I was out and about yesterday with my wife and we stopped at several stores that sell guns and ammo because I’m trying to decide if it would be cheaper to order my ammo off the Internet and pay a big shipping charge or buy here. Because I’m in the market for unusual rounds (.410 Buckshot, 20ga Buckshot, .327 Federal Magnum) I have to check around to find what I need. What I found is a series of big box sporting goods stores like Dick’s and Sports Authority desperately short on inventories and even some of the better gun stores here light on the most common calibers. A few months ago a pawn shop owner told me there were a lot more gun purchases because of the election, but frankly there is more to it than that.

We live in a deeply divided country politically, but more importantly we live in a time when the the left has spent years demonizing the right and with the left’s near monopoly on the media we have generations of young people who literally think I and many of my readers simply don’t deserve to live. We’ve all felt it, I have the death threats to prove it and that palpable sense of menace, the recurring incidents of left on right violence here, is one of the reasons I moved from just owning shotguns to buying a handgun.

In normal times the rule of law constrains the rabid foot soldiers of the left, leaving them to the occasional assault after which they are arrested and dealt with. But as the economy flounders, and the thin veneer of civilization slips from society the left is becoming more lawless, and the right more aware of how close we are to the brink. Now many governors are asserting their state rights in the face of a “stimulus” package that includes modifications to existing state laws and the left is predictably demonizing those governors.

Is it me or does this sound familiar:

In the first five weeks of his presidency, Barack Obama has acted so rashly that at least 11 states have decided that his brand of “hope” equates to an intolerable expansion of the federal government’s authority over the states. These states — “Washington, New Hampshire, Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, California…Georgia,” South Carolina, and Texas — “have all introduced bills and resolutions” reminding Obama that the 10th Amendment protects the rights of the states, which are the rights of the people, by limting the power of the federal government. These resolutions call on Obama to “cease and desist” from his reckless government expansion and also indicate that federal laws and regulations implemented in violation of the 10th Amendment can be nullified by the states.

Why are these states (my new home included) rejecting the money? Mostly because the money comes with strings attached that will hurt the states in the future, but it is also justifiable fear of a Federal Government which is printing money to cover its bills, that will give $900,000,000 in aid to the Palestinians Islamists and is taking active steps to make us less safe. This government is trying to enact sweeping national laws which would result in a defacto gun ban as Cartel Violence spills into Texas from a fatally destabilized Mexico. States are fearful that Obama’s quasi-Socialist administration is going to encroach on the rights of it’s citizens:

For example, Family Security Matters reports that Missouri’s “House Concurrent Resolution 0004 (2009) reasserts its sovereignty based on Barack Obama’s stated intention to sign into law a federal ‘Freedom of Choice Act’, [because] the federal Freedom of Choice Act would nullify any federal or state law ‘enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of [its] enactment’ and would effectively prevent the State of Missouri from enacting similar protective measures in the future.”

The resolution in Montana grew out of concerns over coming attacks on the 2nd Amendment, thus its preface describes it as, “An Act Exempting From Federal Regulation Under The Commerce Clause Of The Constitution Of The United States A Firearm, A Firearm Accessory, Or Ammunition Manufactured And Retained In Montana.”

New Hampshire’s resolution actually references certain federal actions that would be nullified within that state were they pushed by Obama’s administration, according to americandaily.com. Among these are “Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of the press, [and any] further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition.

Understand what is happening here. Eleven States are telling a wildly popular authoritarian philosophically Marxist federal government that has already announced their intention to forever alter our country in their “Hope and Change” campaign that the states will not allow the Federal government to implement its program. With a charismatic leader who has mobilized the radical left around him in a way no other leader has, this is a recipe for Civil War, especially as the economy, and rule of law, continues to flounder.

But in this new civil war I’m with the States. What about you?

I hope the states can assert their authority peacefully, but with a world in chaos I fear what the reaction of the left will be when they do. And judging by the ammo shortage here so do a lot of other people.