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Fred's
Columns
It's Much Later Than You Think, Part 2
The recent election [written in 2000, so the reference is to Bush-Gore - PS: now, in 2009, it's ever more "much later than you think" - the only progress made in the last 9 years has been backwards...]should give any serious gunowner pause.
A good republican candidate, a lousy democratic candidate, and yet the election was a squeaker?
Either there was massive vote fraud in the big city machines, or the public is much more dumbed down than anyone ever thought.
Either way, it is an alarm bell.
If I were the Republicans, I would hitch up my drawers and get the word out: "Boys, it's two years to the next elections, and we want an unimpeachable Republican observer hanging over the neck of every election official in that election, especially in the big cities." If nothing else, the next election will be 'clean'.
That’s the Republicans. Now, what about YOU?
There's a readership of SGN of over 100,000. Ninety percent, typically, of course, will do nothing. But get a core group of committed activists, and you can turn this country around. Every last one of you knows at least one other person. Get them on board, as riflemen and patriots who believe in the Bill of Rights, and we double our numbers. A few more doublings and we're over a million. God forbid that all should become riflemen, because we - this country - would have nothing to fear.
Don't for a minute think, because you get up today just like yesterday, that the world is the same place. It is not. Either our side is winning, or the other side is winning - and the other side is definitely winning. They control the public communications of this country, just like those loud speakers mounted all over Hanoi. It works because there are many dopes who believe whatever they hear. So every day the propaganda advances the other side another inch, and, if you do nothing, our side loses another inch. It's imperceptible, until the tide builds up to where a bunch of dumbed down, mine-numbed robots cast ballots for Al Gore, and you are surprised that the American people can be so dumb.
If you don't like it, you have to do something. You can't sit back and rely on the NRA or anyone else to do it for you. For one thing the problem is so big, the opposition so strong, that it will take a mass grassroots to counteract it. There can be no 'mass' in grassroots without you.
So get with the program. Get rifleman-trained; get others rifleman-trained; get info out to young people to educate them on the Bill of Rights (use the JPFO booklets). (In a future column we'll show you what an Indiana shooter did - starting from scratch!) So, get started NOW, for the NEXT election.
NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS
It's never too late to resolve: First Learn to shoot like a rifleman. (If you don't know how, get 10 sets of our 25 meter Army Qualification Course targets with the "Guide to Becoming a Rifleman")
Second, get someone else into shooting this year. Get two or three; if some are young, passing the tradition on, playing your role in preserving freedom in this country. Work on a team, so you don't ever have to do it - alone.
Third, educate! No need to preach. Hand out a JPFO comic to a kid. Take someone to the range and let them shoot your firearms. Write your congressman and explain about the 2nd; how it preserves freedom as one of a layer of protections written into the Constitution.
Do it; you don't want the next generation cursing you as a 'lazy, fat-assed, incompetent clown' who let their freedom be taken away.
Don't get discouraged. You be a rifleman, get your neighbors to be riflemen, get your team together.
Remember, it is all fun - in fact, a joy - to both get yourself ready, & get other ready - and great insurance.
M14s - AT THE NORTH POLE!
Hey Fred,
I was a Nuclear Engineering Machinist's Mate, serving aboard a nuclear fast attack submarine stationed in Pearl Harbor in 1990. After being aboard for about a year, I got qualified on the M-14. When we went to the range, we took the rifles out of their boxes and I was shocked. They looked ancient, and the stocks were all dinged up and looked as if they had been through a war. I later found out they were in fact left-overs from Vietnam.
Anyway, I wasn't sure if I wanted to shoot them. I was worried about whether or not they were safe, since they looked like they were falling apart. I was young, only 21, and know little about guns. I grew up on a farm and was used to shooting pretty bolt action rifles, like my Dads Weatherby, so these were scary looking to say the least.
Well, we all got on the line, loaded them up, and blasted away at targets 100 yards away. I was surprised, the recoil wasn't bad at all, and they fed properly. They also shot true and straight. Not too bad for a beat up old relic. We were never supposed to use them in full-auto, and they showed us why; the range master let us flip the selector switch and try a few bursts, just for fun. It was like trying to hold the horns of an angry bull. I thought, "Hercules himself would have a hard time with this thing." It was almost impossible to aim at anything. About the only good it did was throw some lead out there and pray you hit something. But, I got qualified non-the-less, and had some fun doing it.
About 5 months later, our ship got the order from above to get rid of the M-14s and and we got new M-16s. Our initial inventory was short so our C>O> had us keep a couple of the old rifles and the rest were all M-16s. We were all happy to see the nice looking M-16s fill the small arms locker and ditch the worn out M-14s. These new rifles were cool (we thought).
Several months after that, in the spring of '92, we went on a mission to the arctic circle. We were under ice for a couple of weeks and we broke ice very near the North Pole. I don't know exactly how close we were, but it was -50F and the sun did circles around us instead of going down.
Since were were on the ice for several hours, the C.O. being the gun lover that he was, let us take the guns out, and do some target shooting. 12ga, 45acps, M-16s and the old M-14s. After we fired the M-16s for awhile they began to jam up. So we cleaned them and we had to use some special kind of lubricant for such cold weather. But even that did not work. After firing one or two mags of ammo, they started jamming up and freezing shut.
It was so cold, even the oil was freezing up like peanut butter, and the weapons wouldn't cycle. They proved to be nothing but JUNK. But I fired the M-14 a few times, and we passed it around to just about everyone, We must have fired a couple hundred rounds through it, and it still fired and was straight on target. We left it lying in the snow for a minute to cool off, and when we picked it up it was frozen solid. and wouldn't cycle. So, we smacked it with a 2x4 to break free some ice and cycled it by hand, then we dumped some heavy gear oil all over it and cycled it in real good. Sure enough it fired just fine, and kept working as long as we needed it to.
Those old rifles were the NASTIEST and UGLIEST looking things I have ever see, but they worked better than anything I have ever used in some of the most extreme conditions on Earth. I was surely impressed, and have loved the M-14 since that day. Needless to say, when we got back to Pearl Harbor, our Captain had the M-16s removed and got the rest of our old M-14s back.
They stayed on board our ship as the main battle rifle for our security teams until our ship decommissioned in 1995. Then our ship decommissioned, I had asked the Captain if I could buy one through the rec committee. I didn't want them to be destroyed, since I knew that is where they were headed. But since they were fully automatic, "no way Jose". After several of us...bugged the Security Officer enough, we finally got him to donate them to the submarine museum, where they were placed on display. They sit there to this day for everyone to see.
former MM2/SS USN
Thanks for a great story about "the greatest battle rifle", the mighty M-14! |
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