You’ve been told violence is a terrible thing. You’ve been told that folks are killing each other all over world, and they will certainly stop if we can just control this terrible flood of weapons and keep them in hands of officials who should properly have them. Most recently, U.N. is trying desperately to improve everybody’s life by getting firearms off open market. The world will be a safer and kinder place if they can just manage it.

If you truly believe that, my friends, please allow me to sell you some oceanfront property in Utah.

Is violence a terrible thing? Yes, it most certainly is. Is violence morally wrong? Of course. Will it go away? Not before Hell freezes colder than a well digger’s backside in January! It is human condition.

Well, then, should we contribute to violence by allowing firearms to be sold?

This is trickiest question of all. You see, firearms do not contribute to violence. Only people can do that. And taking firearms off general market will have appalling sociological consequences.

That’s right. You heard me correctly. I said “appalling consequences.”

I know you’ve all heard argument that if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns, so I won’t talk about that today. Let’s play a little game instead. Let’s pretend that every single gun on this planet can be destroyed. Let’s pretend that enterprising souls won’t make any zip guns in their garages. Firearms are completely gone – history. Not so much as a slingshot left. It’s over.

This would be end of a terrible chapter in human history, wouldn’t it?

Oh, no. It wouldn’t be end of Hell. It would be beginning!

Now I'm not so sure. The subconscious mind works in mysterious ways. Even 'way back in 1994, when I finished original first draft of Flight From Eden, I'd already seen our federal government's appalling abuse of military and police power near Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and in Waco, Texas - latter being fairly close to home for me.

I was not a political activist back in those days. I was just a mousy writer and computer nerd who sat very still, very quietly and hoped that nasty three-letter Feds would stay far, far away from me. But I am sure those television scenes were working on me at some subliminal level while I was writing Flight From Eden - because even in those days, had someone burst into my second floor bedroom at night, already shooting, way we all saw ATF do that awful night at Mt. Carmel, this very law-abiding lady would have done her absolute damnedest to send them straight to Hell in a pine box. Would that have been a crime? Not in my opinion, although I do suspect that several three-letter federal organizations would have a very different opinion.

In any event, I probably wouldn't have survived such an event long enough for my opinion to have mattered. You see, only tool I had to defend myself in those days was a little five-shot Chief, with one little five-shot re-loader. A simple mathematical matter of insufficient ammunition. I've considerably more (and considerably bigger) ammo these days - although I doubt that any individual is going to be able to match firepower of SWAT or Feds - but carnage would certainly be memorable.

If my government wants a word with me, let me gently point out that it really is much simpler and pleasanter to knock. I am much milder of manner than poor, dead David Koresh, and I am quite sure even he would have offered coffee and conversation while your three-letter thugs tossed Mt. Carmel. Hell, I might pass out some pretty decent cookies while you toss my house. Be a real shame to pass those up.

But don't - I repeat here for absolute clarity, do NOT - come through my door or window shooting. The result will be much too ghastly to contemplate for every single party concerned, no doubt including me.

Are we in a police state right now? That's an interesting question. I believe we are, although I'd be hard pressed to prove it as yet. But that is problem with police states. They never happen all at once. They happen very gradually, over lots and lots of time, and most folks never even notice until it is far, far too late. My stepfather is a Holocaust survivor - a damned lucky one - who was a fifteen year old kid actually living in Vienna on night of Hitler's invasion. Did his family see it coming? Of course not! They were uneasy, but if they had really known what was coming, they would have hauled ass long before they did.

Well, I'm uneasy now, right here in these United States. Very, very uneasy. And getting more so.

Flight From Eden is about a religious dictatorship, and real life United States has separation of Church and State - or does it? Can anyone name for me one single public address made by President Bush that does not mention God more than once? What? Not even one?

How about man who is to enforce all these wonderful new laws, Attorney General John Ashcroft? C'mon, guys, just one speech. That's all I ask.

Hell, Ashcroft is such a complete religious nutcase, he's offended by a giant brass teat!

So am I going to "haul ass" out of United States? No! My stepfather's family was already disarmed and helpless when they became uneasy about Nazis. I am sure as Hell not disarmed, and "helpless" is a state of mind I refuse to acknowledge. This is my country, and I love it, and I'm going to get it back, come Hell or high water. But I am just a little pressed for time. You see, if we are to get our country back using non-violent means - "non-violent" meaning words and political process - we are definitely running out of time. History has shown that these police state things always reach a kind of critical mass sooner or later. Once that happens, only blood will end it.

We can't afford to let that happen!

I can't speak for my readers, but I am definitely not anxious to take up a new career as a member of some rebel militia. Even if I did not have a moral and ethical reluctance to kill save in last extremity of self-defense, retirement benefits really, really suck.

On top of which, if only one person, or two or three, or ten, starts shooting, three-letter Feds will use it as an excuse to try to disarm us. The operative word here being "try."

If that happens, blood will run ankle deep in streets of every city and town in United States! I guarantee it!