More on guns

["Hunter Gray" <hunterbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Note by Hunterbear:

These are cordial firearms comments of mine to a very good person on another
list in the context of some agreement and some disagreement.  That person is
as informed and friendly -- as Leo Casey of ASDnet is ignorant and hostile.
Anyway, this -- to a genuinely good guy -- does serve to some extent to
answer Casey. But it deals with a far broader panorama as well.

As always, I [with no false modesty on this one] refer interested persons to
my now much reprinted article, "Civil Rights and Self-Defense," in the
always excellent socialist journal, Against the Current [July/August 1988]
http://www.hunterbear.org/liveissueshtm.htm


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>From Hunterbear:

I had my first firearm at seven -- but twelve isn't bad at all.  We
disagree -- obviously in a mutually friendly fashion. Your comments are sure
as hell well informed -- and that's a pleasant relief.

 Prior to my Southern experiences, I'd done a fair amount of activist stuff
in the Southwest -- and after the South, organized in many places.  Several
of those places, Seattle and Chicago and Rochester [NY], are obviously urban
areas of substantial size.  In Chicago, I directed for four years --
1969-73 -- grassroots community organization on the violent South/Southwest
side:  basically 28th southward down to 63d and from the Penn Central RR
tracks [and sometimes the Dan Ryan Expressway] on the east; then westward
across North Englewood to South Ashland and then ever-far westward.  We
worked mostly with Black and Puerto Rican and Chicano people -- and the few
Indians that were there -- and some Anglos. [On those experiences, here's a
link http://www.hunterbear.org/chicago_organizing.htm ]  All told, we helped
people organize over 300 block clubs and related groups in two large
umbrella organizations -- and we had to fight the Daley machine, the
Republicans, many police, racists, realtors, the corrupt  Back of the Yards
Council, and much more.

We were involved with police in three districts.  The 9th District was in
Daley's home turf and almost completely racist and its commander was a
personally and venomously vicious enemy.  The 7th was headed by a Black
commander and was essentially fine.  The 8th was almost all-Anglo but, in
time, we could do principled business with its commander who was reasonably
sophisticated and a fellow Catholic [so was Daley, too, sadly].  In all of
these instances -- good cops or bad -- it was very difficult for people to
get police protection fast.  It often took, even under the best of
circumstances, 20-30 minutes or longer for police to arrive.  Virtually
every family we knew, and we obviously knew a vast number, was armed for
protection -- and most were, quietly, in full non-compliance with the
relatively tough guns laws of Chicago and Illinois.  I had seen a version of
this in Seattle in 1967-68 and saw it after Chicago in Rochester in the
period from late 1976 into 1978.

I can cite many observational and personal examples of sensible armed
self-defense.  The fact that I have a number of firearms -- six big-bore
Western-style lever action rifles and one 10 gauge magnum single-barrel
shotgun -- and that we've let this be generally known, quietly and widely,
has been very important to our well-being here in Idaho.  Many of the people
around here are just fine -- and many others are not.

I do know that the Daley people certainly would have loved to disarm the
minority communities -- they probably still do -- and I doubt they are far
from alone.  And remember, Geronimo with only a handful of warriors held off
thousands of US military [and their gatling guns, etc] for many years; Tito
did very well in his partisan campaigns against the Nazis; and the Norwegian
resistance -- operating in a context where the Norwegians had dutifully
registered their firearms [a fact the Nazis very tangibly appreciated as
soon as they arrived], did very well in their guerilla campaigns.

I do think mine is a reasonable Marxist analysis. Guns in the hands of "the
masses" always make the bosses of all kinds very, very uneasy.  And after
this last 13 months or so in the "land of the free," and without becoming
intoxicated on romantic nonsense in any sense, I do honestly feel that there
is virtually nothing of nefarious nature that couldn't occur these days from
the Bushies and all of the comparable types.

Anyway, I much appreciate the cordiality of this exchange.

Take care and all best - Fraternally  Hunter

Hunter Gray  [Hunterbear]
www.hunterbear.org
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'



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