Battling Billionaires
by Gila Hayes
With Levi Strauss Company’s latest anti-gun donations, most recently their support of Bloomberg’s misnamed Everytown For Gun Safety, I entertained the odd, passing image of freedom-loving Americans waiting to get dressed until we can find jeans made by manufacturers that respect individual freedom and responsibility.
Why would we spend money with companies that support the forces campaigning for laws to strip citizens of effective means of self defense? While it is funny to think about running around in bath towels and jammies while trying to find clothing not made by our enemies, more practically, I suppose most will wear out the old clothes while searching for better choices from manufacturers who are focused on improving what they make, not jockeying for praise from celebrities and politicians.
The rich and famous of today are not satisfied helping sick, hungry, impoverished or homeless people. Going quietly into homeless shelters with donated food and blankets does not satisfy the lust for power, so instead, politicking and scheming to pass laws that supposedly mandate good behavior is the métier of billionaires who want to feel good about having “done something.” They care not at all about the results of their actions, nor about their ignorance of violent crime and the truth that only equally forceful resistance by the intended victims makes predation untenable for those who use violence to get what they want and destroy lives. Remove viable means of resisting violent crime and what stands between the criminal and his or her goals?
Well, for Gates, Allen, Bloomberg, Soros and all the rest, armed bodyguards provide that barrier. Callous disregard for the safety of the working poor and struggling middle class people who have to either provide for their own defense or haplessly fall victim to predatory and violent crime is hidden behind proclamations that “we have stepped up to stop shootings!” Self-righteous assertions about the dangers of guns all feature some variation on the lying combination of words, “gun violence.” When public figures refuse to speak in truthful terms like “vicious criminal” and “murderer” and “rapist” and “armed robber,” the façade that they care about the well-being of mainstream Americans vanishes.
Unwillingness to admit that crime is enacted by people who don’t hesitate to take life and resources from productive citizens lays bare the lust for power and control driving those who are politicking to make self defense illegal. After all, what element of the citizenry is more easily controlled? The law-abiding guy or gal who works 50 or 60 hours a week to make ends meet or a criminal operating outside of the law? Why not abuse and dominate the easy contingent? Restrict the law abiding and then sit back and feel self righteous about “making a difference” seems to be enough for the prominent billionaires grabbing the headlines these days.
Their intended victims are you and me. Our retort remains unchanged from the days of the American Revolution:
Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
–Ben Franklin
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