Emergency Editorial: Ammon Bundy Occupation Should Be Met With Prudent Response By Patriots

In the last day or so, a very dangerous situation has emerged in Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, near the town of Burns, Oregon. Ammon Bundy and about a dozen men, armed with firearms, have occupied a closed Federal building on that property. The local Sheriff has backed down, and there are rumors of Special Response Teams staging nearby.

This building is a smallish, very isolated building in the middle of a large National Refuge. Someone posted on a thread under a Guardian news article about this, "I'm in Oregon. These guys took over a headquarters building but it's kinda like an old brick house your grandma would live in and it's at least 50 miles from nowhere. You guys have a good time."

I do not intend to explore the minutia behind the case. That is a matter for courts. I do intend to explore the responses to this that we should take, and those we should not take.

I had a chance to hear a CNN interview with Ammon Bundy. At best, his narrative can only be described as incoherent. The CNN host, remarkably constrained in his questioning, asked what the government could do to unravel this. After a lot of "um's" and "uh's", the best Ammon could come up with was, "The government needs to start following the Constitution." The host wanted a more definitive answer, and Bundy had nothing. Simply put, this guy is the perfect foil for a police-state government move.

We all agree. The Federal government does need to start following the Constitution. This is a fight for the court system, and if there is no relief there -- AND it happens to more than a handful of us -- THEN other more drastic measures can be considered. The key is the universality of violation. The cases of Waco, Ruby Ridge, the Bundy Ranch -- while all eregious -- are spread apart by years and have happened to the tiniest percentage of people. The proper response to these actions are judicial in nature. Take these things all the way up to the Supreme Court. These venues NEED to be fully-explored, first.

If, however, this sort of government abuse begins to happen in greater and greater numbers, there comes a time when there is a tipping point. When OTrauma just starts going full-Stalin, we must react, or die on our knees.

I don't think we are there yet, notice how delicately he's treading on his gun control Executive Order tomorrow. It's basically a tiny measure -- purported to be background checks if the seller sells 25 guns a year -- and he had his people research it for months before deciding to proceed.

There comes a time he won't be so careful or delicate. That's when we know the balloon went up. Either that, or if we ever awake to find that the electric or communications grid is down. Those are proper signs that something srastic must be undertaken.

If the Feds undertake an attacking action, and lose anyone, this will be the chance for OTrauma to actually impose some Stalinist directives. Anything from a declaration of a National Emergency to martial law could be reasonably taken, and the masses of people would go right along with it. See, the masses of people need to feel the boot before they will join. There must be more support by the general population before we can move. There are also several ways to conduct ourselves. One is more direct action, but another seems to be effective as well. Look at Czechoslovakia for how a successful 'velvet revolution' can occur, or how the 'Arab Spring' caused (admittedly harmful, in this instance) change. Anything where we are the vast minority, and a Fed-supportive populace is the vast majority, is simply a death sentence for more of our liberties, and perhaps even a death sentence for we who believe in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

This particular set of actions by Ammon Bundy are just unwise. One actually wonders if he wasn't emboldened or encouraged to act recklessly by agents of the administration, embedded in his group.

I call upon Ammon Bundy to stand down, and work the court system -- all the way up to SCOTUS -- at this time. I plead for all patriotic-minded individuals to stay away from this situation.

Laz, and all...as one who has been on the front line in situations like this here in the west, I can tell you that waiting on the “courts to decide,” at this point, and for cases like this, is almost a guarantee that the right thing will not happen. That’s sad...but there it is.

In this case, for the two ranchers involved, as I understand it, a court did rule and the two ranchers served/met that court’s decision. But the feds, not being satisfied, successfully got a judge to reassess, and now they want the two ranchers to go away for a long time.

The actions at this remote set of building are in response to that.

Quite frankly, living here in the intermountain west and understanding the situation around grazing rights, what the courts determined in the first place was wrong. Wrong headed, and just plain unjust.

Setting backfires to protect your property is something people do all the time...and the federal government does all the time.

Burning off invasive, noxious vegetation is something done all the time.

In this case the land was leased, federal land and they are using that to go after these two.

Anyhow, we waited for the “right thing” to occur at Klamath...and it did not. Ultimately a bunch of us took direct action...which we could have gone to jail for...and it changed things, the public got behind us, and ultimately the court followed suite at that time and the farmers in there were given a chance to retain their water rights.

What is happening t these ranchers, sounds a lot in principle like what happened to the farmers in the Klamath Basin back in 2001...except then, it was the Sucker Fish that the Feds used as the tool to deprive honest US citizens of their rights.

I cannot say that what Bundy’s son did was best...I am not there and directly involved...but I can say that people in this part of the country are sick and tired and full up of an ever encroaching federal government that creates reasons to go after anyone who will not toe their line.

