM until 4 PM on Saturday, March 30th. Hope to meet some of you there!*************************************************************ARMED FEMALES OF AMERICA, CURRENT NEWS:OUR BILL OF RIGHTS RALLY, MARCH 23RD, AUSTIN, TEXAS:Saturday was very windy, and the attendees were alternately cooked and chilled on the south steps of the Capitol Building in Austin. It is wonderful to note that attendees were able to walk the halls of the Capitol armed with no search or questions, except that Texas Department of Public Safety troopers still look at women's purses for explosives. I cannot imagine a finer example of how far Texas has come in the last few years! There was a crowd of approximately 200 hardcore people, with a few more from time to time as tourists came and went. There were ten Department of Public Safety troopers working security. My partner suspects there were also three undercover operatives photographing the crowd, although he has no proof of that, but I am sure he is probably right.The rally was opened by Michael Badnarik, a Libertarian candidate for the Texas House of Representatives and a well-known constitutional scholar. Don Crawford covered the First Amendment, along with recent developments in the campaign reform bill (incumbent protection bill) and its assault on our right to free speech. Dave Nalle, Tom Allen and Wes Benedict then covered the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth and Tenth Amendments.My partner in Safetynet Associates, John Tarsikes, then spoke concerning the Texas Concealed Handgun Law, and the incredible progress made in this state over a very few years. Over the last six years, we have watched Texas go from no legal handguns whatsoever to a concealed handgun law - written by our own state police! - and a "shall issue" state. This brought a huge round of applause from onlookers.Rick Stanley then spoke about his arrest and the blatant disregard of the Second Amendment and U.S. Constitution in Denver. He also covered the complete illegality of the I.R.S. and the way the Federal Reserve works. He concluded with a call for concerned citizens to rally at least once a month and to work toward peacefully voting out unconsitutional laws or getting them thrown out one way or another. Rick also told my partner that he had not touched his handgun in 17 years when he deliberately staged his arrest in Denver to make the point that the Second Amendment is all that stands between the American people and tyranny. We can bring about peaceful change - provided our leaders know we have the muscle to back it up.Afterward, many of the attendees retired to a local eatery for an excellent question and answer session.Quite a success for the first time! Our next rally is scheduled for April 20th. More information on this later!HATE MAIL IN SEVERAL LANGUAGESLeMonde, the Parisian newspaper, ran a recent piece on guns and America that mentioned Armed Females of America (yes, that is Paris, France). For some days afterward, we were all answering some amazingly psychotic hate email in several languages. The gist was that we were all sick murderers and we were somehow responsible for the fall of the Twin Towers, but most of it was fairly incoherent. For a people who get snotty with tourists who don't speak their French perfectly, they certainly seem to have a lot of trouble with our English (all except for the gutter variety).Needless to say, we had a bit of fun with our answers. I doubt if we converted anybody, but those with the guts to write us a second time were certainly more civil!The mail has slowed down now, so it's time to stir the pot again!NO MORE PHOTO ALBUM!We have taken down the "Photo Album" on the national Armed Females of America web site! These pictures were used by some people for very unwholesome purposes. Some have been posted on message boards around the net. After we get the Member Section completed we will repost these pictures and ask our members to provide additional pictures for us to publish and only for us to see.WEB TRAFFIC SKYROCKETING!Because of the recent "hit" pieces on AFA, our web statistics have gone through the roof. So far this year we have recorded 193,000 pages viewed. I must say most of these have been from people who only want to ridicule AFA and our message. There may even have been an attempt to slow down our server by overloading it.AFA NOW TAKES CREDIT CARDSAFA has added a secure server to the web site. We now have the ability to take credit cards for membership and Contributions.*************************************************************THIS ISSUE'S HAIR-RAISING ADVENTURE IN PRIVATE INVESTIGATION:This somewhat interesting tale actually took place some months ago, but it was too good to pass up.John and I were yet again asked to serve a capias warrant for a local bondsman. This time, our fugitive was wanted for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, so we knew from the very first moment that this case was going to require a bit of care.We interviewed co-signers and family members in our area several times before we turned up a decent lead on our fugitive. We obtained information that he and his sister had been staying with a nephew in Irving, Texas (in the mid-cities area between Dallas and Ft. Worth) - and we obtained the information on the very same Christmas Eve that Officer Aubrey Hawkins was killed outside the Oshman's store in Irving by the Connally Seven. These escapees from the Connally unit in South Texas were some of the most vicious and dangerous criminals ever to escape from any prison.The