They Think That We Think Like They Think

FIRST HALF:  Royce reacts to a social media post that exemplifies the abject willful ignorance of the leftists regarding the 2nd Amendment and the Constitution in general, then expounds on how gun control has victimized untold millions and still does.

SECOND HALF: Royce tells the story of one of the contemporaries of our Founders, Tenche Coxe, who began as a Loyalist sympathizer but later, after witnessing the abuses that followed on the heels of the disarming of the colonists in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, became a staunch advocate for the right of the People to keep and bear arms, as well as an arms merchant.

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Transcript

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A little sidebar from the last episode. We were talking about Virginia, again,
and talking about some of the skullduggery going on there with the communists and the defiance of
many Commonwealth attorneys, prosecutors, and sheriffs. And,
of course, the communists are counterwalling about that and saying, you don't have the right to not
enforce this law. Well, actually, they most certainly do. They have the right to defy outright any
law that is flagrantly unconstitutional on its face, especially in light of multiple Supreme Court
rulings on that. So, yes, they do have that right. But we were talking about how the Virginia State
Police decided they were just going to go ahead and enforce those background checks, those private
sale background checks, anyway. In spite of a court order telling them explicitly,
you may not do this, but they basically flip their middle finger up at that court order and are
doing it anyway. But something struck me on the way to work today. I was thinking about this and I
was like, wait a minute. Why does this new law in Virginia mandate and require the state police?
to perform the background checks and not already established gun dealers or FFLs there in Virginia.
There's plenty of them there. I checked. Why is it that it must be run through the state police?
I think you probably already know the answer to this question, and that's probably because they're
building a registry. And they know they can't do that by simply allowing people to use such already
available services. they can only do that by utilizing the state police,
who obviously are more than happy to lend their power and authority in assistance to this tyranny,
which makes me say all of you people in Virginia need to view the state police with a very
jaundiced eye, and you watch them like a hawk, because they're obviously, what should I say,
morally compromised. They have no problem lending their power and authority to whomever is in
office. And that, my friends, my fellow keepers and bearers, is absolutely dangerous.
So, that's just something I'm throwing. out there there's probably other things that are going to
reveal themselves anyway soon and when they do well i'll share them with you now i'm going to
address a farce book post i mean facebook yeah by the way you can follow the shooting straight
radio podcast on facebook and matter of fact in honor of our 250th birthday i changed the shooting
straight radio podcast logo on social media
It's now got the stars and stripes incorporated with it. I think you'll like that.
It's only temporary, but it is in honor of our 250th. So follow the Shooting Straight Radio podcast
on Facebook, and I sure will appreciate it. I don't really post links to the podcast there because,
I mean, it's already on every podcast platform out there, save maybe one or two.
So you can find it anywhere. And it's just a lot more work for me to post them online on the social
media pages. And I appreciate your understanding that. But this is a post that I'm going to say the
man's name because he had no problem posting this publicly.
For public comment, he didn't turn off the comments to it. And so if he tries to sue me later,
well, he's going to have trouble with that. But his name is Gary Bitsikas, B-I-T-S-I-C-A-S.
And he's obviously somebody who's aligned with the commie mommies because on the profile picture,
not the profile picture, what's the other one? The other heading picture there, the long slim one.
He's pictured there with a bunch of the commie mommies, all wearing their little red commie shirts.
And so obviously the influence is coming from a familiar source, one of our familiar enemies,
an anti-rights organization, what I call the Civilian Disarmament Cartel,
actually one of many. And the commie mommies, the mommies demand action for gun sense in America.
Well, for one thing, if you don't know anything about firearms and you don't know anything about
their use and you don't know anything about ammunition, anything related to firearms.
then you really should shut your pie hole and not get yourself all engaged in anti-rights
activities, because that's exactly what you people are doing out there. So,
Mr. Gary Bitsikus, you put this out there for public comment, and because I didn't want to write
all this out on your post, you're welcome to it here, sir. But here's what he said.
Here's his statement. Pro-gun absolutists are one of the most bad-faith groups of people who keep
repeating the same lazy slogans. Shall not be infringed.
