When word came that Hutchings, his cabinet, and most of the senior UN administrators had flown to Europe on the night of July first, the UN and Federal forces capitulated en masse. There was no final battle. The war ended with a whimper rather than a bang. The resistance army units rolled into Fort Knox on July fourth, unchallenged. They lowered the UN flag and raised Old Glory without much fanfare. Resistance soldiers cut up the UN banner into small swatches for souvenirs.
The capitulated armies were soon disarmed and demobilized. Apart from a few soldiers that were put on trial for war crimes, the rest of the U.S.-born soldiers were allowed to return to their home states by the end of August. The UN’s own barbed wire internment camps made a convenient place to put the UN soldiers while they were waiting to go home. It took more than a year to send the UN forces back to Europe by ship and airplane.
The Europeans chafed at being billed for the demobilization and troop transport. The “return bounty” reparation was fifty ounces of gold per enlisted soldier, two hundred ounces per officer, and five hundred ounces per civilian administrator, payable before delivery. The new interim Restoration of the Constitution Government (RCG) made it clear that if the bounty payments stopped, the demob flights would stop.
Maynard Hutchings committed suicide before his extradition process was completed. Most of his staff and a few divisional and brigade commanders were eventually extradited from Europe, given trials, and shot. Hundreds of lower-ranking military officers and local Quislings were arrested and similarly put on trial. Sentences included head shavings and brandings. In a few rare cases, there were death sentences. Only a few UN troops who professed fear of retribution if they were returned to their home countries were granted asylum. Each of these individuals was given separate hearings by the RCG. Most of them eventually bought citizenship.
The first elections since before the Crunch were held in all fifty states in the November following the Federal surrender at Fort Knox. The Constitution Party and Libertarian Party candidates won in a landslide. A former Wyoming governor—a Libertarian—was elected president. Based on rough population estimates, the new House of Representatives had just ninety seats.
• • •
In the three years following the elections, nine constitutional amendments were ratified by the state legislatures in rapid succession. The Document went through some major changes.
The 27th Amendment granted blanket immunity from prosecution for any crimes committed before or during the Second Civil War to anyone who actively fought for the resistance.
The 28th Amendment repealed the 14th and 26th Amendments. It also made full state Citizenship a right of birth, only applicable to native-born Citizens who were the children of Citizens. It allowed immigrants to buy state citizenship. It clarified “United States citizenship” as only having effect when state Citizens traveled outside the nation’s borders, and outlawed titles of nobility such as “esquire.”
The 29th Amendment banned welfare and foreign aid, removed the United States from the UN and most foreign treaties, capped Federal spending at 2 percent of the GDP, capped the combined number of foreign troops in the fifty states and on Federal territory at one thousand men, and limited the active duty Federal military to a hundred thousand men, except in time of declared war.
The 30th Amendment amplified the 2nd Amendment, confirming it as both an unalienable individual right and as a state right, repealed the existing Federal gun-control laws, preempted any present or future state gun-control laws, and reinstituted a decentralized militia system.
The 31st Amendment repealed the 16th Amendment, and severely limited the ability of the Federal government to collect any taxes within the fifty states. Henceforth, the Federal government’s budget could be funded only by tariffs, import duties, and bonds.
The 32nd Amendment outlawed deficit spending, put the new United States currency back on a bimetallic gold and silver standard, and made all currency “redeemable on demand.”
The 33rd Amendment froze salaries at six thousand dollars a year for House members and ten thousand for Senators, limited campaign spending for any federal office to five thousand per term, and repealed the 17th Amendment, returning Senators to election by their state legislatures.
The 34th Amendment restored the pre-Erie Railroad v.Tompkins system of Common Law, invalidated most Federal court decisions since 1932, and clarified the inapplicability of most Federal statutes on state Citizens in several states.
The 35th Amendment reinstated the allodial land-title system. Under a renewed Federal Land Patent system the amendment mandated the return of 92 percent of the Federal lands to private ownership through public sales at one dollar in silver coin per acre.
