In New York, we have a prequel of what’s to come – the repeal of the Second Amendment and summary criminalization of peaceful citizens merely for possessing the means of self-defense, even in their own homes. As in Great Britain, citizens of NY face prison if they use proscribed weapons against murderous thugs – even in their own homes. The tyrants Michael Bloomberg and Andrew Cuomo have made their decision. Now New Yorkers will have to make theirs. And so will the rest of us – if, as seems likely, the federal tyrants succeed in issuing a New York-style fatwa that applies to the rest of the country. Which brings us to the question:

What will you do?

It is a very hard question. Perhaps the hardest question Americans have had to face since 1861. As then, there may be no peaceful way to preserve our rights. There may be blood. As then, one side is absolutely determined to impose its will at bayonet-point. To murder us in the thousands – perhaps millions, this time – if we refuse to submit. There is no reasoning, no discussing. What we face is violence against our persons by people who absolutely will not leave us in peace – no matter how peaceful we try to be – until we have submitted to them utterly and for all time to come. We wish only to be left alone – and demand that our right to defend ourselves against those who will not leave us alone be respected. That self-defense is the most basic of rights – a right conceded even to the lowest animal. They do not acknowledge our rights; they despise the very notion of us having any rights at all. They regard their power over us as limitless in principle – and rage at even the smallest assertion of freedom of action. They loathe our guns because our ownership of guns is an expression of our determination to defend our very lives – and thus, of self-ownership.

And that is what cannot be tolerated. Which is why the current bum-rush to disarm us has become absolutely frantic. The moment is at hand. We will either stand up and be reckoned with as free men – or we will sit down forever and accept any degradation, any humiliation. And in that case, we shall have proved worthy of such treatment. Future generations will look upon us with the same mixture of incomprehension and contempt that our generation looked upon those who meekly lined up naked in queue for their turn at the edge of the pit. Because it will come to that, in time.

For decades, in a slow and incremental way, they have progressively increased their claims on us. On the most intimate details of our private lives. On our literal bodies and those of our children. We no longer enjoy even the vestigial liberty of being free in our own homes. They are everywhere. They recognize no limits, no boundary beyond which they may not assert themselves over us. They read and record our conversations. They demand to know the minutia of our finances. They tell us with whom we must do business – and under what conditions. They lay claim to an unlimited amount of our income. They deny us even the prospect of real ownership of anything more than the clothes on our backs. They assert their “right” – that is, their unchecked power to do us violence – for any and no reason at all, beyond the reason that they have power and we do not. We are on the cusp now of literal, physical enslavement. Of being owned – because we are about to be rendered utterly defenseless.

Legally rendered defenseless.

If that is not just cause for resistance, then there is no cause for resisting anything, ever. Which is exactly the point being insisted upon: That we have no right to resist, because we have no rights. It is our role to Submit and Obey. Immediately, quietly. To anything and everything they tell us to do. To complacently accept as natural and right that our lives are the playthings of others – who may do with us as they please. That our lives do not matter. Because we do not own our lives.

Our lives are owned by them.

If we lose this battle, then we have already lost the war. The rest will be a mopping up operation. Having taken away not merely our guns but succeeded in intellectually defrocking us of the principle of self-defense and self-ownership that possessing arms affirms, it will be a very small thing indeed to take away much else besides.To take away anything – perhaps everything. Why not? We have already surrendered – and thus, already accepted the idea that nothing is off limits, that whatever small measure of vestigial liberty we may still possess is not actually possessed but merely tolerated . . . for the moment. And may be taken from us at any time, at their whim.

A defenseless man should expect no mercy. And a man unwilling to defend himself – and his fellow men – against tyranny deserves none.

Michael Bloomberg and Andrew Cuomo have made their decision. Diane Feinstein and Barack Obama will soon make theirs.

Then it will be our turn.

I have already made mine. It is the same decision made by Joshua Boston (USMC):

“I will not register my weapons…

“I am not your subject…

“I am not your peasant… .”

I am not a “tough guy.” I am not looking for a fight. Rather, I desperately wish to avoid one. I’m a middle-aged American just trying to live my life, work, enjoy my pastimes and my friends and family. To be an American. A free American. I dearly value my life. Which is precisely why, if I am backed into a corner by those who refuse to leave me be – even though I harm none – then I will turn and fight. God help me.

God help us all.

Throw it in the Woods?