He's putting these in quotes as if these are our slogans. The Constitution limits government, not
people. Any regulation is tyranny. And then he says, okay, let's test those ideas.
Yes, let's do that indeed, Mr. Bitsicus. He says, then why does the Constitution literally limit
the people? It does? Where at? No examples in your post,
Mr. Bitsicus. The people are the final authority, according to the founders and their writings,
and also according to the Constitution. You know, the thing you're referencing here that you're
saying says that our rights are not absolute. Yeah,
I mean, the people are the final authority according to that document, sir. Now, where does it say
the people shall not do this or do that? Show me one place in the Constitution anywhere where they
prescribed limitations on the people. So, yes, let's test those ideas,
sir. It doesn't. You ask this really ridiculous question. Why does the Constitution literally limit
people? It doesn't, sir. Have you read it? Do you know what it is?
Do you know why it was written? Do you understand its purpose? Do you understand its scope?
Then he goes on to give some more examples. You can't commit fraud and claim the First Amendment.
You can't threaten a witness. You can't threaten anybody, sir, and claim the First Amendment.
You can't commit perjury and claim. the first amendment okay none of us said you could and besides
committing fraud or slander or threatening somebody or committing perjury are crimes of action sir
crimes of immoral action sir they're not crimes of possession as gun control laws uh basically
prescribe Yeah, just think about that for a second, especially considering that our founders
clearly said on more than one occasion that the Constitution is only fit to govern moral people.
Now, I paraphrased that, I know, but that's the truth. The Constitution is wholly,
completely inadequate to the governance of immoral people. Why? Well,
because immoral people... can't be governed by anybody but their own thought processes,
and they do what's right in their own eyes if there is no final authority. For me,
it's the Word of God. That's the final authority. That's the Bible. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. That is
it for me. And I can't find any clearer standard of behavior.
Now, all of you out there that hate the Ten Commandments being posted on courthouse walls or on
school board classrooms, classroom chalkboards or anything like that,
please tell me what you have against any of those commandments. Please tell me why you think any of
us should be allowed to violate them. Besides, of course, you don't want to put them up in the
halls of Congress because lying and stealing and cheating and committing murder kind of goes
against the political flow there. But what do you have against the moral law of God?
So, no one ever said that the overstepping and the abuse of our rights was...
It was okay. It was lawful. None of us think that, sir. Apparently, you think that we think like
you think. Then he said, you can't own a nuclear weapon and claim the Second Amendment.
Okay, how many U.S. citizens own nuclear weapons, sir? And why the...
flagrantly foolish hyperbole you're employing here. Why just go right to nukes?
Funny you didn't mention machine guns, because deep down inside, I think you understand that we the
people have every right to own them.
When has any pro-Constitution citizen or pro-Second Amendment citizen ever lobbied for civilians
to own nuclear weapons, sir. Frankly, I don't think any government on the face of the earth should
own them, and yes, I believe that includes our own. Well, Royce, you know, it got us out of World
War II. I understand that, and I'm all for that. But since then, well,
I think... I'm going to leave that right there before I run a rabbit trail that takes me way off
track here. He then says, yeah, you can't search my house without a warrant and claim the Fourth
Amendment. Well, no kidding, idiot. The Fourth Amendment was designed to stop such a thing,
the searching of houses without a warrant, because the British did that to the colonists.
Do you understand that, sir? He said, yeah, the Constitution limits. Government power,
absolutely. That's one of its primary purposes. Okay.
I thank you for the admission there. I think you just walked yourself into a trap,
though. You just essentially agreed with shall not be infringed.
That's what you did. You just said the Constitution limits government power, absolutely.
