My Personal Pledge of Resistance Against Any Attempt to Disarm Us by Means of an “Assault Weapons Ban”

The Queen of Battle, and her modern descendants, are the birth-right of every American.

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force: Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” – Patrick Henry

My conscience, and the urgency of our current situation, compel me to speak out.  The victim disarmament freaks are now telling us that they don’t want to disarm us- oh, no!  They just want to take away our “assault weapons” – our semi-automatic, magazine fed, military-style rifles – and the “high capacity” magazines that feed them.   They want us to believe that so long as we can own some kind of firearm, after our semi-auto military rifles are taken, we are not disarmed.  That is a LIE.
The truth is that our semi-automatic, military pattern rifles are the single most important kind of arm we can own, and are utterly necessary for effective defense of our lives, property, and liberty.    When you are disarmed of your military rifles, you are DISARMED.   At that time, the lion’s share of your military capacity to effectively resist tyranny is removed (yes, accurate bolt action hunting rifles are useful in that role too, but the semi-auto battle rifle is truly the Queen of battle, as Col. Jeff Cooper correctly noted).   It is a significant force on the battlefield, and as Patrick Henry said, when you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.
It is the height of Orwellian perversion of language and logic to say that disarming you of the most effective arms for combat that you still have is somehow not really disarming you, because you still have hunting rifles and shotguns.  And you can bet that if you let them take your military semi-autos, next on their list will be your bolt action rifles, which they will call “sniper rifles” (and by God, that is certainly what they are good for!).   And then when they have those, they will go after any weapon that holds more than a few rounds,  or is capable of any degree of long range accuracy and penetrating power, telling you that you really don’t need one of those to hunt or target practice (a shotgun will suffice), and then they will take everything except single shot shotguns or .22’s (as was done in England) and on  down the line.  So long as you have at least a .22, they will say you are not “disarmed” while they take everything else (and then they will take the .22s, or insist that you keep them at a gun-range).
We need to call a spade a spade and teach our fellow citizens that taking away military style semi-autos is disarmament.  And we need to throw down the gauntlet and take a hard stand against it, right now.  When we, as Oath Keepers, pledged to not obey any orders to disarm the American people, this is what we meant.  Any attempt to disarm the people of any arms currently in their possession is illegitimate and must be nullified, refused, disobeyed, and resisted.
And so, in response to this obvious assault on our right to keep and bear arms (as in military arms),  I feel compelled to make the following personal pledge:
I Stewart Rhodes, as an American, as a military veteran, and as a father, pledge the following:
I Pledge to never disarm, and in particular, to never surrender my military pattern, semi-automatic rifles (and full capacity magazines, parts, and ammunition that go with them), regardless of what illegitimate action is taken by Congress, the President, or the courts.
I also pledge to pass on those military pattern rifles to my children and my children’s children, as well as the full capacity magazines, parts, and ammunition to needed to use them, regardless of what illegitimate action is taken by Congress, the President, or the courts.  As Founding Father Tench Coxe said, while attempting to allay the fears of critics of the proposed Constitution:

The powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from sixteen to sixty. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom?
Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American… [T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.  – Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.

And that “power of the sword” – those “terrible implements of the soldier,”  includes the people’s battle rifles and carbines – their M1As, their FN-LARs, their HK 91s, their Grandfathers’ M1 Garand, their AK 47s, their ARs and M4s, etc. – all of the weapons listed as being targeted for Feinstein’s new and improved “Assault Weapons Ban.”
The whole point of the Second Amendment is to preserve the military capacity of the American people – to preserve the ability of the people, who are the militia, to provide for their own security as individuals, as neighborhoods, towns, counties, and states, during any emergency, man-made or natural; to preserve the military capacity of the American people to resist tyranny and violations of their rights by oath breakers within government; and to preserve the military capacity of the people to defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, including those oath breaking domestic enemies within government.  It is not about hunting, and at its core, the Second Amendment is not really even about self-defense against private criminals.   It is about self-defense against public criminals – against tyrants, usurpers, and foreign invaders. (and that is the whole point of the crucial upcoming film, Molon Labe).

On the Firing Line at an Appleseed Rifle Shoot

Above all other firearms currently available to the American citizen, modern military pattern, semi-automatic rifles provide that military capacity.   Protecting the keeping and bearing of such arms of military utility is the heart and soul of the Second Amendment.  Thus, any attempt to ban their possession, sale, purchase, or transfer, is an attempt to disarm the American people.
Nor will I surrender my accurate, scoped, bolt action rifles, which are also great force multipliers of military utility in the roles of sniper and marksman.  Invaders, tyrants and usurpers fear the sniper and marksman for good reason, and millions of American hunters have the well practiced field-craft and marksmanship skills to serve in those rolls most effectively.  We must preserve their means of doing so, including preserving our .50 caliber sniper rifles, our .338 Lapua’s, our .300 Win Mags, and other powerful, long-range capable calibers.
Nor will I surrender my semi-automatic pistols with full capacity magazines, which provide me with the capacity to effectively defend against close range, sudden attack.
I will not disarm, regardless of what law is passed by the oath breakers in Congress, or signed into law by the oath breaker in the White House, and I WILL pass on to my children every terrible implement of the soldier currently in my possession.
Further, I will ask my children to also pledge to never surrender those family arms and equipment, regardless of what illegitimate, Bill of Rights violating law is passed by the oath breakers in Washington DC, and regardless of whatever any oath breaking judge may rule.
Further, I pledge to refuse compliance with any and all laws that attempt to strip me and my children of those arms, the full capacity magazines needed to load and fire them, or the parts and ammunition needed to keep them firing.  I will use nullification, civil disobedience, and active resistance against all such laws.  I will nullify, disobey, and resist as an individual, and I will work with my neighbors to nullify, disobey, and resist as towns, counties, and states.  We will not disarm, we will not comply, and we will resist.
Further, I pledge to refuse to vote for, and to actively work to purge from office any elected official, of any party, who violates their oath of office by supporting, endorsing, or voting for any law, action, or decree that attempts to disarm me, my children, or my children’s children of any of the above noted arms.   I pledge to root the oath breakers out, in a scorched earth policy.  I will not buy into the “lesser of two evils” con game, and regardless of what party an oath breaking politician is in, and regardless of the outcome of elections, that oath breaker will not get my vote, ever again, once  they betray my trust and violate their oath by voting for an assault weapons ban or any other attempt to curtail my right to bear arms.
Finally, I pledge to defend myself, my neighbors, my town, county, and state, against any attempt to forcibly disarm them pursuant to any “assault weapons ban” or any other illegitimate “law” passed by oath breakers within Congress, or pursuant to any illegitimate order, action, or decree by the oath breaker within the White House. We will not disarm.  We will resist.  And if given no other choice but to fight or to submit to abject tyranny, we will fight, just as our forefathers in the American Revolution fought against the tyrants, usurpers, and oath breakers of their day.
If we are presented with the “choice” of submission to tyranny or fighting in defense of our natural rights, we will fight, as our forefathers fought, when the British Empire attempted to disarm them and confiscate the military pattern arms, ammunition, and supplies of their time.  We will make the same choice as Patrick Henry made, when he rejected “peace” purchased at the price of chains and slavery, and said “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”  I too choose liberty or death.
I hereby reaffirm my oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor in defense of the principles of liberty enunciated in our Declaration of Independence, for which our forefathers spilled their blood.   We will not let the Republic fall without a fight.
What say you?
Stewart Rhodes
Founder of Oath Keepers