The nation’s economy was slowly restored. But with the nine new amendments, the scope of government—both state and Federal—was greatly reduced from its pre-Crunch proportions. Small government was almost universally seen as good government. For the first time since before the First Civil War, it became the norm to again refer to the nation plurally as these United States, rather than singularly as The United States. The change was subtle, but profound.
• • •
Two years after the Fort Knox surrender, NET produced a three-hour documentary entitled CW II:The Resistance War. The documentary included extensive on-camera interviews with resistance fighters. The pro-militia bias of the producers was evident, but they in no way tried to portray the resistance as angelic. Notably, one of the many video clips included was of a raid on a Federal supply depot near Baltimore. In this footage, a group of five unarmed Federal soldiers could be seen slowly walking out of a warehouse with their hands raised, only to be shot down by resistance fighters.
The vast majority of the atrocities documented in the film was committed by the Federals and various UN military units. An amateur video shot by an Austrian UN soldier showed a protest at a relocation camp in Tennessee being quelled by copious RPK machinegun fire. Some of the most damning footage was filmed by the Federals themselves—including the notorious Chicago Blindings, and graphic scenes of reprisal executions in Florida, Texas, Illinois, and Ohio. The footage from Florida showed more than a hundred bound and gagged men, women, and children being shot and pushed into a waiting mass grave with a bulldozer. Interviews with “turned” UN soldiers revealed that local unit commanders had filmed the mass executions to gain favor with their higher-ups. As one former British airborne regiment Captain put it, “These videotapes of the executions were a way of earning Brownie Points. ‘Look what a good boy I’ve been! Look how I achieved such a high reprisal body count.’ It was sickening, but that was the norm.”
Todd and Mary Gray watched the film at Kevin Lendel’s ranch house, using a newly purchased DSS satellite dish. Kevin taped it with a VCR that he had bought for a dollar-fifty in silver coin just two weeks before the grid-power came back on line. The Grays were surprised and proud to see how much of the resistance video in the documentary came from action in their own region. It included gun camera footage from the Doyles’ Laron ultralights, the snowy ambush and capture of Major Kuntzler, the implosion of the Spokane UNPROFOR headquarters, and the final assault on the UN barracks in Moscow.
As Todd tried to get to sleep that evening, memories of the recent war came flooding back. Mary sat curled beside him on the bed, under a small twelve-volt DC halogen reading light—her usual evening habit. She was rereading one of her favorite novels, The Red and The Black, and nibbling on dried apple slices. Noticing that Todd wasn’t asleep, she asked, “What’s the matter, hon?”
“It was that film we saw today. It made me think of all the friends that we’ve lost since the Crunch. I really and truly miss them. It was quite a price to pay for our freedom. All over the country folks lost family in the Crunch, and then more in the war. And across the Atlantic Ocean, there are thousands more that lost sons in the war. The Europeans will hate our guts for at least a generation, maybe a lot longer.”
Mary closed her book with a
loud thump and set it aside. “Let ’em hate us! If the ‘You’re-a-peons’ can’t stomach a sovereign and freedom-loving nation, then that’s their problem. I think that deep down they must envy us. We looked tyranny in the eye and said,‘No way. Your day is done, Mr. Tyrant. Adios.’ There’s nothing wrong with that, Todd! And we can be proud of our militia’s record.
There are no skeletons lurking in the closet. We didn’t shoot anybody that was trying to surrender. And today, as a nation, we can be proud that we liberated Canada and are supporting and supplying the resistance movements in Switzerland, and Finland, and Spain. We can do that with a clear conscience.”
Todd nodded his head, but the expression on his face showed that he was still concerned. Mary ran her fingers through Todd’s graying hair and said consolingly, “Our son Jacob is growing up in a free and God-fearing country.