Okay. Part of that power is the government has no power or right to infringe the right of the
people to keep and bear arms for war. And if your post is still up tomorrow,
sir, I'm going to send you a link to this program so you can take issue with it if you like. But
you just agree with it. Yes, the Constitution does limit the government. I understand. Okay,
well, where it says shall not be infringed means exactly that. Just like Congress shall make no law
respecting the establishment of any religion. You can't establish one religion over the others,
even though our founders clearly said that we're a Christian nation built on Bible-centered
Christianity. But they never said that there would be a state religion that mandated everybody
become a Christian if they didn't want to. That's why we left England in the first place. You
understand that, right? The Second Amendment limits the government,
sir, from infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms for war. So apparently you do
agree with that. Or don't you? You can't do both. Do you really believe the government has the
right to limit the possession of firearms? And you kind of claim here that the Constitution
limiting government is one of its primary purposes. Well, it's actually the only purpose of the
Constitution. It's designed to establish a government that is limited in its power and it was to be
in subjection to the people. How much of the Constitution and the writings of the founders did you
ever read prior to posting this on Farcebook? Then he says,
but the Constitution has never been interpreted to mean that constitutional rights are unlimited.
Well, actually, yes, it absolutely does. It was indeed originally interpreted to mean exactly that,
and our rights absolutely are unlimited when practiced morally.
The only thing keeping people from abusing their rights is morality,
a personal morality. and not to mention a healthy fear of the consequences in so doing.
But you cannot slander somebody like you said. I'm in total agreement with you,
sir. Absolutely, totally in agreement. And you are kind of intimating here that we keepers and
bearers are somehow abusing our God-given blood-bought rights by owning firearms that you don't
like us possessing. Here's the thing, Mr. Bitsicus.
Essentially, your rights end where someone else's rights begin.
Let me explain. I have the right to own firearms. I have the right to speak freely.
But I don't have the right to immorally, unlawfully slander anybody or threaten them with a firearm
or threaten them with my words. And if I use... my right,
if I use my firearms for anything but defensive force, then I have crossed the line and I am then
violating the rights of others, their rights to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness by putting them in fear of their life. You understand now?
You understand now that my right ends where the rights of others begin.
As long as I'm not imposing my will on other people, then I'm within the moral confines of the law.
Got it? But again, sir, those are crimes of action,
not possession. You're conflating the two. I have the right to possess any arm that I want,
up to and including an F-35 or anything else, even a ballistic missile. Yeah,
I'm not talking about nuclear. If I can afford and own cruise missiles,
I wouldn't know why I would ever need one, but I have the right. I have the right to own a tank,
a Bradley fighting vehicle, a 20mm Gatling gun. Oh, those things are beautiful.
Better yet, how about the 30mm Gatling guns that they put in the nose of those A-10s?
Oh, baby, that would be something. I have the right to own that. You know why? Because my actions
with those things are constrained. by my morality and by my fear of the consequences I would
undoubtedly face. You see, that's why crime drops where keepers and bearers flourish.
When you've got the citizenry arming themselves against the bad people, those bad people begin to
realize that their actions have consequences, and those consequences just might be deadly for them,
and they might be terminal and very... Final, okay? Now,
conversely, the government, sir, is the only entity that really thinks they have the right to use
their guns aggressively and as an offensive force,
unlike us and our defensive force. And the founders wanted the people to have the power to employ
defensive force whenever that may happen. but simply owning the firearms of my choice as long as
I'm not abusing them or using them to terrorize my neighbors or to injure them or to kill them or
to harm their livestock, whatever. There's absolutely nothing that you,
the government, or anybody else can say about that. Then he says the Supreme Court has repeatedly
ruled that every constitutional right has boundaries. Okay.
I'm not against that. Again, our rights and the free exercise thereof are encapsulated within the
bounds of our own morality. Maybe it's the fact that you guys are so immoral,
you Democrats are so immoral, that you think that we think like you think. He referenced District
of Columbia versus Heller, then McDonald versus City of Chicago.
I think I might have said it right the first time, that Freudian slip. New York State Rifle and
Pistol Association Incorporated versus Bruin in 2022. Yeah,
I like the fact that you referenced those cases because I'm not really a fan of some of the
verbiage that came out in those rulings. And you've heard me reference that here before.
I'm saying that to my listeners. But let me just say this, sir. Just because the Supreme Court said
that there are certain limitations on the types of guns people could own, doesn't mean they're
right. The Supreme Court once upheld and they once ruled in favor of slavery and the even upheld
laws that demanded the return of runaway slaves. You want to tell me that just because it came from
the decision and the gavel of the Supreme Court that it therefore is the final authority?