day after Christmas, we loaded up the car and headed north. I lived in the Dallas area for forty years, so I contacted a close friend of mine, Terry Lynn, by cell phone on the way, and she agreed to meet us with her van at a nearby McDonald's in Irving. We arrived there at about 9PM and transferred our base of operations to Terry's van. It was a frigid night, and her van was much warmer than my little Honda. We drove over to the address we had been given and settled in to watch the house for awhile. We soon discovered that we had an interesting problem that would almost have been funny if it hadn't been so uncomfortable. The whole area was so terrified of the Connally Seven that, by midnight, every convenience store and every service station for miles around had locked their doors tight and were not willing to let anyone use the bathroom.If you've ever done any kind of surveillance, you realize what a dreadful calamity this was!Finally, one service station took pity on Terry and me (John T. could go behind a discreet bush) and let us inside to use the facilities because she said we "looked harmless." I thought with some amusement at the time that she had probably never encountered a better armed woman. Looks can be deceiving!Activities over the course of that night mostly included stealing the garbage from our address, driving to a service station dumpster a block away, and going through the trash a bit at a time behind the van where we couldn't be seen. Terry thought this was great fun , and I was quite content to let her help John do it. Playing in potties and garbage cans never appealed much to me, and I absolutely hate the cold. Terry and John found lots of old envelopes, etc., (along with a lot of much less pleasant things!) for the nephew, but none for our fugitive or his sister. The next morning, we followed the nephew to his business. We watched for awhile, then finally decided that we'd learned all we could learn without talking to the man, so we decided to interview him. We went inside, gave him identification and were very frank about the problem.To our surprise, he greeted us with considerable relief and wanted to talk to us. Our fugitive and his sister had been staying with him, but a week earlier, someone had called the house claiming to be F.B.I., and had made all sorts of threats to our fugitive and his sister. They had become frightened and fled in the sister's car. The nephew produced phone records showing the caller's number, which we recognized. It not only wasn't the F.B.I., it was another private investigator, one we know to be particularly unscrupulous. We explained this to the nephew, and he explained that his uncle was absolutely terrified of any kind of police, and with good reason. The last officer to arrest him had been rather brutal. The nephew also told us that our fugitive had fled with his sister to Karnes County (the back yard of the prison where the Connally Seven had escaped!), where he often worked as a ranch hand, but although the nephew was able to give us an FM road, he didn't have an address. We thanked him, got cleaned up at Terry Lynn's, and headed back south to our home base.After a few (very few!) hours of sleep, we drove the two hours or so to Karnes County. The FM road that the nephew had given us turned out to be several miles long. John drove it back and forth, while I checked the license plates of all the vehicles we could see.Pay dirt! We spotted the vehicle belonging to our fugitive's sister parked outside a large ranch house with several out buildings.Parking up on the highway, we used binoculars and spotted our fugitive working on a fence line.Now we had a minor problem. We were in a small population county that probably had a sheriff with an attitude problem. We were talking about invading a prominent local citizen's property to make an arrest. To avoid being the ones arrested, it behooved us therefore to talk to said citizen. We reversed the address and obtained a phone number for the rancher.John T. spoke to the young rancher on our cell phone and told him exactly what was going on, and also that we wanted to make our move before our fugitive had the opportunity to go back to the ranch hand's little house and start drinking. The ranch owner agreed for us to do it, but asked us to wait until he could get his wife and infant daughter off the property. Of course we agreed.Then the ranch owner dropped the nightmare bombshell. Because of the escape of the Connally Seven, he had recently given our fugitive a handgun for his own protection.This was not shaping up to be the best of days. Just to put things in perspective, this is exactly the kind of situation that modern cops like to call S.W.A.T. to handle. Our fugitive was wanted for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He'd been on the run for thirteen months. And now we knew without a doubt that he was armed with a firearm. Not a good situation. Not good at all.Being the gentleman that he is, John T. asked me straight up if I wanted to participate. I wouldn't have missed it for the world, but I was glad he asked.On their way off the property, the ranch owner and his wife stopped at our car to wish us well, then he took his wife and child out of there. We decided that if we waited much longer, a hot and tired fugitive was going to get some alcohol in him and become many times as dangerous.When we pulled into the driveway that ran between the ranch house and the smaller bunkhouse where our fugitive lived, another vehicle pulled in as well, offloading numerous women and