That’s the bottom line.”A moment later she added, “And as for what happened during the war, we can’t change that. It’s fodder for the history books, and will be neatly analyzed by ‘Monday Morning Quarterbacks’ in more documentaries like the one we saw today. We can count on it.”
Todd sighed. “You’re right. I can’t go back in time and fix any of my mistakes. But I wonder if Jacob or our grandchildren will ever have to go through the same thing?”
Mary didn’t answer Todd for a full minute. The only sound in the room was the ticking of a clock on the bedside table. Finally, she said, “It’s in our fallen, sinful nature for tyrants to rise up in every nation. And unfortunately, it’s also in our nature that the vast majority in every nation is either too stupid or too apathetic to do anything about it until the tyrants have put up their barbed wire and spilled a lot of blood.
“Grandpa Krause liked to quote a stand-up comedian from back in the ’80s who said, ‘There are three kinds of people in this world: Those who make things happen; those who watch things happen; and those who just wonder what the heck happened? ’”
Todd nodded and chuckled at Mary’s quote. He had heard her recite it before, but under different circumstances.
Mary continued, in a more serious tone, “While most people were still wondering what the heck happened, we made something happen, Todd.”
Todd breathed, “Yes, we made it happen. And you’re right. Tyranny is a product of our sinful nature. Hopefully films like we saw today will be reminders that will keep people vigilant, so tyrants don’t spring up so often.
Thank God for our Constitution. It kept us from having to confront tyranny on our own soil for a lot longer than the average European. And hopefully now that it has been restored, we’ll have another two or three centuries of uninterrupted freedom. From now on, the Federal government is not going to be allowed to corner the market on coercive force. Far more force is being retained by the states, and by the people. That’s why we keep that APC out in the barn. And there are thousands of other APCs and tanks in private hands scattered all over the country. There may be more rough times ahead, but we’re ready for whatever might come. And when we go to God, we’ll go knowing that our children are prepared, too.” Todd stroked his hand across Mary’s belly, and smiled. It was beginning to swell with their second child. “We’ll raise them up solid. Just like us, they’ll have the faith; they’ll have the friends; they’ll have the skills; and they’ll have the tools they need to pull through.”
Mary smiled and kissed Todd. She reached up and switched off her reading light. She whispered, “I love you darling.”
“I love you too. With all my heart.” He was soon asleep. And he slept well.
CHAPTER 33
Semper Paratus
“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”
—Thomas Jefferson, Proposal for Virginia Constitution
Twenty-seven years after the Crunch, and five years after the liberation of Europe, Kevin Lendel’s middle son had just started his freshman year at Boston College. At the end of the first week of the fall semester, Solomon Michael Lendel stood near the front of a lecture hall before his physics class started, chatting about the Olympic games. One of his classmates bragged of traveling to see the games in England, and was recounting his experiences. They were the first Olympic games since before the Crunch, and were still a big topic of conversation. Sol had watched part of the games on television.
A buzzer announced the start of class, and the Tektronix MPEG-3 teleconferencing monitors automatically switched on. On a row of monitors, students at three remote classrooms could be seen and heard, via the fiber-optic system.
As Sol took his seat in the front row, his coat flapped open briefly. One of the students standing near him went pale when she noticed that he was carrying a pistol in a shoulder holster. She shouted, “He’s got a gun! He’s carrying a concealed weapon! That’s not allowed on campus!”
The professor gave a stern look. He said, “Son, take off your coat.” Sol flushed and stood up again. He did as he was told, revealing a well-worn XD .45 pistol and a counter-balancing pair of spare loaded magazines in a hand-crafted shoulder holster. The leather rig was tooled in a floral Heiser renaissance pattern.
There was an anxious pause while everyone in the classroom stared silently, wondering what would happen next.
The professor cleared his throat. “Young lady, this gentleman is not carrying a concealed weapon. I can see it as plain as day.” There were roars of laughter.
“But…” she protested weakly.
The professor motioned with his hand, enunciating, “Take your seat, son.”