Not on your life. The Constitution is the final authority and the people for whom it was written to
protect. The Constitution said otherwise, in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court said slavery
was essentially okay by upholding laws that basically practiced it.
And because the Constitution said otherwise, here in America,
we fought a very bloody internal war. at the cost of three-quarters of a million American lives,
just to rectify that, and we used arms for war to do it,
sir. Arms that were commonly owned by untold numbers of Americans at that time.
Not to mention the fact, I want you to think about this also, were it not for American civilians
owning and using military arms of war, we would never have even been a nation to begin with.
Then he comes up with this doozy. So the question remains, why are you still claiming this blatant
lie? We're not claiming a blatant lie, sir. You're putting words in our mouths and you're saying we
think a certain way when we don't think that way. And the reason I say again,
that you think we think like that is because you think like that.
I guess the real question is. Why are you so ignorant of our supreme law and its intent?
Why are you so ignorant of our history, sir? Here's another question. Do you really believe that
people in government and law enforcement are cut from a higher moral fabric than the rest of the
citizenry? Tell me something here, Gary Baby. Who is responsible for all the genocides throughout
history? Was it armed citizens? or armed governments.
Here's a quote from one of our founders that I left as a response to this ignorant post,
and it's one you've heard me say here and quote here on the program before. Well, actually, I
didn't quote it. I have to read it because I don't have enough memory space up in my brain anymore.
I can't delete all the junk files up there. But here it is, Mr. Bitsicus. This is Mr.
Tinchcox. writing in the Pennsylvania Gazette back in February 20th of 1788.
Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves, in other words, we the people?
Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms, each man, against his own bosom?
Congress has no power, in other words, no constitutional authority, because of limits prescribed
therein, sir. Congress has no power to disarm the militia,
in other words, the people. Their swords and every other terrible implement of the soldier are the
birthright of an American. The unlimited power of the sword,
sir, did you hear that? The unlimited power of the sword,
that is, the war arms of a soldier,
So the truth is here, Gerber, if you Democrat communists would simply stop shooting people that you
disagree with or want to rob or kill, your fabricated boogeyman known as gun violence would die
overnight. And the reason, again, I say that you think we're so dangerous and untrustworthy of
keeping and bearing arms is because you think that we think like you think,
and you, Democrats, have no problem busting caps on your political enemies.
That's just the bottom line, sir. The thing is, gun control,
has produced far more victims in this country than so-called gun violence.
That's the bottom. That's the truth, sir. Gun control has produced and is still producing.
untold numbers of victims here in the United States, and many of them are victims of the government
who bypassed the boundaries that were set for them by the supreme law that you claim does indeed
limit government. The government stepped outside of those boundaries, began to pass laws they were
not allowed to pass, and in so doing, they have created, again, untold numbers of victims of gun
control. First of all, I want you to think about something. Here's a list of all the gun control
victims and all of them that are included in that category. All the people that have been
slaughtered in every major genocide since firearms were invented. You know they were all disarmed
first, right? That also includes those who have been prosecuted by their state for owning and or
carrying firearms without the state's permission. And that was after the state violated the Second
and Fourteenth Amendment, which, again, you admit the Constitution that you referenced forbade them
from doing. You did admit that it limits government, right? Well,
all those state governments that violate the Second and Fourteenth Amendments of our Supreme Law,
Bypassing those laws are daily, on a daily basis, creating victim after victim after victim of gun
control. That is government excess. This also includes those who have been prosecuted for defending
themselves with an unregistered firearm in places like New Jersey,
New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland. Illinois, California,
Oregon, so on and so forth, all the other communist-occupied territories. This also includes those
who have been left defenseless by gun control and preyed upon, robbed,
raped, murdered by evil people who committed their criminal acts without any fear of any armed
resistance, and that includes all of the aforementioned territories and gun-free zones.
This also includes people whose lives are lived in constant fear of both the criminals and the
police because of gun control. Let me explain. Have you ever noticed in all the heavily gun
-controlled areas that the cost of living is exponentially higher than the freer areas of the
nation? Why would that be? Because the thieving parasites in their governments...
also enjoy plundering and looting them with ridiculously high taxes,
service fees, property taxes, income taxes,
and other theft schemes disguised as so-called government services.
