Let's take a look at several thousand years of governmental disarmament of the populace. Of course all the while, the rulers, their guards and armies remained armed.

The Founders of America were educated in the classic written histories of our civilization. In fact President Adams and Jefferson among others, studied in numerous languages; Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and Hebrew to name a few of the dozens of languages they read in.

Thomas Jefferson, the most prolific reader of books and letter writer of the Founders, kept copies of all his letters to and from his correspondents. His personal library was so extensive that it is the foundation of our Library of Congress. His letters have been assembled, typed and bound into large volumes. The result is far larger than a couple of sets of encyclopedias. His letters of correspondence were even in several languages. The copies of his own letters were made with a manual copy machine comprised of two pens; one he wrote with and the other pen, via a unique mechanical arrangement, made an identical copy of his letter on another piece of paper. It is thought that as much as 80% of his correspondence was lost in fires and later with careless storage of his effects by others.

Jefferson studied and wrote dictionaries for a couple of dozen previously unwritten and thus uncodified languages -- especially 18 languages of the various tribes of the American Indians. His fluency in other languages (some say he was fluent in all written languages in print at the time of his life) allowed him and interested him in the study of the non-written languages of the Amerinds. Amerind was the general term used to describe the American Indians by Anthropologists until recently; the term was indeed meant to separate native American Indians from the natives of India.

It was NOT unusual that those educated in this country in the 1600s and 1700s were educated in several languages. The histories, philosophies, music, mathematics and classics of all known cultures were not only studied but were debated over smoke and alcohol following the dinner hour each evening in educated households. The discussions held in Colonial America between friends regarding such subjects has been replaced in our country today by debates over sports, movie stars, sexual activities and current propaganda which we call the evening news.

The English were most helpful in this as were the French and Italians and MANY books were available. Japanese, Chinese, Icelandic, Dutch, and the several dialects of Scandinavia as well as Russia were a part of evening discussions among the learned of this colony.

What they learned was that the entire history of government was a history of tyranny -- and that that tyranny was formed and fomented upon the populace as a result of a division in education. The haves and have-nots of education are far more a problem than in the subject of finance. It is this knowledge that led our Founders to emphasize education for all our citizens. The masses of the past were able to be more easily subjected to tyranny as a result of and due to lack of education, lack of freedom of communication, and in the final gasp, the lack of a fully armed citizenry.

Tyrants have always first disarmed the public, let us studiously notice that our Founders, all of whom were fond of being armed wherever they went, did not mention a type of arms and certainly not guns in the Constitution or it's attendant Bill of Individual Rights.

Let's take a look at the history of disarmament and the resultant tyranny.

LONG STICKS: Sticks were the predictably first weapon taken from the people; the staff was taken from the populace by the more powerful (and deadlier) leaders. That protective stick -- the staff or the shorter scepter -- is still a recognized symbol of sovereignty. And the staff, just a stout stick about shoulder to head high, is still a formidable weapon. Even the cane, a shorter staff, is a good weapon and has been outlawed at times (Ireland still outlaws canes). The ancient French had a formidable form of fighting based on the cane (and kicking) by the name of Savate -- so did the Britts although those refined Britts often refrained from kicking and often loaded that cane with a sword. Many Britts still look upon the cane and it's cousin a stout defensive umbrella as a symbol of the elite. Many of the older gentry are still constantly armed with a cane or umbrella, no matter if gimpiness or inclement weather cause any other need of them.

CLUBS: Let's go back earlier again to the time of the staff and stick as weapons. As our distant and ancient ancestors congregated even more into herds and clans, the stronger took dominion even more over the weak, the sick and the old. Those strong ones took on a more official leadership role -- another one of the first acts of disarmament was to take the shorter CLUBS away from the populace. This club -- the scepter -- remains as a symbol of sovereignty (supreme rule and power). A big headed club was a formidable weapon even against the staff and thus the populace had to be disarmed of both. Even today many Sovereigns hold the STAFF AND SCEPTER of RULE as a symbol of power.

SYMBOLS OF SOVEREIGNTY: Weapons have always been symbols of sovereignty, power, and personal choice, of personal defense and personal responsibility for ones own condition. Serfs, peons, slaves and the bovine populace of modern America; some call them "sheeple" are not allowed to be self-determined nor to keep and bear arms -- in all of history this is the practice. In America we formed a country based on personal sovereignty -- that is the right to rule oneself; a unique idea in all the world and in all of history. Thus although we are creeping ever down into a tyranny similar to what we fought against in the late 1700's -- with the citizenry being disarmed in every way possible -- we do not allow our "leaders" to carry a staff or scepter as a symbol of that "leadership".

KNIVES were man's most basic tool that elevated him from other animals. Even monkeys use sticks and clubs -- but not knives. Knives, especially the double edged dagger or the larger short sword were and are also symbols of sovereignty. In the ancient texts, even in some of the later cave pictographs and the earliest Egyptian depictions -- knives of many sizes and short swords symbolized the Kings and Sovereigns who determined and directed the lives and livelihood of the lower populace according to the Sovereign's will.

Weapons have always been a symbol of sovereignty and those without weapons are always the subjects, the serfs and the vassals of those with the arms and power over them. In feudal England there were numerous laws about the length of knife that a serf might own. At one time the longest blade allowed was less than four inches at times even shorter. In most of America today there is a law against a knife of four inches or more. In our schools there is a law against any knife or illegal weapon such as nail clippers, nail files or even tweezers. No I am not kidding.

