America's deadly devotion to guns

At an organising breakfast for National Rifle Association (NRA) grassroots activists, Samuel Richardson, a man with whom I have not exchanged a word, passes me a note. "Please read the book Injustice by Adams," it reads. "He was [sic] lawyer for US Justice Department who prosecuted Black Panther Case." Quite why Richardson thinks this book is for me is not clear. There are six other people at the table, a couple of them journalists. The fact I am the only black person in a room of around 200 may have something to do with it.

J Christian Adams, a former department of justice lawyer, resigned after the department decided not to prosecute members of the New Black Panther party who brandished guns and intimidated poll watchers outside a voting station in Philadelphia in 2008. Several attorneys, including Republicans, have argued that while the case was serious it did not warrant the department's resources. Adams believed there were darker forces at play, claiming the case "gave the public a glimpse of the racially discriminatory worldview" of the department under Obama.

Richardson goes further. The press and the government are in cahoots, he explains, to oppress white people. "It's fascistic," he explains. "It's just like Hitler did. Discriminating against one ethnic group and claiming that they're the cause of everything that's wrong. It's what happened in Rwanda," intimating that white Americans, like Tutsis, could one day find themselves systematically slaughtered in their own land.

It would be easy to ridicule the NRA. Billboards for its national convention all around St Louis promise "acres of guns and gear". In the exhibition hall they are giving two free guns, twice a day, to anyone wearing a sticker that says "Ambush", and they are selling semi-automatics in pink camouflage.

I read the whole thing. I know the Brit press hates guns and gun owners, no news there. But the real takeway for me is this:

OPSEC, PEOPLE!

For God's sake, why would you discuss SHTF if front of some stranger with a Britsh accent?? Why would you pass the only black guy in the room-and a perfect stranger to boot-a note referencing the Black Panthers?? Some of us, me included, are still treating our politics like a game. It is not: it is deadly serious and the other guys are playing for keeps. They ARE taking names. Loose lips sink ships and also destroy careers, families and ultimately lives. Just a couple of suggestions based on the article:

1. Don't talk guns, prepping, SHTF, race or anti-guv within earshot of ANYONE you don't know well. This goes double for gun shows/shops. No matter where you are anybody from the ATF to the NYPD to some little sh*t reporter from a British newspaper could be listening. Just because you are among friends doesn't mean a thing. Look around. See who is listening, or who could be listening. Don't suppose that because someone is at the next table that he can't hear you.

2. Get over the idea that this stuff is fun to chat about and cool stop treating it like a hobby. The French Resistance wasn't in it for fun...if they'd been yukking it up in the Parisian cafes about those great new Sten guns the British had sent over the Nazis would have had them all rounded up inside of a week. As far as everyone outside INCLUDING FAMILY is concerned, you don't prep, you don't own any modern guns and you may not be thrilled with Obama but politics is no big deal. You'd rather talk about sports, or horticulture, or Shackleton's failed Antarctic expedition or ANYTHING other than guns or prepping or SHTF. "Keep it secret, keep it safe."

3. Cops get nothing until your lawyer is present. Reporters get nothing, ever. If you see cameras or microphones, skedaddle.

3A. If you want to dance around in front of the media and protest with empty holsters or open carry or whatnot, that is fine as long as you are mentally and physically prepared to not reveal what you know under torture, and to die in agony without revealing said information. Count the cost. Is it worth it? What about others?

We are acting like kids playing an adult game. It's a good way to lose.

"I am amazed when people call the NRA successful as there are huge swaths of land in this nation where people cannot carry guns."

I think it's pretty pathetic that there are, as quoted by wikianswers: "Most estimates range between 39% and 50% of US households having at least one gun(that's about 43-55 million households). The estimates for the number of privately owned guns range from 190 million to 300 million. Removed those that skew the stats for their own purposes the best estimates are about 45% or 52 million of American households owning 260 million guns). there are about 80 million gun owners in America with a combining total of 258 million guns."

And the total NRA membership in the U.S. is 4 million? That's what is really pathetic and amazing. People need to get off of their dead asses and become members. Say what you will, even though people don't always agree with the NRA, they are the largest organization that is working in our favor to stop the dismal tide of anti gun efforts.

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