The thing is, those parasites also use law enforcement to enforce their policies so the people...
the police if they try to freely exercise their God-given rights that are being violated by all
the illegal laws, and they fear the enforcement of those policies and laws against them.
So that's what's happening in all of these heavily gun-controlled areas,
Mr. Bitsicus. And after all, what the heck is anybody going to do about it,
huh? Well, what the heck can they do about it, sir?
They've been disarmed. That's what the problem is there. We're going to take a brief commercial
timeout, and we're going to come back, and we're going to talk about Mr. Tenchcox,
who made that statement from the Pennsylvania Gazette that I read a few minutes ago,
not to mention other statements like this one where he says, as civil rulers not having their duty
to the people before them may attempt to tyrannize New York. Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, et al., and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to
defend our country might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens,
the people are confirmed by the article, that is the Second Amendment,
in their right to keep and bear their private arms. Go look up the word arms,
Mr. Bitsicus, while we take this brief commercial timeout. When we come back, we're going to look
at a little bit of a brief smattering of the biography of Mr. Tinchcox, and it's going to be very
eye-opening for anybody that decides to listen, including Mr. Bitsicus. So,
don't go anywhere. We've got a lot more to go here on Shooting Straight, not to mention the fact
that all the listener retention squads are on standby.
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create your musical identity. Thank you. Welcome back to the program.
We were talking about, before the break, some of the quotes made by one Tench Cox,
one of our founders, one of the people who was one of the... What should I say?
One of the masterminds. Well, I don't know if we say mastermind, but certainly somebody who was
very influential in the founding of this country. He had some very...
grand thoughts that he put to pen in regards to the people being armed.
And so we're going to take a look at his life, at his biography, so to speak. And a lot of this I
pulled down offline. I did some cross-checking to make sure that it wasn't bull fertilizer as much
as I could. And if any of this sounds familiar to anybody out there, because I'm going to be
reading snippets of it. And if you want to claim ownership of it, please do. But I don't have any
name to ascribe to a lot of the notes that I took here from some of the online info.
And I actually pulled this off, I don't know how many years ago. And it's been sitting in my note
pile. I said, you know what? We need to talk about this. And this is the perfect time.
large role in public affairs during colonial times. Actually, his great grandfather named Daniel
Cox was actually a physician to King Charles II and to Queen Anne,
and he never actually came over to America. But Tench, his great grandson,
was the 20-year-old son of a merchant who lived in Philadelphia. And it's been during that time,
he was there during that time when the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775.
And Cox's company actually had a thriving business and they catered largely to loyalists,
believe it or not, and to the British Army back when the British occupied Philadelphia.
And this was a business that, as he said, would not have been possible if the British military
commanders had decided to not allow it because they were greatly restricting businesses they did
not like or approve of, anything they found to be a threat. After Patriots took power there in
Pennsylvania, Cox actually left Philadelphia for a few months, but he came back when General Howe,
British General Howe, occupied that city back in September of 1777.
And Cox remained there in Philadelphia after the British left in 1778,
and at that time... of the patriots there very credibly accused him of having royalist sympathies,
and that's understandable. They were his bread and butter. And they accused him of serving in the
British Army also, even though it was later, there were Pennsylvania militia records from 1780 and
87 and 88 that listed Tinch Cox as a militia private. So not all those accusations were
substantiated. had a lot of trading success during that period of British occupation,
and that certainly did lend credibility to the charges against him.
Nothing ever really came from those charges and allegations, and the Revolutionary War ended before
Cox ever even became active in politics. But... Whatever his attitude may have been during the
first part of the revolution in Pennsylvania, the events of that war seem to have eventually had an
influence on his political philosophy. Because most of what he wrote later about the connection
between guns and arms for war and freedom... was very consistent with what was described as the
revolutionary patriot philosophy. Here's an example. Cox,
like the delegates, not delegates, delegates. I don't know why I may not sound like delegates,
but the delegates who created Pennsylvania's 1776 constitution and like other of his fellow
patriots there in revolutionary Pennsylvania, they saw a direct connection between the right to
hunt and the strength of the militia as a check against tyranny and despotism.
