Sic Semper Tyrannis


(Click to enlarge [Hat tip: WRSA])

I’m in a cheerful mood this evening after reading the local news. As you can see from the map above, the deplorable rural hinterlands of Virginia, where citizens cling bitterly to guns and religion, have voted overwhelmingly to declare their localities 2nd Amendment Sanctuaries.

I don’t know Pulaski and Montgomery well enough to venture an opinion, but I expect Franklin, Prince Edward, Lunenberg, and Amelia to follow suit when their boards of supervisors vote.

Virginia turned blue last month because the banlieues of The Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy (Northern Virginia) — and to a lesser extent Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Richmond — are packed to the gills with millions of Yankees and foreigners. But it’s different out here in the boonies, where the memory of our ancient liberties is still fresh. After all, it was Virginia’s most famous son, Thomas Jefferson, who said: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

The local papers are the best place to keep up with news on such topics. As you know, I’ve been reading The Farmville Herald online lately. I’ve maxed out the number of articles I can access without paying for a subscription, so I can’t give you all the interesting links. However, here’s a snip from an article by the redoubtable Alexa Massey about the vote by the Cumberland County Board of Supervisors a couple of days ago:

Sanctuary resolution adopted

by Alexa Massey

At the Dec. 10 Cumberland County Board of Supervisors meeting the board voted unanimously, 3-0, to pass a resolution declaring Cumberland County to be a Second Amendment sanctuary. District Two Supervisor Lloyd Banks was not present at the meeting and therefore did not participate in the vote.

The full resolution is as follows:

WHEREAS, the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” and,

WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), affirmed an individual’s right to possess firearms, unconnected with service in a militia, for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home, and

WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court in McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010), affirmed that the right of an individual to “keep and bear arms,” as protected under the Second Amendment, is incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment against the states, and

[…]

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Supervisors of Cumberland County Virginia:

That the Cumberland Board of Supervisors hereby declares Cumberland County, Virginia, as a “Second Amendment sanctuary,” and

That the Cumberland Board of Supervisors hereby expresses its intent to uphold the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of Cumberland County, Virginia, and

That the Cumberland Board of Supervisors hereby expresses its intent that public funds of the county not be used to restrict the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of Cumberland County, or to aid federal or state agencies in the restriction of said rights, and

That the Cumberland Board of Supervisors hereby declares its intent to oppose any infringement on the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms using such legal means as may be expedient, including, without limitation, court action.

That really warms my heart. And the description of the response by the crowd attending the meeting provides additional inspiration:

Board Chairman and District Five Supervisor Parker Wheeler asked before the vote occurred for all audience members who agreed with the resolution to stand up and raise their hand in order to show their support. The majority of the crowd of more than 200 got to their feet.

After seeing the group rise to their feet, District Three Supervisor Kevin Ingle asked how a state with so many individuals in full support of the Second Amendment could be represented and governed by a small group that decide to “look the other way and vote the other way.”

Notice what Matthew Fariss, a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates, wrote in an editorial last week:

It’s important to realize that Virginia is a Dillon Rule state. That means that local governments can’t override state laws.

I beg to differ, Mr. Fariss. Localities don’t even have to override state laws. If those laws contradict the Constitution of the United States, then they override themselves from the moment they are passed.

They are null and void. They cannot stand.

The Constitution is the law of the land. It cannot be gainsaid by the mere vote of a state legislature. Anyone who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution — which includes all sheriffs and local officials — is not obligated to enforce any such unconstitutional law. And, more to the point, it is his sworn duty to refuse to enforce such a law.

The right to keep and bear arms is a God-given right. The Constitution simply affirmed it in writing.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Yes, I know a lot of the sheriffs and local politicians will fold like cheap card tables if Governor Coonman ever calls up the National Guard against them, or, God forbid, brings in the Feds.

But not all of them. And there are many thousands of patriotic citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia who are well-armed and well-trained, and will resist in an organized fashion any encroachment on their Second Amendment rights. And if the governor sics the state police on them, it could get pretty dicey — it’s hard to predict how all the ensuing nastiness would shake out.

