A Gun Nut's Notion of "Subtlety"

[paft.livejournal.com]

Adam Kokesh: We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.

So Adam Kokesh has a GREAT idea! A thousand men marching on Washington DC on July 4th, carrying loaded weapons.

Kokesh says that his intent is "to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated [and] cower in submission to tyranny," which is pretty rich coming from someone whose response to legislation he dislikes is to wave a loaded gun at the legislators. It's especially interesting, if not especially reassuring, to read his comments about the marchers' commitment to non-violence.

There's a remote chance that there will be violence as there has been from government before, and I think it should be clear that if anyone involved in this event is approached respectfully by agents of the state, they will submit to arrest without resisting. We are truly saying in the SUBTLEST way possible that we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.

All of which, of course, depends on every single marcher's interpretation of being approached "respectfully." This frankly sounds more like a barely veiled... excuse me... "SUBTLE" threat that Kokesh thinks they should start shooting if things don't go the way they want it to.

He elaborated further on that same Facebook page:

(Emphasis Added) Now that it's undeniable that this is going to happen, allow me to make clear how. There will be coordination with DC law enforcement prior to the event. I will recommend that they do the best they can to honor their oaths and escort us on our route. Failing to provide that commitment to safety, we will either be informed that we will only be allowed up to a certain point where we would be arrested. If this is the case, we will approach that point as a group and if necessary, I will procede to volunteer myself to determine what their actual course of action with someone crossing the line will be at which point fellow marchers will have the choice of joining me one at a time in a peaceful, orderly manner, or turning back to the National Cemetery.

Okay, Everybody clear on this?

I am a woman who wrote graduate papers on Henry James. I attend a Bloomsday celebration of Joyce's Ulysses on a regular basis, and listen with pleasure and comprehension to the readings. I've read every word of Mrs. Dalloway, The Sound and the Fury and The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy. Mandarin writing holds no terrors for me. But I have to confess Adam Kokesh's "subtlety" here defeats me. As near as I can figure out, he's saying that, as the leader of a thousand individuals marching with loaded weapons into our capital, he will generously instruct the DC police on how to deal with someone "crossing the line," backed up by lots of armed marchers crowding around and helping him in this negotiation.

As Crooks and Liars Crooks and Liars puts it -- What could possibly go wrong?

Especially given what he Tweeted last week:

When the government comes to take your guns, you can shoot government agents, or submit to slavery.

Comments

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

LOL, I disagree. Iraq was totally avoidable, therefore a war of choice. Afghanistan was revenge.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Indeed, to me anyone that doesn't recognize the lethality of a firearm isn't a man, but a boy.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Nothn wrong with that, but all the same I'm pretty sure Washington has a vat of small pox laying around somewhere just in case the natives get restless, heh.

Probably in that new American Indian museum, that'll be ironic.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Leading? No. He was a member of IVAW. Here:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Uh, which Egyptian insurgents? Libya was won by NATO conventional air power, Afghanistan isn't won yet, and Iraq is about to turn into an Iranian satellite in the fullest sense.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Too soon?

[telemann.livejournal.com]

/me hands you some post Lent candies and chocolates.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

THAT DOESN'T HELP!!11!!!

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

And a not so well placed .38 can take out it's spotter rendering it combat-ineffective.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

You're right.

He only wants to disarm you.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

TX firearms permit required.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Goddamn crackers are getting uppity time to put 'em in their place.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

It was also against the law for people of a certain skin color to sit in certain places despite constitutional protections that said otherwise.

I find it ironic that yesterday's radicals have embraced being today's "man" with such a vengeance.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Kind of like another goup of people who decided that they were going to break a law that they felt was un constitutional to "send a message".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_(1955-1968)#Birmingham_Campaign.2C_1963.E2.80.9364

[brother-dour.livejournal.com]

We also cannot open carry, hence my comment, above.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

[citation needed]. Being neither diagnosed insane nor a convicted criminal, I could pass a background check, so I'm not sure.

But the idea that the president want everyone disarmed is aimed to rile a certain segment of our population. Its also a lie, and a fairly dangerous one.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

they are allowed to go on.

Oh no, they are heavily regulated.

[oslo.livejournal.com]

This is a total non sequitur. Nothing about my comment has anything to do with whether an armed rally in DC would be "illegal." It is entirely about the message they're trying to send and how what they're doing even has the meaning they're claiming it has.

[oslo.livejournal.com]

While I don't view Kokesh's remarks as explicitly calling for anything like an armed insurrection at the slightest provocation, his remarks are sufficiently leading and ambiguous to suggest, to me, that while he may not want to start a fight, he certainly wouldn't be opposed to one breaking out.

Like paft, some of the key ambiguities here have to do with cooperation being contingent upon being "respectfully" approached and calling upon officers to "honor their oaths," etc. As you yourself have made clear in this community, this kind of language can be tied to the belief that armed resistance is legitimate. For example, you've said before that you think that armed resistance would be legitimate if officers were to attempt to enforce laws that you understand to be unconstitutional, even if no court agrees with you and despite the fact that the officers in question are just acting in accordance with their duties under the existing legal system.

Certainly, I don't see any basis here for thinking that he's just trying to generate a test case. I mean, there's a whole science to generating test cases nowadays - this would be an astonishingly stupid way to set up a challenge to DC gun control laws.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Not at all.

You're making the same arguments Bull Connor did and for the same reasons.

The bill of rights is not a buffet.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Which is why background checks need to be stricter.

The fact that a person like you could pass is proof that the standards are too low.

;)

[usekh.livejournal.com]

I think you know very little about chemical weapons.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

Oh, hi. I've almost missed the inanity of your snipes; it's been a while.

We both used the term "I think"...

While it is true I know very little about chemical weapons, my "I think" has a bit of foundation (google sarin gas syria for lots of news reports). Since you have never met me, and rarely engage me in actual discourse, and I have never commented on chemical weapons; I can only conclude that your "I think" is based on some strange, random thought process that may very well be broken.

[oslo.livejournal.com]

Hey, you know - maybe before you compare me to a leading proponent of racism and segregation in the South during the civil rights era, you should take a moment to read my actual comments and respond to them.

As far as I can tell, this is a blatant attempt to inflame the discussion without any justifiable basis. Do you want me to write you off as a troll, or are you still interest in something like a substantive discussion?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Of course no medieval warrior would deign to make either bows or arrows. Those were the arts of the hoi polloi.