Now, at some point, Mr. Cox saw freedom and tyranny in the light of reality as many of us have seen
it today. And it obviously had a very profound effect on him because when the British occupied
Philadelphia there in 1778, he saw that...
General Howe had disarmed the population and he saw what resulted from that and the tyranny
inflicted upon the citizenry there by the soldiers and General Howe. And as reported there in the
Philadelphia newspapers, General Gage had done the exact same thing in Boston to the citizens there
back in 1775. And it's not really... Nothing written affirmatively about how Cox had viewed or
reacted to all that disarmament at the time. His writings later on were definitely much more
closely aligned with the political philosophy of very strong and some might even say vehement
opposition to firearms confiscation that all the patriots of that time very definitely openly
expressed there in Philadelphia because they were the ones that were on the receiving end of that
disarmament. Now, when the war for independence ended, Cox had actually formed the international
merchant firm of Cox and Frazier. He was a co-owner of that business and he started taking an
interest in political reformation. Because I'm sure he saw the necessity of it, just like we see
the necessity of it today. But in addition to playing a very leading role in what was called the
Philadelphia Society for alleviating the miseries of public prisons, Tinch Cox served as the
secretary of the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the abolition of slavery.
As a matter of fact, Benjamin Franklin was the president. of that particular society.
Now, in 1786,
Tinch Cox represented Pennsylvania by serving as the secretary for what was known as the Annapolis
Convention, and that was an effort intended to revise the Articles of Confederation,
which eventually set the stage for the Constitutional Convention the following year.
And Cox was appointed to represent Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress.
Now, firearms, guns, cannons, and other things like that were just some of the items and some of
the commodities that the firm of Cox and Frazier dealt in.
And there was a record, a sample of business records from the year of 1786 that illustrated the
company's involvement in the firearms businesses and also reflected what was known at the time as
the politico-military conditions at that time. And like it or not,
that's pretty much what all, what should I say, strong political movements are.
They're politico-military. You don't believe me? Look at the socialists today. I mean, you look at
the Antifa. They're the military wing of the Democrat Communist Party. Now, some of the New York
militia companies during that time did not have and did not possess sufficient rifles.
Actually, there weren't rifles back then. There were the muskets, the smoothbore. And they used a
common bore size. And he noted that the New York militia companies did not have them.
They ordered 200 stands of those arms, which is, I don't know how many was in a stand,
but they ordered them from his firm. Excuse me. The state of Georgia ordered up to 500 stands of
firearms for the Georgia State Militia. And there was a distributor in the South that observed how
dangerous the conditions were in the Deep South. And he made this comment.
He says, you apprehend, they will want them for there is scarcely a doubt, but they will be engaged
in an Indian war. In other words, against the Native Americans. If they should not purchase,
we apprehend this state of South Carolina will. In other words, we'll purchase them.
And a Northern distributor also ordered guns from Cox's firm.
And he also noted, that the people were arming themselves during a time of great political
instability. And that was how they responded to it. You know, a lot like how the state of Virginia
is doing today. Gun sales are off the charts in Virginia right now. Why?
Political instability, which is created by the Democrat communists who are in power right now.
And the Northern distributor made this comment. He said, the present uneasiness in Massachusetts,
Shays' Rebellion, has caused a great demand for muskets, in consequence of which we have disposed
of about 300 of yours, your guns, with bayonets at $3 each.
Well, that's roughly $115 today.
Just like a lot of other people of that day that were in the firearms business,
in the guns business, he also built firearms for private purchase by the citizens.
And these were sold actually in Massachusetts, which of course we know today would be anathema.
And he sold them also to state militias like Georgia and also in New York.
But not only that, but he sold them to local militia groups in New York also. Now,
you can imagine that would be met with very indignant howls from the commie mommies today. You know
it. But in 1788, Tinch Cox was actually one of Pennsylvania's last delegates.
He served there as one of their last delegates to the Continental Congress. which held its final
session early the following year. And in my notes here, it says,
and as a compromise with the Constitution's opponents who agreed not to oppose the Constitution
further, many Federalists reversed their opposition to a Bill of Rights in order to entice the
remaining states to ratify it. If you're not familiar with the contention against the Bill of
Rights, Simply read the writings of the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers.