But, anyway… Right now, for this brief moment, I’m in a good mood.

I’m proud to be a Virginian.

38 thoughts on “Sic Semper Tyrannis

  1. I would hope that individual state and federal agents of various sorts would hesitate before wading into a dispute where they are so obviously the ‘bad guys’, but then who can tell, everyone is so brainwashed these days.

    Virginia must have been in a very similar state 250 years ago!

  2. One would think that having narrowly avoided being skinned in the press and his own party for the sin of putting on blackface, Coonman would decide to play it safe and lay low for a while. I don’t understand why he would be pursuing something guaranteed to so strongly antagonize so much of the electorate.

    Calling out the National Guard would be a very dangerous game, and one which I think he would lose. With such broad opposition to 2nd Ammendment infringment outside the cities, I think there would be many officers who refused to follow unlawful orders, and soldiers who refused to carry them out. I just don’t see it turning into a shooting war between the military or anyone else ordered to do so by Governor Coonman and patriots residing in the rural areas that make up most of the state.

    • He’s doing exactly what TPTB want and expect him to do, it gives him cover for the sins of his youth

  3. In all sympathy, it is the belief that this was “god-given” which fails for the same reasons that the other side’s beliefs are failing them. The Jefferson quote actually contains this quite clearly.

      • You understood not, or chose to not understand (relating to my understanding; I make no assumptions how you understand nature.)

        Liberty is an achievement. It is the result of a process of emancipation, with or without violence involved. “God-given” is a label you can put on anything to shield it from criticism or debate. Islam considers different values as “god-given” than we do. Communism considers different values as “god-given” than we do (eschewing the word “god” but treating the subject in the same way.) Do y0u see where this is going? Either you accept the existence of different, conflicting “gods”, or none.

        There is, however, but one truth. Regardless of how much of it is as yet unknown to us. And this is the logical way to read the First Commandment, by turning it around and asking: What is it, which must be believed under all circumstances? Answer: The truth. If you deny truth, there will be inevitable consequences. It doesn’t require an entity equipped with volition to exact these consequences. God is a metaphor for truth, not the other way around.

        As for understanding what the term “religion” means, here is a compilation of how it changed over time:
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religio

        How does all this relate to the above — the Jefferson quote, as well as other expressions from America’s Founding Fathers’ context, e.g. Franklin’s “liberty…safety”, express aptly that it is entirely a human struggle regardless of their own faith.

        • I do not expect the God-less to understand Liberty, which is an innate condition of man, insured by the salvation incumbent upon faith in the Lord our Savior, Jesus Christ.

          Galatians 5 New King James Version (NKJV)

          Christian Liberty

          5 Stand[a] fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is [b]a debtor to keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love…

          • I agree that there is but one Truth:

            John 14 New King James Version (NKJV)

            The Way, the Truth, and the Life

            14 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many [a]mansions; if it were not so, [b]I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

            5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”

            6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

          • It doesn’t matter. People build their identities around such idiosyncrasies which makes it impossible to argue. The fellow above made an insinuation about mine though which triggered a need for clarification.

            What matters is, can you coexist with others who don’t share your creed, i.e. will you delegate judgement to whatever higher power you subscribe to, or is there an overpowering urge to take it upon yourself. That is a defining pillar of liberty.

  4. Baron- congratulations to you and your fellow Virginians on a tremendous victory. We tried to do something similar a few years ago in my NY county but the poltroons who run the place were too cowardly to move the gun protections forward. It looks like there’s hope for your state.

    Also, I was sorry to hear that you don’t have enough money for a subscription to the local paper! I will send you a little donation and I hope that other loyal readers and supporters will do likewise. The service that you do for Freedom and Liberty is priceless. The least we can do is try to help whenever possible.

    Thanks very much, as always.

    • Thank you for the offer, but the Herald is NOT my local paper! I just like to read it when the news is significant in its area of coverage. I like it better than the Richmond or Charlottesville papers.

