The purpose of war is to kill people and break things until the enemy ceases his aggression permanently.  The delusion that war has some other purpose leads only to disasters such as Vietnam. New York's Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has just shown why supporters of the Bill of Rights must similarly use legal, nonviolent, and socially acceptable methods to destroy organizations (like the Million Mom March in 2000) and break political careers.

The ruin of the Million Mom March, along with Al Gore's self-destruction in three or so pro-Second Amendment states, bought gun owners only about 12 years of relative peace, just as Israel's so-called victories over Arab aggressors buy only interludes of peace. Mass fire-bombings of Axis cities followed by invasion (in Europe) and two nuclear bombs (in Japan), in contrast, ended Nazi and Imperial Japanese aggression for all time. New York has just shown why we must now apply the moral equivalent of this approach to the openly declared enemies of the Bill of Rights.

We Are At War

New York's recent legislation is a declaration of war on the entire Second Amendment, as shown explicitly by a provision that bans .22 caliber target pistols:

Restrict ammunition magazines to seven bullets, from the current national standard of 10. Current owners of higher-capacity magazines would have a year to sell them out of state.

The Ruger, Walther P22, and Smith & Wesson target pistols all use magazines with capacities of 10 or more, and their principal purpose is to make holes in pieces of paper at up to 50 yards. New York has therefore just made it eminently clear that the Constitution does not even protect sporting uses of firearms, let alone the Second Amendment's primary intention of individual, collective, and national self-defense. This should mobilize all supporters of the Bill of Rights to deploy all necessary legal, nonviolent, and socially acceptable methods to take these enemies down decisively and permanently.

We Are Not Here to "Defend" the Constitution

General George S. Patton Jr. is best known for his use of tanks, but he also has the distinction of turning the U.S. Cavalry into an effective mounted combat force. He was only a lieutenant when he introduced his Saber Exercise of 1914, along with the M1913 saber: a straight-bladed weapon designed to make short work of adversaries who were trained to cut and slash. Patton wrote of the M1913's application,

The saber is solely a weapon of offense and is used in conjunction with the other offensive weapon, the horse. In all the training, the idea of speed must be conserved. No direct parries are taught, because at the completion of a parry the enemy is already beyond reach of an attack. The surest parry is a disabled opponent.

To this, he added,

The cavalryman rides at a man to kill him. If he misses, he goes on to another, moving in straight lines with the intent of running his opponent through.

The parry was emphatically not used against the Million Mom March in 2000, especially not after the group was caught soliciting money, corporate contributions, and volunteer time under fraudulent pretenses ("13 children a day"). Even this was not enough to break the organization's back, although the subsequent revelation that it was using 501(c)(3) tax exempt money to promote House candidates was. This underscores the fact that the surest parry is a disabled opponent, and we need to multiply this victory tenfold to end the problem for good.

Prominent enemies of the Bill of Rights like Dianne Feinstein (CA), Carolyn McCarthy (NY), and Jerrold Nadler (NY) were smart enough to hide in their holes when the Million Mom March crashed hard and burned, and when Al Gore showed that Democrats lose elections when they attack the Second Amendment. Our problem is that, unlike the honey badger, we did not then follow them into their holes to rip them to pieces. The NRA should have exploited the Million Mom March's discomfiture by calling out everybody (e.g. Feinstein, Nadler, Carolyn McCarthy) and everything (the Brady Campaign) associated with it, and this can still be done.

This is not McCarthyite "guilt by association," in which mere presence in the same room with a Communist makes somebody a Communist. The named individuals, and others, used the MMM for publicity, and they supported the MMM's activities. Many are on record as supporting the MMM's proven lie that firearm misuse kills 12 or more children a day. Some, like Feinstein, were closely involved with the MMM's lobbying efforts even though the MMM then filed a Form 990 tax return that said it engaged in no lobbying whatsoever.

Turn Obama's Use of Children Against Him

Barack Obama used children as a photo-op to gain support when he signed his recent executive orders to "curb gun violence." In fairness to the president, we find perhaps a third of his orders reasonable and constructive, such as the one that supports emergency response plans for school shootings. If he is not happy that we nonetheless do not trust him, he need look no further than the rhetoric from his own party, Mayor Bloomberg (I-NY), and especially Andrew Cuomo (D-NY). As shown here, Obama is far from the first political figure to exploit photo-ops with children for political gain. Somebody has, in fact, already pointed this out quite explicitly.

Before the Left invokes Godwin's Law to shield Obama from this comparison, we need to remember the 800-pound gorilla in the living room -- or, more precisely, the more than 2000 guns that Obama's own Justice Department knowingly, willfully, and recklessly provided to Mexican criminals. Mr. Obama did not hold press conferences, with or without children, to address the concerns of the American people in general and Congress in particular. He invoked executive privilege to cover up his Administration's role in the murders of more than 150 Mexican nationals, along with a U.S. law enforcement officer (Brian Terry). We are therefore 100 percent on target in denouncing Obama's use of children as psychological manipulation of the type advocated by Joseph Goebbels: appeal to emotion and instinct rather than reason.

To this we can add cartoonist William Allen Rogers' use of children, specifically those killed on the Lustiania in 1915, to goad the United States into the First World War at a cost of more than 100,000 lives. This propaganda again appealed to visceral emotions at the expense of facts, specifically the cargo of military ammunition in the Lusitania's hold. It might be useful to display all three (Obama's and Hitler's photo ops with children, and a Rogers cartoon) side by side to illustrate the idea, along with the reminder about Fast and Furious.

The bottom line is that we are now at the equivalent of war, and we must embrace the moral equivalent of Duke Richard's statement in King Henry VI: "Sword, hold thy temper, heart be wrathful still. Priests pray for enemies, but princes kill." We must use any and all effective, legal, and nonviolent means available to realize the total and permanent destruction of the enemies who have just declared war on the Bill of Rights.

William A. Levinson, P.E. is the author of several books on business management including content on organizational psychology, as well as manufacturing productivity and quality.