At one time no knife longer than two inches was allowed for any reason to English or Chinese subjects. There were times when all knives were forbidden to the unworthy ones below the Royalty and their guards.

SWORDS: In later, but still pre-Christian years -- in Egypt, Rome, Greece, England, Africa, China and virtually all civilized countries elsewhere -- that formidable weapon the sword and even any large knife were taken from the populace and legal ownership was reserved only for Royalty.

The almost prehistoric legend of King Arthur is bound to the symbol of the Sovereignty of the Sword -- Excalibur. Something that is not well discussed anymore is that the child Arthur was not legally allowed to own a sword. It was the nobility that came and tried to extract the sword from the stone but none could. So it was that Arthur was one of the serfs who then rose to lead the English. Excalibur by the way means Ex (coming out of) the Calibur (the mold or container) -- an interesting double meaning for the sword that came out of the stone that contained it is also Ex (without) Calibur (peer or equal). So Excalibur, perhaps the worlds most universally well known individual weapon was a symbol of Freedom (from containment and imprisonment even by stone) and also a symbol of Power without peer or equal.

In many nations the sword is still a powerful symbol of sovereignty. In England, Knighthood is still bestowed by touching the person with the holy sword of the Queen or King. Romans were forbidden to own a sword unless in the service of the State as Citizens (a Roman Citizen was a person who had sworn first allegiance to the Roman Emperor and thus was allowed certain rights and privileges such as a knife, sword and staff).

Non-Citizens, even lower soldiers were denied swords except when actually fighting in some periods of Roman and Greek history. When not fighting a war with a sword the swords were kept in the armory away from the people.

CHRISTIANS WERE NOT ALLOWED SWORDS: Christians did not grant first allegiance to Rome, but to Christ and God. Thus they were not citizens and not allowed swords. At the time that Jesus the Christ told his disciple to sell his purse and get a sword -- that was a crime against the State... a felony in today's terms.

BOW AND ARROW: The bow and arrow were and are a symbol of power and sovereignty too. In ancient Rome, Egypt, England, China and other countries only Royalty and the protectors of royalty were allowed to own or use or even touch a bow and arrow. Archery was for the elite only.

The semi-mythical story of Robin Hood was about a minor Nobleman who illegally armed the common man of his area with bows and arrows in defiance of Royal Law. Then they had the audacity to live in Sherwood Forest, owned by the king and shoot and eat the king's deer -- instead of starving to death. It was for this that Robin was deemed a criminal and a hoodlum, that is Robin the hood, and later came to act the part more fully.

Robin Hood as a symbolic and partially true story as well as the earlier Arthurian legend symbolized war against tyranny, illegal personal armament and liberty for the low-man. Archery, in the time of Robin of Lockesly, was denied the serfs as was meat. Hunting the royal deer -- for the State owned all land and animals was a felony with punishment being death.

It was not so much that Robin stole from the rich and gave to the poor as it was that he fought tyranny and championed liberty. He symbolized what we now know as guerrilla warfare. His "Merry Men" besting the King's men at every turn. The bow and arrow is often depicted as a symbol of sovereignty in all the ancient countries and governments in the earliest pictures and writing. In fact in America today we see the symbolic power of the arrow displayed in our national symbol. The symbol of our country is that "noble" hunter, scavenger, murderer -- the eagle and in it's claws are the arrows of sovereignty.

THE PISTOL AND THE RIFLE: These are two of the symbols of sovereignty today. In America these were reserved to the people first, as an individual liberty guaranteed by the Bill of rights, by our Founding Fathers who were all historians of world culture.

These founding scholars determined that we should have first the freedom to communicate and secondly, that is the Second Amendment, the right to protect that right of free and open communication with the RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS. As historians the Founders were well aware that arms change and nowhere in the Constitution of America are guns mentioned for good reason; weapons and symbols of sovereignty change.

The people of America by our Constitution are deemed the Sovereigns here and the government our dangerous and unreliable servant. However lack of education in classic literature, lack of education in social history, miseducation in our schools and press as well as a lack of education in how to think -- have left us with an uninformed and unthinking populace that is being slowly disarmed from the weapons of our Founders -- the pistol and the rifle.

Our government and our people both have forgotten history and ignored it; thus each are destined to repeat it. Our people will be enslaved gradually by a tyrannical government as has always been the case -- none of us know how long it will take, but there have been no exceptions in the history of this world.

And later those in government will be removed -- quite likely in a deadly and bloody manner by those slaves of the state when one or a few rise up as leaders. As Thomas Jefferson advised us... Liberty must be frequently fertilized by the blood of tyrants and the people who would defy them or it dies.

Pistols and Guns are a symbol of personal sovereignty in America as nowhere else in the world. We should be looking to even more modern weaponry if we could afford it. However the best disarmament of the populace that has ever been done is here in America where only the government can afford the most powerful of the modern weapons of war... tanks, rockets, bombs, planes and all the computerized intelligence and record keeping to keep the people down.

In our Founders time the individually sovereign citizen had better weapons than the governments armies and that was the way they planned our country to continue... with the populace heavily armed against tyrants within and without our nation. It was always the intention that Sovereign individuals would be armed with the latest and the best of arms and that the army, in time of war, would gather what they could of men and weapons to defend our nation when need be.

Civilization has never been tame nor safe; however as observed over time, a well armed citizenry, where everyone is suspect of being always armed and dangerous -- that society is certainly a far more polite society.

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