Yes, one wanted a strong federal government, and the other did not want a strong federal
centralized government. That's understandable. Look what that has become today.
But you've heard me reference Federalist Paper number 46. Have a read, because that was...
I believe James Madison writing under the... or the pen name Publius or Publius,
however you pronounce that. And his contention was, hey, as long as they can all keep and bear
arms, it doesn't matter if there's a centralized federal government because if the federal
government picks a fight with them, the people could easily overwhelm them as long as they are
bearing arms for war. That's what it boiled down to.
Now, In 1790, you remember the character Alexander Hamilton,
yes, who apparently got into a, I think, was he the one that got into a duel with Aaron Burr?
I don't remember. Anyway, he was the Treasury Secretary, and he appointed Cox as the Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury, and he made him his right hand,
his second-in-command, Hamilton's second-in-command. And just a couple of years later,
and this was done at Tench Cox's request, Hamilton made him the commissioner of the revenue.
And as commissioner of the revenue, he was in charge of collecting all of the tax revenues.
Uh-oh, here we go. Oh my goodness, this guy was a patriot and he was collecting taxes? Well,
some taxes, of course, are necessary, but only if they are for the good of the people.
Leave that right there. But that included the revenues from the federal excise tax that was
inspired by Alexander Hamilton on distilled spirits. And that's what provoked the whiskey rebellion
in Western Pennsylvania back in 1794. Now, there's really no evidence that Cox supported the tax.
There was nothing he ever said or wrote.
And that tax was said to have really hurt a lot of the Western farmers and also in his state of
Pennsylvania because they needed to distill their grain before taking it to market in order to make
it more compact and more easily transported. He strongly opposed the Western Pennsylvania farmers
taking up arms in protest against the tax. And now some of you right now are gnashing your teeth
and saying, well, he's nothing but a Tory. Well, listen and listen carefully because he also had a
strong sense of the rule of law and constitutional process.
Now, a lot of people have criticized him and people who criticize the individual rights.
dogma, the interpretation of the Second Amendment, they often claim that the Second Amendment
basically implies that people can go to war with the government whenever they disagree with any
government tax or any decision by the government that they don't like, and that's simply not true.
And he, Tenchcox, refuted that because even though he very clearly believed in the individual right
to bear arms, he said so, and we're going to read some more of his stuff in a minute. He just as
clearly stated that he believed that it was wrong for the Pennsylvania farmers to take up arms
against a lawful tax that had been duly created through the proper constitutional channels.
Now, think about this. That's the exact same reason that we the people today have yet to take up
arms against the ATF or the government for their enforcement of a constitutionally repugnant
taxation on the right to keep and bear arms for war. Arms that we have every right to,
but we have yet to take up arms against them, and I do believe that's because...
of us do understand that it was put in place by constitutional process. That creates a hiccup for
us. You've got to keep that in mind. Now, he continued to support the right to keep and bear arms,
and especially as a, what should I say,
a mechanism for allowing revolt against the government as a last resort.
against tyranny, and I believe all of us believe that same principle. It is a last resort,
but Mr. Cox, like most Americans today, he could tell the difference between a tyrant and George
Washington, if you know what I mean. He knew the difference. He had been and lived under The
tyrants there in Pennsylvania under General Howe and General Thomas there.
And I think he was in Massachusetts. I'm not sure. Yes, he was. General Thomas was in
Massachusetts. But like today, whenever federal taxes are way higher than the taxes that sparked
the Whiskey Rebellion. the overwhelming majority of Americans, including those of us who support
Tench Cox's understanding of the Second Amendment, we would agree that a tax that's
constitutionally imposed by Congress is really not grounds for a Second Amendment uprising and
revolution to protect the Constitution. So while he was serving in President Washington's
administration, Mr. Cox wrote a... book analyzing the future of the American economy.
And it was called A View of the United States of America. And the book was a very prominent work of
that time of commerce and industry and agriculture. And it earned a modern reprint,
matter of fact, because it was such a comprehensive and thorough and insightful treatise and
examination. of American economic development at that time. As a matter of fact,
a lot of the principles in it could be easily applied today. Now, his growing alignment with Thomas
Jefferson and other Republicans, that ended up causing him to be dismissed from office by President
John Adams in 1797. Come on, Royce, read your notes.
