26 April 2010 Going armed in terror of the public

26 April 2010 Going armed in terror of the public


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/26/AR2010042600998.html

“Ohio man arrested as Obama leaves NC faces hearing

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- An armed man who was spotted at a North Carolina airport parking lot just after Air Force One departed and said he wanted to see the president was to appear before a judge Monday.

Authorities arrested Joseph Sean McVey, 23, of Coshocton, Ohio, on Sunday afternoon at the Asheville Regional Airport and charged him with going armed in terror of the public, a misdemeanor…”



This does not describe a person who is terrified of the public and thus carries a firearm in self-defensive behavior. This describes, more and more, people who think that they are the last bastion of “real America,” ready to defend the Constitution that they’ve never read in entirety; thinking of their selves as the “last true patriots.”

Reading more of the article is disturbing. The arrested man provided a drivers license that could not be confirmed as valid. His vehicle was fitted with police style strobe lights, dash cameras, large external radio antennae, and a siren. He is not employed in law enforcement. The presence of rifle scope formulae/calculations is highly suggestive of someone considering an assassination attempt using a rifle.

http://www.grnc.org/firearms.htm provides the definition of the charge under which this McVey was arrested and held. It is a vague law which can apparently be used to detain those people who are attempting to use firearms to intimidate others. In yesterday’s arrest, I firmly believe it was an understatement of the arrested man’s intentions.

We’re going to see more and more of such behavior. The 2nd Amendment fanatics are pushing their fringe elements into dangerous and deadly actions. We’ve seen multiple ambushes by right wing extremists who wanted to kill police officers before the police came to confiscate their guns. It doesn’t matter that there has been no effort at all by the Obama administration to enact any firearms legislation since taking office. The gun lobbyists and the various hate groups continue to spread lies calculated to inflame the least educated, most likely to be psychotic, gun fanciers. These groups tend to include the racists, the Christian Identity groups, and the anti-government groups. Violence toward people who look and/or believe differently is being encouraged.

The current push to have people carry weapons openly is going to become ever more problematic. They people who feel that they must do this in order to “preserve their 2nd Amendment rights” are likely to be people who don’t have a good acquaintance with history. They mistake challenging the laws and customs of the nation for demonstrating their sovereignty as individuals under the law, and for behaving as they believe the colonial militias and patriots did. They are sadly mistaken in the latter. The historic militias were aware that when activated they became agencies of government, filling the need created by lack of a standing army. They accepted the discipline required of all members for a para-military unit to work successfully. Once we built a standing army, there was no longer a need for any militia units.

The people we see in self-designated militias today are far more akin to vigilantes than to actual militias. The current groups of “patriots” are more likely to destroy civil authority and order than to maintain it. They see their selves as members of elite military groups rather than as men playing at being soldiers. Most militia members lack the self-discipline to be a good soldier. Many of our internal terrorists, McVeigh, Rudolph, and others were discharged from active duty under other than honorable conditions. In many cases they received enough training to become more of a danger to the public. Weeding out those recruits who grew up with histories of right wing extremist behavior needs to become a priority in today’s military.

Another source of potential assassins is in the former Blackwater organization. This company seeks out soldiers with special operations training and lures them away from national service with money. Historically, the company has been shown to be behaving as a private “Christian army.” This is dangerous at several levels. I’m very uncomfortable having any government funding going to “Xe services” And I’m uncomfortable with a potential source of “crusaders” ready to serve the highest payer as hired guns.

We’re going to see more such incidents as the arrest in Asheville. It won’t be long until someone is stupid or fanatical enough to take a shot or place an IED along a motorcade route. Obama’s existence and office is, unfortunately, a magnet for the worst elements of our populace. These “patriots” are going to do more damage than we want to believe possible. The demagogues who are doing their best to stir up the idiot children have no idea of the danger they are creating for all of us.