There need not be a shot fired. We had a peaceful secession already...in 1787. No one was shot, hung, or arrested back then.
If Obama is Jackson/Lincoln revisited, then we’ll see. But I’m not remotely convinced there would be shooting. Just saber rattling and very tense negotiations.
I understand that and I hope this would be the case. I look at the implosion of the Soviet Union as an example. Despite the fact that secession was an express right in the Soviet constitution, troops were sent in to occupy the Baltic states as soon as they threatened to exercise that right.
Only when the Soviets were too bankrupt to pay for the violent enforcement of compulsory union did the USSR come unraveled.
Meanwhile, we have the deliberate, made for TV examples of Ruby Ridge and Waco before us. There is a reason the federal government initiated these actions and saw to it that they were public spectacles. They were intentional demonstrations of power and ruthlessness.
There should be no doubt that the statists would resort to homicides - many and spectacular - to sustain the status quo. Intimidation, punishment and murder is at the heart of every dedicated statist, because without those there is no control over dissidents.
There need not be a shot fired, but at present there most certainly would be.