Vin Suprynowicz wrote:

Most Americans should be ashamed to celebrate the Fourth

Recently, President Clinton's then-Drug Czar, Lee Brown, told me the role of government is to protect the people from dangers, such as drugs. I corrected him, saying, "No, the role of government is to protect our liberties."

"We'll just have to disagree on that," the president's appointee said.

Since the government was incapable of protecting either the people at Waco or those at OKC, then who exactly are they protecting?

The War for American Independence began over unregistered, untaxed guns, when British forces attempted to seize arsenals of rifles, powder and ball from the hands of ill-organized Patriot militias in Lexington and Concord. American civilians shot and killed scores of these government agents as they marched back to Boston. Are those Minutemen still our heroes? Or do we now consider them "dangerous terrorists" and "depraved government-haters"?

We consider them Branch Davadians.

In "The Federalist" No. 46, James Madison told us we need have no fear of any federal tyranny ever taking away our rights, arguing that under his proposed Constitution "the ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone," and predicting that any usurpation of powers not specifically delegated would lead to "plans of resistance" and "appeal to a trial of force."

This was before Dan Rather and Kookie Roberts became "the ultimate authority." Since they have to compete with Bart Simpson for ratings, their primary interest is in making sure that the citizens don't "have a cow" during their broadcast. {"Today, all rights and freedoms of the citizens were suspended by Executive Order. And, in the lighter side of the news..." <cut to "cute puppy" story>}

Another prominent federalist, Noah Webster, wrote in 1787: "Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe."

Adolph Hitler obviously understood what Noah Webster was writing about. If we could get the writings made into a TV movie (or a cartoon), there might be a minute chance to get the American public to understand, as well.

In Phoenix last week, an air conditioner repairman and former Military Policeman named Chuck Knight was convicted by jurors -- some tearful -- who said they "had no choice" under the judge's instructions, on a single federal "conspiracy" count of associating with others who owned automatic rifles on which they had failed to pay a $200 "transfer tax" -- after a trial in which defense attorney Ivan Abrams says he was forbidden to bring up the Second Amendment as a defense.

Were the Viper Militia readying "plans of resistance," as recommended by Mr. Madison? Would the Constitution ever have been ratified, had Mr. Madison and his fellow federalists warned the citizens that such non-violent preparations would get their weapons seized, and land them in jail for decades?

Happy Fourth of July.

Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Readers may contact him via e-mail at vin@lvrj.com. The web site for the Suprynowicz column is at http://www.nguworld.com/vindex/.

Is it still legal to say this stuff? Perhaps we need a new law that... TruthMonger