National Ammo Day II

Kim du Toit
February 26, 2003
11:42 AM CDT

I know I’ve foresworn talking about Ammo Day on these pages, but this email has implications way beyond Ammo Day.

“Mr. Du Toit,
We have enough problems with criminal misuse of firearms in the news every day, the latest being the Maryland sniper.  Your Buycott of ammo will not be good for the law abiding citizens that own & use firearms and ammo responsibly.  You are out to hurt the legal gun owner. You will play right into the hands of the anti-gun movement by portraying gun owners as monsters.  You are an asshole for sure, and no friend to the law abiding gun owners.  Close down your stupid website and go away.  Sounds to me like a prank backed by the anti-gun movement.”

I’ll ignore the simple insults, because they’re irrelevant to what I’m going to say.

Note that National Ammo Day does not promote breaking the law—if anything, we caution everyone to make sure that they comply fully with their local laws and regulations governing the sale of ammunition.  We’re not saying, “Buy ammunition and then shoot it off outside in the street”—if anyone were to do that, I’d kick them in the nuts myself.

Basically, the writer seems to think that at all costs, gun owners should not “rock the boat”:  we should not draw attention to ourselves, should not talk about being gun owners, and shouldn’t buy ammunition openly.

In other words, we should acknowledge the years and years of ceaseless demonization of guns and gun owners, and skulk around, not draw attention to our Constitutional and inalienable right to bear weapons and arms.

And I should shut down the Ammo Day website, because I am afraid?  Afraid of what?  That buying ammunition may cause unrest?  That someone might buy ammunition, and abuse it?

No.  I cannot even begin to describe how much I reject this spineless philosophy.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with law-abiding citizens buying ammunition, and I trust the many millions of law-abiding gun owners—indeed, I trust them with my life every time I step out of doors.

Worse still, to quote Sir Thomas More, “Qui tacit, consentire.” In other words, by remaining silent and not aggressively protecting our rights against attacks by others, we consent to their infringement.

But it is not against the law to buy ammunition, any more than it is against the law to buy a newspaper.  We do not have to be ashamed of, or feel guilty about buying ammunition.  It is part of the very fabric of our freedom to bear arms, and by choosing one single day to buy ammunition, we gun owners will, I fervently hope, send a message to all those who would attempt to circumscribe and infringe upon that freedom.

So I will not keep a low profile, nor will I be quiet about my guns or about the ammunition I buy.  If some mope is shooting people in Maryland, that’s a criminal aberration—and if I had him in my sights, I’d shoot him down with less compunction than I would a rat or a rabid dog (an opportunity, as I’ve noted before, denied the good people of Maryland by those who have infringed upon their right to bear arms).

And I will never dishonor the memory of our Founding Fathers, who risked their lives and property so that I can stand here today, and say:  “I am an American.”

Being an American means many things:  but most of all, it means that I am a free man—I can speak my mind, I can own property, I have all sorts of freedoms from oppression, and I am armed.  People, many people, died so that I can say those words—am I to ignore their sacrifice?

I ask you all to join me in exercising and celebrating one of our most precious freedoms, on November 19th.