And he then... himself in political activity that supported the Republicans and their causes.
And everybody that adhered to those principles of the day.
claimed to be suffering under the repression of the Sedition Act within a year,
actually. And he closely associated himself with the Philadelphia Aurora, which was the leading
newspaper of that time. And by about the middle of 1799, according to the accounts in this paper,
that paper, I should say, armed conflict, armed skirmishes between Federalists and Republicans was
a very real possibility. I mean, you talk about people that were at each other's throats,
they absolutely were. And this newspaper, The Aurora, published many reports about bullying between
these two factions and people brandishing weapons and rioting by soldiers of the Federalist
faction. So, you understand, freedom has never been. a soft,
easy ride. It has always been a tumultuous thing. There has always been contention.
There has always been some people that think the government's supposed to supply our every need and
keep us from cradle to grave, and that's just not the case. That has always been an issue in this
country. Now, in retaliation, to Tinch Cox writing these things about these accounts,
there was a mob of what was called federal savages that actually attacked and beat the Dickens out
of one of the editors of the Aurora. His name was William Dwayne. And because of the mob's threat
to burn the press down, There are reports, and I quote, a number of Republican citizens collected
arms and ammunition and they continued to mount a guard in the printing office.
So they surrounded the printing office and they were protecting, wittingly or not, the freedom of
the press. So they were under arms protecting the right of the people and the right of the free
press. The same issue. of the Aurora that had those reports of all that also included an article
that Tinchcox had signed. And it was an urgent appeal addressed to the Republican citizens of
Pennsylvania, quote unquote. And the article very plainly expressed the premises.
upon which the Republican, what do you call it, the doctrine or their principles, was founded on.
And listen to this, because this was what Mr. Cox wrote. But as men intent upon hostility have
associated themselves in military corps, it becomes your duty to associate likewise.
In other words, when you see them guys picking up their arms, it behooves you to do the same thing.
He said, arm and organize yourselves immediately. Do you wish to preserve your rights?
Arm yourselves. Do you desire to be secure in your dwellings?
Arm yourselves. Do you wish your wives and daughters to be protected? Arm yourselves.
Do you wish to be defended against assassins or the bully rocks of faction? Arm yourself.
Do you desire to assemble in security to consult for your own good or the good of your country?
Then arm yourselves. To arms, to arms, and you may then sit down contented each man under his own
vine and his own fig tree and have no one to make him afraid.
And that, my friends, is the crux of keeping and bearing arms right there.
People ask me, what are you afraid of? Well, nothing when I'm armed. I'm trained. I train all the
time. I still train. I put myself through ridiculous amounts of ammo. And that's fine with me.
But I am not afraid as long as I have a firearm. What if the bad guy has a gun?
I pity him. That's just the bottom line. Unless he's as trained as I am, he's not going to fare
very well. I am not afraid. because I am armed, and I can handle anything,
any threat, up to and including life-threatening, because I am armed.
He finished the comment with this. If you are desirous to counteract a design pregnant with misery
and ruin, then arm yourselves, for in a firm, imposing,
and dignified attitude, will consist your own security and that of your families.
To arms, then. To arms. My friends,
this is the spirit that has kept we the people from waxing violent against our government in spite
of a long train of abuses, but yet also at the same time compels us all to remain armed with
weapons capable of defending ourselves against our own government. And Mr.
Bitsicus, I hope you're listening to this because this is the crux of why we keep and bear arms.
So the demonstrably false hyperbole, sir, of you and our other detractors and those of you who are
loyalist to the government above all things, what some people might call a bootlicker,
is proven. daily to be nothing but a false contrivance.
That's really all it is. At the same time, it keeps our government from overrunning us in their own
despotic designs. That, sir, and that, my fellow keepers and bearers,
is the crux of why we keep and bear arms so that no one and no entity can ever make us afraid as
long as we have a right. to keep ourselves from being taken by those designs.
And that's just the bottom line. So you stay in contact with your reps. You stay armed up.
You stay trained up. And never forget, incoming rounds always have the right of way.
Royce out.