What the Hell is an Oath Keeper?

By Jim Pope, Captain, Columbus Police Department, Columbus, GA

USA –  -(Ammoland.com)- I recently had my first article published on Ammoland.com titled “Personal Defense Weapon for Everyday Police Carry”.

The comments started coming in. Some positive, some negative.

What surprised me was that there some positive and negative from both what I perceived as conservative commentors and liberal commentors. How could this be I wondered.

A couple of things became abundantly clear from the comments.

One, people were making assumptions about me as both an individual and as a police officer and these assumptions were apparently based on their preconceived notions about people that are pro- gun and law enforcement in general.

So, allow me to clear up a few things. You will not find anyone more pro-gun than me. I do not believe in background checks, waiting periods, the notion of Class III weapons requiring ridiculous controls and Federal stamps, etc. It took me 5 months to get my SBR and I’m still ticked about it.

The government sure didn’t take 5 months to cash my $200 check. The government has no right to impose a three-day waiting period on me to decide what church I want to go to. So what the hell gives them the right to pick any other God given right that our Founding fathers chose to assure the government could never interfere with and impose restrictions on. Gun control has never worked and cannot work by design. Criminals will always have guns because they will get them illegally. I believe that’s why we call them criminals.

Last, the right to bear arms has nothing to do with hunting, sporting or collecting. Our founding fathers viewed it as an insurance policy against oppressive government. I hope this makes my opinion abundantly clear as far as how I feel about guns and that is directly related to the discussion about “Oath Keepers”.

Second, apparently one particular commenter is playing a game and basically trying to get me to say that I would refuse to obey an order from higher authorities to confiscate guns from law abiding citizens. In other words, I’m an “Oath Keeper”. I had no idea what the hell that was and I consider myself pretty informed on these issues. I had to google it and of course they block most of the conservative material about it just like Facebook does so I had to be picky in my readings. It sounds like to me the Oath Keepers are doing pretty much what our founding fathers did. They are swearing an oath to defend the now existing constitution and refusing to obey clearly unconstitutional orders designed to create a police state.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Here is what Abraham Lincoln thought about the issue:

“The people — the people — are the rightful masters of both Congresses, and courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.” – “Abraham Lincoln, [September 16-17, 1859] (Notes for Speech in Kansas and Ohio)

Our own Declaration of Independence states : “…when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government”.  Granted gun confiscation in and of itself is not living under despotism but it is the first necessary step and history is replete with examples of just that.

Look at the opposition to the Oath Keepers group;

• The Democratic Party
• Anti-Defamation League
• Southern Poverty Law Center, etc.

This list sounds like an invitation list to the let’s destroy everything that is traditionally American, good and holy in the traditional Judaeo-Christian sense movement. These people have been on the wrong side of history on most major issues as far back as their existence. They claim to do good while they breed hate and contempt for average decent citizens that love this country, and love our Judaeo-Christian heritage and actually care about our national security.

Look at what they did to Joseph McCarthy who by the way was completely vindicated by the release of the Venona Papers after the wall came down. Research it if you don’t believe me. Anne Coulter wrote about it. I don’t have time to get into it in this article. That is for another day.

The only real difference with today’s Democratic party is that Obama is placing Muslim Brotherhood members and/or sympathizers in state department positions instead of communists. You say “to-may-to”, I say “to-mah-to”. If these people are opposed to it, then “Oath Keepers” must be on the right track. There are a few examples of good being done by these groups opposed to “Oath Keepers” but I’m sure if you looked hard enough you could find something that Hitler did that was actually good.

Lets’ look at who supports this organization:

• Glen Beck
• The Tea Party
• Pat Buchannan, etc.
• AmmoLand News

, damn good Americans if you ask me.

These people advocate limited government, lower taxes, maximum freedom of the individual, they are pro-gun and pro-constitution on any issue you could think of. Like all organizations of this nature, you will inevitably get a few of the Tim McVeigh types that attach themselves to it. People like the one that is trying to get me to say I’m an Oath Keeper or that I share their views will use this one nut job that joins the group to claim that all members are like that. They will paint me as the nut hiding in a bunker, eating MRE’s and waiting for the apocalypse.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this person was paid and trained to troll pro-gun sites to try and get someone to say something that they could twist and turn into fuel for the fire. Wow, now I sound as paranoid as one of those guys hiding in a bunker with tinfoil around my head. This is the same old dribble that liberals come out with daily because they cannot win these arguments on an intellectual level. As conservatives, we don’t need to twist truths, tell lies, etc. simply because we are right and our beliefs are validated by history itself.

So, that brings me back to the question of would I confiscate guns from law abiding citizens when ordered to do so by higher authorities or would I like “Oath Keepers” refuse to obey that order.

There are two parts to my answer. First, I believe this person is under the assumption that police in general would support the idea of illegal / unconstitutional gun confiscation. I work with about 500 of them in my organization and if you take my entire career I’ve probably worked with about 1500 and I have never met one that would support this. I can tell you now that especially in smaller cities / counties and in rural areas those orders would fall on deaf ears.

Refer to these articles for examples:

• https://www.truthandaction.org/250-police-officers-refuse-enforce-gun-laws-connecticut/
• https://cnsnews.com/blog/gregory-gwyn-williams-jr/340-sheriffs-refuse-enforce-unconstitutional-gun-control-laws
• https://gunwars.news21.com/2014/some-sheriffs-protest-gun-restrictions-others-refuse-to-enforce-laws/

The average police officer or deputy sheriff would never, ever agree to that. I’m sure you could find a few examples of politicians parading as police that would but, that would be an extreme minority.

My departments policies allow an officer to refuse to obey an unlawful / unconstitutional order and as you see above there is plenty of opposition to unconstitutional gun laws within the law enforcement community. The second part of my answer is specifically to the question of what I would do. I would be the guy standing in your door way blocking the blue helmeted UN thugs or whomever were trying to take your guns and / or do you harm. You would probably continue to criticize me throughout the incident but that’s’ okay, I consider it my duty. You see, I don’t need to take an oath with “Oath Keepers”. I have already sworn an oath to the constitution when I was granted my authority as a police officer and I will uphold that just like the officers that protected “Black Lives Matter” protester’s right to protest.

The same officers who end up getting beat on, spit on and shot to death. while doing so.