Mortal Stakes
“Only where love and need are one, and the work is play for mortal stakes is the deed ever really done for Heaven and the future’s sakes.”
- Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time
Yes…I know that the quoted poem, and the quote in particular are really more about the importance of doing what you love…of making your passion your work. Maybe it doesn’t have much to do with the subject at hand, and maybe I just like the quote. But then again maybe it is relevant, because today's topic does indeed concern mortal stakes…and the sake of future generations. So humor me with my Robert Frost reference and read on, please.
You know what scares me the most about the current batch of gun control legislation making the rounds in Congress? Truth be told, I can tell you that I’m not actually that scared for myself, or my gun rights. An honest assessment of these bills and their chances of passing into law reveals that most likely anything that passes the current Congress will have little real impact on my life (or that of any other current gun owner). The real impact will likely come later, long after I am gone.
Sure, HR 1446 could make the NICS system into a chokepoint for new gun sales, but as a Kentucky concealed carry licensee, I don’t have to submit to a background check when I buy a gun. No skin off my nose. And then there’s HR 8, which would require background checks for most private transfers (not sales…transfers). But let’s be honest, without a national gun registry, there really isn’t a way to enforce this. Just keep your mouth shut and go about your business, and no one will be the wiser. For now, anyway.
What? Me worry?
The rest of the gun control bills in Congress don’t have much of a chance of passing, at least not without some grandfathering built in. But that’s the real trick, and it’s designed to set the stage for much greater restrictions down the road…shrinking the population of gun owners by gradually tightening the government’s grip on gun rights. Like a python constricting its prey, tightening a little more with every breath…until there’s no breath left.
Just a little squeeze…you’ll be just fine. For now.
So what frightens me most about the latest push for gun control is not that I will lose my gun rights. I am more afraid that the current generation of gun owners…because there is little immediate threat to us…will give ground too easily which will eventually cost future generations their gun rights. Gun freedoms which once lost, will likely never be regained.
We may nonchalantly and selfishly shrug off what seem like impotent attempts at infringing on our liberties now, but we cannot lose sight of what these infringements will mean to our children, our grandchildren, and beyond. We are not just working to save the Second Amendment for ourselves, but for future generations.
The Founders and the Continental Army struggled and suffered not just for their own liberty, but to build a free nation that could be enjoyed for generations to come. Where would we be today if they had simply shrugged off British restrictions and said instead, “Eh…doesn’t really affect me”? And where will we leave future gun owners if we do the same now? Will we sell out our children, or will we work for their freedom as hard as we would defend our own? Because our concern should not be only how gun control affects us personally, but even more importantly what kind of country we are leaving “For Heaven and the future’s sakes”…because that is where the work we do today will be felt the most.
The work we do today may preserve the Second Amendment “for Heaven and the future’s sakes.”