kids. This was not going according to plan! I was scared to death! We climbed out of our car, and John T. shoved roughly in front of me when he saw the butt of the pistol in the front of our guy's trousers.John T. told our guy why we were there. John T. stayed calm and gentle, no guns came out of any holsters, and our guy gradually began to calm down. We explained that we didn't care about any firearms violations, that we were not police, and that he had nothing to fear from us worse than a straight up arrest. Believe it or not, our guy actually surrendered his firearm to John without a murmur.It turned out it was his birthday, and all the women and kids were showing up for the party. So we all sat down while our fugitive had a piece of birthday cake and discussed his options. We explained that we were not allowed to cross a county line with him under arrest, so if he made us arrest him, we would have to take him to the Karnes County jail. It would be several days, if not weeks, before he would be extradited to Bexar County where he could be magistrated and get bailed out again. If, on the other hand, he was willing to come voluntarily and turn himself in, we would give him a ride to Bexar County. Needless to say, he decided that turning himself in was the way to go.It was a two-hour drive back to the Bexar County jail. On the way, we learned the rest of this man's story. His English was not good, but between his English and our pidgeon Spanish, we managed to learn what had happened to him. The aggravated assault was a family dispute with another nephew (shot his car full of holes in a drunken rage). Our guy was actually in the courtroom when his court appointed attorney had told him that he needed $1500 under the table, or he would roll over and our guy would go down for the * (our guy had one misdeamenour and one felony - he wasn't even eligible for habitual offender!). Our fugitive had panicked and run out of the courtroom. Understandable under the circumstances!We became friends on the way, and came to genuinely care what happened to him.What did we learn from this? Never prejudge a human being. You will be wrong about him every single time. And I learned that John T. would try to take a bullet meant for me. I have never forgotten, and I will never forget.*************************************************************DIFFICULT CHOICES by Kathryn A. GrahamI am a veteran and a patriot. Such a remark often makes a writer the target of ridicule or worse, but I refuse to withdraw it. It happens to be the plain, unvarnished truth. In September of 1972, on my own 18th birthday, I raised my right hand and swore solemnly to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I served my country faithfully and was discharged with honor.I am a veteran and a patriot. That has not changed, yet that very oath I was so proud to swear has troubled my sleep for many, many years now.In my youth and foolishness, it never, never occurred to me that those words meant exactly what they said. ". . . all enemies, foreign and domestic." I was too young, too innocent, to really believe that the Constitution could possibly have domestic enemies. If I considered that phrase at all, I would have thought of something like Robert Philip Hanssen of the FBI - a traitor, a criminal and a spy - not other ordinary citizens like myself. I took that oath for the purpose of serving in the U.S. military - therefore, the enemies expressly mentioned in that oath had to be foreign. Didn't they?My discharge from duty with the armed services did release me from that oath, didn't it? Or did it?Today we watch the painful, day-by-day erosion of the freedoms promised us in the Bill of Rights. Those lawmakers who propose and pass legislation that strangles or even negates those rights - they are not foreign. The police who all-too-often trample on what few rights are left, rather than protecting and serving us, are just as American as you or I am. They may indeed be criminals, but they stand accused of no crime. No warrants exist for their arrest. Yet they are the worst enemies - domestic enemies - that our Constitution has ever faced.I am a veteran. I am not afraid of the word "duty." Where does my duty lie today? If I am to embrace the concept of "freedom," then I must answer this difficult question for myself. No one can give me the answer. I can't suck up to the state nanny and beg for an answer. I must seek the one and only answer that satisfies my own mind, my own heart and my own conscience. The only answer I can live with is no compromise! The Bill of Rights means precisely what it says - every word - and every law that has been passed contrary to the Bill of Rights is null and void under the highest law of this land. Every individual who has voted for or attempted to enforce such a law is himself (or herself) a criminal. Cut and dried. The Bill of Rights was written to protect the rights of individuals, not groups. Every word in the Bill of Rights concerns an individual's right to something - whether to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to due process, or what have you, these are each and every one individual rights. There should be absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind that the Second Amendment protects the individual right to keep and bear arms, not the right of the military to do so. That means that the individual's right to self defense is sacred.Period. No compromise.So if I strap my Kimber in plain view on my right hip and stroll down the streets of my city, it is absolutely