      Farmville’s not too far away, but it’s not my local town.

  5. The derp state bureaucRATS think that the swamp has their back.
    That kind of detachment from reality will get you in trouble out in the real world.
    You bet they look down on the kulak untermenschen deplorables and can’t wait to exact revenge for their 2016 vote.

  6. It would seem that Virginians ‘stick to their guns’ once they’ve made up their minds. I wish the rest of us were as resolute and willing to stand for what is right in the face of unwarranted opposition.

  7. The democrats started the sanctuary anti-law movement and now it is being used against them by people who are citizens and not illegal aliens. This sanctuary business is bad because we are supposed to be ruled by the law and not the arbitrariness of a monarch.

  8. The only way this makes sense is : it is part of a bigger plot. Consider 2020 election as an apex event in the 4th turning (2008-2028) and Trumps landslide will be the catalyst as this election is spiked by the CIA (based in VA?) due to Russia interference. They absolutely can not have armed citizens traveling to adjacent DC to arrest and remove these cheaters when they nullify 2020 elections. This is the only reason they would push disarming citizens in VA, they know it creates a beachhead so they can take over later with less resistance from locally armed militia types …you can laugh, or discount what I’m saying but every 80 years in a cycle we get wars, these CIA backed actors never thought Trump would win, do you think they will just let him win again? They aren’t going to let fair elections happen again if it means civil war/ they don’t care.

    …and you all know these globalists aren’t going to just hang themselves!

    • The Fourth Turning is a very thought-provoking book and I recommend it to every one I know with more than a couple of brain cells.

      As far as catalysts go, there are so many possibilities that it is a toss-up to which will happen first. If you had asked me five years ago I would have said financial collapse, which it very well might be. However, population replacement of Europe by the dregs of Africa and the islamic paradises of the Middle East is likely to provoke a violent response by native European populations and brutal counter-suppression from the elite governments that have rammed this down their throats like a foie gras producing goose. I believe what is happening in Virginia is likely just overreach by a foolish governor or at most a trial balloon by the Deep State.

    • Maryland has already passed non-Constitutional gun bans/registration. Although the compliance rate has been minuscule, there has been No Action by the Citizens to publicly rebuke the commie ‘legislators.’ I think you are on to something about how the Swamp is now trying this in Virginia, as these are the two states that surround it. The State Police are reliable thugpigs for the ‘corporation’ .gov, as was shown during the Charlottesville Incident. I won’t be surprised if Bracken’s thoughts of a ‘false flag’ attack on the Rally next Week in Richmond are not correct.

  9. This will be a wait-and-see game as the VA “state legislators” have to vote to implement the gun confiscation laws when they return to session in 2020. The wild card would be what the Mango Emperor would do, should Governor Babykiller use the VA National Guard. During the “Civil Rights Movement” JFK federalized the MS and/or AL National Guards, taking control of them away from their state governors. It can be done with the stroke of a pen.
    This pushback by the VA deplorables is a good thing. Since the Constitution is still the supreme law of the land, the BOR should overrule any unconstitutional prohibitions secreted out of the VA statehouse. And, should these Communists try to use the VA state police, the fallback would be Title 18, Section 242, U.S.C. -Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Authority. Stay tuned.

    • The State Police are a state-level body, but they are locally based. I know state troopers who live and work in the area, among their neighbors and relatives. It’s hard to say what they will do if Coonman tries to delegate to them the job of doing his dirty work.

  10. Here in Hampton Roads very are very disappointed with the Suffolk vote. You can be assured that vote will be revisited next council session with and even larger presents than before. Domari Nolo “I Refuse to be Subjugated.”

  11. ac:
    “I wish the rest of us were as resolute and willing to stand for what is right in the face of unwarranted opposition.”

    You are, and you will be. I was absolutely not expecting the turnout or the level of rhetoric or the extremely vocal support I saw at my county’s 2nd Amendment Sanctuary meeting. Nor was I expecting the vocal willingness by the vast majority of the crowd to shout down the handful of concern trolls working for the other side. People on the side of the right have been very quiet for a long time, but there’s a lot more than you expect.

