From: jaxincalifornia@aol.com
Date: Sat Apr 27 2002 - 08:35:38 PDT
"Military Vehicle Owners Shoot up Nevada Casino"
I was thinking of this [fantasy] headline as I read the story about the Harley riders who got into a gang shoot out in a Laughlin, Nevada casino. In case you missed it, about 80,000 bikers descend on Laughlin every year about this time...and I think about 10 people were wounded, couple killed in some sort of a gang vs. gang gun battle.
How long do you think we would be in business if we did this? If MV clubbers shot up that casino or if was some errant owner of armor that did hosed down some people? Or if some crazie in a 5 ton cleared the sidewalks with his front bumper?
Answer: How fast can you spell "S-e-n-a-t-e B-i-l-l?"
So in the wake of the big Laughlin shootout, do you think they are going to take Harley's away from the motorcycle clubs that were in involved? Uh...No way! That would be ridiculous, right? Sure. But, here we (humble MV'ers) are living on the edge of oblivion, where the least little transgression could spell our doom as MV collectors. We under constant scruitiny by wary bureaucrats ready to act under the guise of national security at the very first opportunity!
I'm not talking from mere paranoia here either. As many of us have experience, especially owners of armor, when recently the full weight of the US government came down on us and our hobby. Remember during our beloved Clinton Administration, the import freeze on all armor/ parts for said/ M boats/ M planes/ etc?
That preposterious and illegal overreaction was done by the left without one law to support them! Just memo's and cooperation by a lot of likeminded people in power. The freeze was brainstormed into reality immediately following the seizure of Jacques Littlefield's SCUD carrier at Port Hueneme, CA. Nobody was killed, wounded nor was a shot fired. This was a demilled SCUD and a truck! It couldn't shoot, er, blast off and bomb somebody! The worst it could do was look scarey... just like some of the things you own, huh?
This MV posed no threat to anyone and it was imported using the existing rules, yet the freak show that followed still has lawyers battling this case! Why? Because some left-wing people you let get into power don't understand and don't want to undertand what we do. And worse yet, this leftist group harbors a near phobic disorder about big green things in general. The only thing that could be more at risk is the besieged gun owner!
It's our lot to live in fear as long as there is one liberal leftwing Democrat in congress, but we can still try to reason and so if there is any good to come from this gang shoot out, it's this: The authorities are punishing the people who broke the law, not the objects indirectly involved.... what a concept! They are not punishing the Harley Davidson motorcyle company, Harley riders or motorcycles in general and that is my whole (somewhat) convuluted point. lol
Sure, it's a point that has been made many times before, but we must continue to push that logic until it's indelibly clear in the minds of all of our legislators! You punish the person... not the object! That point should be made here in the USA, Europe and anywhere where we are threatened with extinction.
If we are ever to enjoy any reasonable sense of security as collectors and presevers of military artifacts/vehicles, this absolutely has to be our focus, now and forever!
We ought to use any opportunity to push this, even a shootout (could have been knives, clubs, chains, ice picks) which illustrates our point perfectly ... I sure hope the MVPA and our local MVCC is listening and gets proactive here.
Jack Lee PRC (People's Repulik of Kaliforni)
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