legal under the highest law of this land.Of course, cold reality says that if I do so this week, the police will arrest me and remove me from circulation for some considerable period of time. There is even a colder reality that says that a poorly trained and frightened police officer could very easily shoot me stone dead at his first glimpse that I am carrying a firearm. The fact I would not be threatening him - and that this young cop would probably feel terrible about it afterward - is cold comfort indeed. I may yet do this one day. It would certainly be the easy way out. No more worries, no more struggle. And my conscience would be clear.Or would it?While I live and remain free, I can educate others about firearms and about their constitutional rights. While I live, I can continue the fight to restore the country I love. Dead - or imprisoned - I am just one more statistic, one more episode of police overreacting to a perceived threat. By the time the press gets through with me, I will probably have fired at least three magazines of .45 hollow points at the poor young cop.Just for the record, if the local police or ATF try that dodge concerning my demise, I ask my readers to remember that I am a better shot than that. If the officer who shoots me is still walking around and breathing without a respirator after my death, count on one plain and simple fact - I didn't shoot at him. Period. If there are other police on the scene, it's starting to look like a better bet to check their ballistics. Friendly fire seems to be killing more cops than criminals are killing these days, and that is a sure sign of uncontrolled panic on the part of society's finest.Now I am faced with the most awful decision of all. Believing as I believe, it is itself a compromise for me to obtain my concealed handgun license. I should carry as I believe - asking no one's permission. Or should I?As I stated before, while I am alive and free, I can continue the struggle. I do have my concealed handgun license. I scrupulously obey the laws concerning concealed handgun carry in my state. I now have my instructor's license, too. While taking my instructor training, I was pleasantly astonished to learn that many of my state police believe in the Second Amendment - and quite passionately. They are our friends, not our enemies.I will teach a class every time I can find enough students for a reasonable class. I will give discounts and even free classes to those with a sincere desire for this license, but who are strapped for cash. And in every single class I teach, I will encourage the exemplary students to obtain their instructor's licenses, too - and pass the work on.Do the math!If I can do this or any reasonable portion thereof, it won't be many years before half of my state will be "packing iron" - and at least that half will have lost the infantile terror of firearms that seems to go along with those who want to disarm us.While I remain alive and free, I can spread the word and teach the principles of true freedom to anyone with the slightest inclination to listen. I can volunteer time and my personal assets to help elect true Libertarians to office (believers in Libertarian philosophy - not necessarily party members) - and remove the statist criminals from their positions of power and privilege.What helps more to advance our cause? Becoming an obscure statistic forgotten almost overnight? Or training a large number of people in the safe and effective use of firearms and applying every ounce of determination, intelligence and courage that I have to political campaigns that advance our cause?Do I believe in no compromise? Absolutely! I argue for the repeal of every single gun law ever passed every single time I get the slightest chance to bend a legislator's ear, and I will continue to do so for as long as there is breath in my body. If the day ever comes that the state attempts to confiscate my firearms, they will find themselves armpit deep in blood. Absolutely no question at all about that!But until that day comes, I have found my answer, the one I can live with. I obey the illegal laws so that I can remain alive and free to work and to teach.I will sleep tonight. http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewnewsletter.asp?AuthorID=4579
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Truck Driver,Submarine Veteran,Rusty Wallace fan,and piss poor typist E-MAIL WNUNLEY@USIT.NET
"No dear, this isn't a new gun,,I've had this one for quite a long time,,honest,,"
Did my part the weekend of the 11th. Spent it with 110 women at a camp in Lafayette, IN. Indiana's Dept. of Natural Resources has a program know as BOW Becoming an Outdoor Woman. I'm a state certified rifle and pistol instructor. My co-worker is state certified to train in rifle and shotgun.
We had a 60 yr young female who had never shot or handled a gun in her life. She followed instruction very well so well in fact that she cut the center on a 15 meter target with rifle and then with handgun in 22 cal. She then cut the paper with a well placed shot from a 45 LC from there she moved to the shotgun course breaking five clay birds in a row. She was so excited she could hardly stand it. At the end of the day she approached me with a smile as big as Texas and said, "Thanks, I had a great time and I know what my new hobby is. If I can just convince my husband why I want an over under shotgun for Christmas." That made the weekend worth it. God just put another zero on my paycheck for that one. You keep up the good work and may God bless you.