So You are Afraid to be on a Government List
July 27, 2016
My friend, a man I respect, told me he didn’t want to get a concealed carry license because that might put him on a government list. He seemed sincere. I had to think for a minute before I said anything.
- I thought of other thinks my friend said. He has strong political beliefs. He should probably stop donating to politicians if he wants to stay off a government list.
- Now that I think about it, my friend should probably stop donating to his church if he wants to stay off a government list. Maybe he can go to church on Easter and Christmas. Lots of people do.
- My friend doesn’t want to leave a record of his activities. That means he has to stop supporting any political causes or making any tax-deductible contributions.. if he really wants to stay off a government list. He would certainly have to stop supporting his home school group and his local pro-life pregnancy clinic if he wanted to stay off a list.
- I guess he will have to stop voting too, or at least change his registration to “decline to state”. He could avoid the primary elections all together.
- My friend is a veteran. He had best avoid the Veteran’s Administration, the Veterans of Foreign War and the American Legion.
- For goodness sake, my friend will have to close his Facebook account if he wants to stay off a government list. Maybe he should simply stop using a computer and browsing the internet.
- I guess, if he really wants to stay off of a government list, then he should sell the guns he already owns. After all, he probably bought ammunition with a credit card so there is an electronic record of his purchases. Now he needs to sell all his guns at a gun store so there is a public record his guns are gone. That way he can prove to the government that he is harmless.
- I’m having second thoughts on what to tell my friend. Now that my friend has silenced his voice and made himself defenseless, maybe it would be best if he simply did what the popular majority does and if he voted the way the approved majority votes.
I do have a question for my frightened friend. Let us say he, and millions of others, did all these things. Does that make us safer.. or are we at a greater risk of our government abusing its power?
I think my friend should join me on the government list. I’m pretty sure we have room for one more. What do you think?
I’m asking for a friend.
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SlowFacts 
Several possibilities exist, it’s difficult to accurately say with this little context but the most likely is your ‘friend’ is rationalizing. That is a little mental exercise our inner minds go through when we’re presented with something we either don’t have a high motivation to do or deep down inside don’t want to do. We begin to tell ourselves we shouldn’t do it and come up with a bunch of excuses why. Often we will blurt out something making little sense at first if we’re caught flat footed but may eventually follow up with a more solid excuse.
it’s possible your ‘friend’ is sincere, or they could be masking their rationalization. It’s also possible that your ‘friend’ is in denial about the depths to which we have sunk as a people.
Gun bloggers are only a few steps below activists in grassroots groups for their nerd like understanding of silly carry law intricacies and understanding of the political process. The regular membership of grassroots groups know more than the average citizen, but there is a very steep drop off in political savvy from activist to gun rights group member and to citizen. Most people don’t truly get how little they actually know. A good representation of this knowledge gap can be analogized by going drag racing. It’s easy right? You just floor the gas pedal / twist the grip when the light goes green. Wrong. There’s a lot more to it than that if you want to win. Road course schools similarly show drivers / riders how truly unskilled the motoring public are. Being an activist in the gun rights movement sometimes blinds people to the general public’s lack of knowledge in our cause.
Your post is illustrative of how far gone we truly are in our realization that pretty much any non-conformist behavior lands you on a list of “dissenters and non-conformists”.
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I suspect there’s a VAST difference between being on a list of internet users, church-goers or political donors and a list of who has what firearms and where, Rob.
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the federal government has no constitutional authority to make ANY laws dictating who may and who may not carry arms; or under what circumstances people may and may not carry arms across State borders! Arms control of the people is not an enumerated power!
video on arms, here it is: https://vimeo.com/60944105
State concealed carry laws which require a “permit” is an idea crafted in the pits of hell. The real purpose is to register gun owners! People think it is so cool to have a permit for concealed carry – they don’t understand that it is like the free sample of heroin.
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If we have touched social media, received a drivers license, done our taxes, we are all on that radar. I don’t know if going off grid is necessary at this point in time, might be different in a couple years. I look forward to seeing what your friend chooses. At least if he got his ccw he would be advocated for by every amendment supporting American. We are better with numbers, right?
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