Intended Consequences:
The Politics Of Temper In
The Gun Rights Fight

By Jim March, (c) 8/15/2002 – jmarch@prodigy.net

On the 9th of August of this year, 61 year old Donald W. Matthews of Canton Ohio fled in his car from a vehicle stop, after being pulled over doing somewhere around 10mph over posted limits.  He had allowed the stopping officer to see his driver’s license held up to the window, but kept the window rolled up and didn’t want to turn over the license.

He was armed with an old Czech pistol in an obscure very-high-velocity .32 caliber, carried illegally under Ohio law and a felony bust if they had spotted it.  It seems probable to me that he didn’t want them doing a search of any sort, and figured that once they had his license, he’d be sitting there while they might have violated his 4th Amendment privacy rights – which does happen, although not that often.

Matthews was a “Constitutional purist”, gun rights advocate and by all accounts, not a bad guy prior to this night and with no criminal record.

But on the 9th, he “blew up”.  He sped off when it was obvious they wanted his actual documents in hand, ended up surrounded by cops, and was killed when he tried to shoot his way out.  In the process, he killed patrolman Eric Taylor.

Matthews had been studying government abuse for years, and it would appear his frustration level grew until he lashed out.  I’ve met a number of people who have decided that the abuses we’re fighting are so extreme, so ridiculous, that they’re no longer going to honor the system or support it in any way, shape or form.

When taken to the degree Matthews took it, such a stance is morally wrong, tactically stupid and politically suicidal.  It is absolutely critical that we all understand that, hence this article.

First, let’s briefly discuss the abuses.

The only law Matthews seems to have planned on breaking that night was the illegal handgun carry.  And Ohio’s near-total ban on such carry has already been ruled unconstitutional by no less than four Ohio Judges to date – one trial court Judge, and all three panel members on the appellate court.  It has been ruled a violation of due process, equal protection and Ohio’s right to arms in that state’s Constitution.  Review of those rulings is currently pending before the Ohio Supreme Court.  So saying it’s a bad law is in no way a “radical position” – the score to date is four Judges to nothing.  For more on the Ohio lawsuits against it and the various court rulings, see also: http://www.chuckkleinauthor.com/Feely.html and http://www.OhioCCW.org/ccwlawsuit.php

California’s restrictions on carry stink just as bad if not worse.  We don’t have strong court rulings to that effect yet, but the evidence needed to get such a ruling is piling up fast: http://www.ninehundred.net/~equalccw/expose.html

Every time I publish an expose on corruption and/or racism or similar in California’s gun permit system, I have to wonder whether or not I’m going to “set off” a guy like Matthews.

I sure as hell hope not.

Because the various grabber politicians just love it when one of us gets “fed up” and acts this way.  A question some of us commonly ask is what would have happened if the Nazi SS were met with gunfire on every midnight raid they went on, which sounds fine until you realize that the statist leaders of Germany, and the would-be totalitarians in the US, do not care at all about the lives of individual street cops.  Hillary Clinton will shed no tears for Officer Taylor.  Neither will her lesser counterparts in Ohio, although they’ll make all sorts of shows of public grief.  In reality, they’ll dance in his blood, furthering their own anti-freedom goals.  It’s started already, with references to Matthews' (horror of horrors) “militia connections”:

http://www.cleveland.com/crime/plaindealer/index.ssf?/xml/sto
ry.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news/102905823580060.xml

Matthews killed an ordinary cop doing a simple traffic stop.  If he’d been able to think straight and stay calm, he’d have gotten through it without ‘em even spotting the gun.  Even if they had, the previous court rulings against the carry ban could have been used as part of a criminal defense (see attorney Chuck Klein’s page above), so shooting it out was just ridiculous even if it could have been morally excused.

He did exactly as the grabber politicians hoped.  They want to either drive us out of key “socialist paradise” states such as NY, NJ, OH and California, or drive us flat-out crazy – an intended consequence.

How do I understand Matthews so well?  Because five years ago, when I first understood how nasty California’s gun laws are, I started down the same path.  Another decade or two of feelings of helpless frustration and rage and I might have ended up in the same boat.

But instead, I fought back - properly, in court and at the capitol.  I’m now on my third lawsuit fighting the abuses in the CCW system, and while it’s taken a financial toll, I’m enjoying the hell out life :).  I bring the pain to the grabbers, not the other way around, it’s the absolute best cure for this particular ailment available.  Some of my best work to date: http://www.ninehundred.net/~equalccw/oaklandzen.html

There’s lots of ways to fight back.  I know people who specialize in bringing new shooters to the range and “making converts”, some racking up 20 or more.  That’s real progress.  Some folks testify at legislative hearings for and against gun bills (good and bad); I do a little of that when I can, especially if gun carry laws are involved.  Others are active in the Libertarian party, or get very active in support of good candidates of any party.  It’s all good.  Point is, FIGHT BACK, don’t just sit there and stew in rage for years over increasingly obscure constitutional violations, such as the “fringe on the flag” crowd does (yo fringers: can you spell d-e-c-o-r-a-t-i-v-e?).

Do the rage thing and you’ll end up with an ulcer, or dead in a way that gives Dianne Feinstein massive pleasure.  There is NO worse way to go!

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Jim March is a political activist in California, webmaster of the Equal Rights for CCW Home Page – http://www.ninehundred.net/~equalccw

Paypal donations to fund his current lawsuit against California Attorney General Lockyer over gun permit records that will document the degree of racial and gender discrimination in permit issuance may be sent to: equalccw@hotmail.com or Email the author at either address for mailing addy info.

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