by Lee Houston

The Soviet Union officially fell on December 25, 1991. The Soviet government had owned all businesses.  To raise cash, they began selling off those businesses.  At that time, the company I worked for used large amounts of birch plywood.  The Soviets had a large birch plywood factory in central Russia.  Our company sent me to look at the property. It covered more than one-hundred-and-twenty acres and ninety-plus buildings. I spent a week looking over the facilities and visited a number of the key individuals responsible for managing is monstrous organization.  I learned not only about birch plywood production but also that the Soviet Union had twice felt strong enough to attack the United States and quickly overwhelm and defeat us.  They chose not to do that because there were so many guns and so much ammo in private hands that guerrilla warfare would go on for decades. The Soviets said that it would be an impossible victory. Later, I was reading about Japanese history and learned that, in the 1930s, the Japanese had considered attacking the continental United States in its war plan and reached the same conclusion the Soviets did years later.  Our founding fathers were right: 

A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

       Let us not forget the primary reason for the Second Amendment: We are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The people’s ownership of guns gives us the means to prevent some emperor, king, or dictator from taking power away from us. The Second Amendment places the ultimate responsibility for freedom on us, the people. Such is the cost of freedom.