    Mfitzy111:

    That’s overthinking it. They’re not that smart. They really think that they can pass a law and order the police to enforce it and wham-bam everything falls into line. They are thinking like lawyers: they think that words control reality. They’ve never understood, it’s the other way around.

    As for the VA State Police, I am absolutely certain they are keenly aware of the fact that if Richmond passes and attempts to enforce these new laws, it’ll be the cops’ [derrieres] on the line, and not those of the delegates. At my county’s 2AS meeting, there were a few handfuls of cops standing around, watching these THOUSANDS of people streaming in – people who then overwhelmingly applauded the speakers who repeatedly compared the Richmond government to British redcoats, Soviet communists, and Castro’s murderers.

    Police officers can do math.

    • So why don’t they arrest the legislators who are breaking the law in the name of maintaining the peace and assuring public safety? Hmmm?

      • Not sufficient cause yet for such drastic measures. When the governor orders police officers or National Guard to enforce unlawful orders then it will be time for arrests. The law hasn’t even been passed yet. All the public meetings and 2A sanctuary votes just show those morons that we are serious and don’t fornicate with us. Let the cretins in government cross that Rubicon first.

      • Be resolved.
        Do not initiate violence.
        Harden yourselves for vigorous defense and follow through to end the threat.

        General Gates sent troops to Lexington and Concord to confiscate our guns.

        Wait for it.

        “Er kommt”
        – wrsa

        =====
        “You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
        -attributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

        Europeans may not yet grasp what americans now see as obvious:
        https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2017/11/27/enough-guns-sold-black-friday-outfit-marine-corps/

        Americans understand the imminent threat, and are quietly resolved.

  12. Governor orders NG to respond. Suddenly the lights go out in Richmond and EBT is non-functional. What is the best use of the VANG now Gov?

  13. Montgomery Co is quite left-leaning, VA Tech being there, the churches all very liberal, and it’s the unfortunate home of the terrible gun massacre of 2007. So I doubt they would pass a sanctuary resolution, despite all the good country folks in the hills and hollers.

    • I wouldn’t call redneck “culture” civilization. At best it is one step removed from the imported savages. But I understand the sentiment.

      It is a Pyrrhic victory to replace the knowledge and culture of the West with hillbilly and redneck anti-culture. But one chooses one’s devils I suppose. The alternative is worse.

      • The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
        on December 14, 2019 at 9:23 pm

        Agreed. From someone living way out in the boonies.

  14. Guns for all doesn’t work in some places, like Iraq, Yemen, or some urban areas of Virginia, where too many people show no self restraint with weapons.

  15. While not a Virginian by birth, I am nonetheless, a Virginian by choice. I stand with my fellow Virginians against tyranny. My right to keep and bear arms shall NOT be infringed. Please keep us in your prayers.

    • We are three hours from Fairfax by vehicle. 2 days on foot across country. If they try to use the VA National Guard we will invade in force from the outside and have your backs by taking theirs. There are patriots everywhere, not just in Virginia. This is the powder keg. If the left lights the fuse, they will get the boom. Praying you don’t need such and the those fools see the error of their ways and back the hell off.

  16. Words have meaning . . .
    The word “state”, as in free state, should not be capitalized. It refers to a state of being, not a political entity. The second amendment refers to “arms”, not guns. Where the trolley went off the tracks was in allowing the argument to be about guns. The founders intended that the populace should have whatever arms were necessary to prevent tyranny. By narrowing the argument to be about guns only, one loses sight of the original intent.

  17. The tree of Liberty is about to slake it’s thirst on a flood of Marxist gore. They are way overconfident and about to make the most dire blunder in human history. They are about to be erased and have no comprehension of what is about to happen to them. Don’t these people understand basic arithmetic? 400, 000,000 firearms in 100,000,000 private hands = 66,000,000 dead Marxist useful idiots. Keep pushing commies, you’re about to reap the whirlwind!

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