I can also say that I took an oath to protect and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.

I have learned over the past 25+ years that that does not necessarily mean that someone rising up against encroachment of their rights is the enemy, nay, more likely the enemy is the ones encroaching those rights.

That same oath indicates that we bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution...and oft times that clause right there, when soberly considered, and faithfully followed, lets us know who is on what side of the constitutional line.

That’s what I did before driving over to become involved at Klamath. I suggest that is what people should do before determining where to side, and what to do in this instance.

So, before folks respond by either demonizing these people (which this article does not do), or trying to tell them what they should do (which in a sense this article does do)...folks should get all of the fact they can from sources they absolutely trust, because I can promise you, from my own experience, that the full story is not being told on CNN, ABS, NBC, CBS, etc. and that interviews are cut and edited and presented in the light that those organizations want them presented in.

Anyhow, get that information from the places you know you can trust, and then seriously consider the constitution and what you would do if placed in the situation these people are now in. Then decide.

I we do not do this, then we are very susceptible to responding in the wrong fashion and being led to stand against, or even fight against the very people we should be helping

Our founders did not want to rebel against England. They wanted to be good subjects. Â But a time came over decades, with many of the instances spread apart in time but not forgotten, when the encroachments on their rights were just too much...and so they rose up.

Out here in the west, as you know, the encroachments have been long standing and ever and ever more burdensome and more and more against the constitution.

I pray Godâ€™s wisdom to be with these people trying to stand against encroachments, and also with that Sheriff...that he will seek a peaceful and respectful solution that does not involve backing willy-nilly the federal agencies, or allowing them to come into his jurisdiction and ride rough shod over the people he had a duty to.

Anyhow...thought you should all know my take on this.

"I don't 'need' to do anything." - Hildy

Yes, you do. You need to cease advocating for violence against federal agents or buildings. Immediately.

"Right now I am more embarrassed about you than I am about the Bundy's." - Hildy

Ridiculous. You are misusing the word "embarrassed" because I'm advocating a sane path of current non-violence.

"I don't know, nor care what happens with Alabama militia wannabe's. I am talking about ranchers who are having their lives and land stolen from them." -Hildy

Everyone has lives and lots of people have land, Oregon and Alabama alike. You pretending that one is worth more than the other is distasteful and disrespectful. Perhaps you are just lashing out.

"You have idea how silly you sound." - Hildy

Well, let's see...the Hammonds have asked the Bundy's to stand down.

...and I'm asking you and the Bundy's to stand down.

But you want violence to begin to "support" the Hammond's, yet somehow I, not you, sound silly?!

Good grief.

Very interesting material from the Sipsey Street Irregulars, as regards the Ammon Bundy situation. Ping all, far and wide.

Boil all of this down and this is what we have left as our own demands, our own declaration, if you will:

1. Put the Feds on notice that as much as we disagree with the actions of these people, that the government has an absolute duty to see that the situation ends without violence. In the case of the Freemen, that took 81 days and involved outside negotiators (at least one of whom, Kirk Lyons, was a federal informant).

2. We must get across to the Feds that if they do not end this peacefully, if they go for a dynamic raid that gets people killed, that they will start a national conflagration that will be fought using the principles of Fourth Generation Warfare as adapted to an American civil war. War makers and decision takers, and not just SRT thugs, will put their own lives on the line in any conflict they start. No more free Wacos. Period.

3. We must insist that some outside negotiators try to work out a compromise between the occupiers and the authorities to facilitate a peaceful end to the standoff. (Of course this time it would be preferable if none of those negotiators was a federal snitch.)

4. We must declare that the Founders always looked upon the armed citizenry as the ultimate guarantors of liberty and safety and that by making these demands we are entirely consistent with their vision of a constitutional republic of limited powers and the rule of law.

We are prisoners of our principles, as originally enunciated by them. As much as we disagree with the occupiers and whatever motives they have, we cannot do otherwise. No more free Wacos.

(If you agree with this declaration, kindly pass it on.)
Mike Vanderboegh, PO Box 926, Pinson AL 35126
Founder, National Three Percent movement.

Addendum: If I didn’t make this clear in the above, let me make it plain. If you want to support the principle that Bundy and his followers are entitled to due process of law and to survive this confrontation of their own making, DO NOT ANSWER THE SIREN CALL AND GO THERE. Rather, get ready to fight in your own AOs, where you are strongest. If the occupiers are successful in their yearning for suicide by fed, the fight will in very short order come to you, as it will come to us all. Get ready. And do not neglect using every political lever open to influence everyone from the local sheriff and town councilmen to your congresscritters to exert every pressure on the regime to negotiate a peaceful end to this insanity.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.