Sol tossed his sheepskin coat across the back of his chair, sat down, and opened his notebook.
The professor interlaced his fingers and rested his hands on the podium. He continued, “There is no University policy on the carrying of firearms, whether concealed or not. Nor should there be. Granted, open carry of guns has gradually gone out of style in the big cities these last few years. There isn’t much crime in the streets these days. However, this young gentleman’s choice to carry a gun—for whatever reason he chooses—is his own. He is a Sovereign Citizen and sui juris. The state has no say in the matter. It is strictly an individual choice, and a God-given right. The right to keep and bear arms is an absolute, secured by the Bill of Rights. I should also remind you that it is one of the main reasons we spent four horrendous years fighting the Second Civil War. How quickly we forget. Now let’s get on with class, shall we?”
Glossary
10/22: A semiautomatic .22-rimfire rifle made by Ruger.
1911: See M1911.
9/11: The terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, which took three thousand American lives.
AAA: American Automobile Association
ACP: Automatic Colt Pistol
ACU: Army Combat Uniform. The U.S. Army’s new “digital” pattern camouflage uniform that replaced the BDU.
AK: Avtomat Kalashnikov. The gas-operated weapons family invented by Mikhail Timofeyevitch Kalashnikov, a Red Army sergeant. AKs are known for their robustness and were made in huge numbers, so that they are ubiquitous in much of Asia and the Third World. The best of the Kalashnikov variants are the Valmets that were made in Finland, the Galils that were made in Israel, and the R4s that are made in South Africa.
AK-47: The early generation AK carbine that shoots the intermediate 7.62 x 39-mm cartridge.
AK-74: The later generation AK carbine that shoots the 5.45 x 39-mm cartridge.
AM: Amplitude Modulation
A.O.: Area of Operations
AP: Armor Piercing
APC: Armored Personnel Carrier
Apgar: A scoring system used to evaluate the health of newborn babies, typically taken at one minute and five minutes after delivery.
AR: Automatic Rifle. This is the generic term for semiauto variants of the Armalite family of rifles designed by Eugene Stoner (AR-10,AR-15,AR-180, et cetera).
AR-7: The .22 LR semiautomatic survival rifle designed by Eugene Stoner. It weighs just two pounds, and when disassembled, all of the parts
fit in the buttstock. The stock is foam filled, so the rifle floats.
AR-10: The 7.62-mm NATO predecessor of the M16 rifle, designed by Eugene Stoner. Early AR-10s (mainly Portuguese, Sudanese, and Cuban contract, from the late 1950s and early 1960s) are not to be confused with the present-day semiauto only “AR-10” rifles that are more closely interchangeable with parts from the smaller caliber AR-15.
AR-15: Semiauto civilian variants of the U.S. Army M16 rifle.
AR-180: A low cost gas piston-operated .223 made primarily from stamped steel. Designed by Eugene Stoner. Early AR-180s (made in the U.S. and Japan) use a proprietary magazine, some of which do not interchange with AR-15 magazines, because their narrow magazine catch notches wee on the opposite side of the magazine. These are not to be confused with the present-day AR-180B rifles that can use standard AR-15 or M16 magazines.
ASAP: As Soon As Possible
ATF: See BATFE.
AUG: See Steyr AUG.
BATFE: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (a U.S. Federal government taxing agency).
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation.
BDU: Battle Dress Uniform. Also called “camouflage utilities” by the USMC.
BLM: Bureau of Land Management (a U.S. Federal government agency that administers public lands).
BMG: Browning machinegun. Usually refers to .50 BMG, the U.S. military’s standard heavy machinegun cartridge since the early twentieth century. This cartridge is now often used for long-range precision counter-sniper rifles.
BP: Blood Pressure.
C-4: Composition 4, a plastic explosive.
CAR-15: See M4.
CAS: Close Air Support
CB: Citizen’s Band Radio. AVHF broadcasting band. No license is required for operation in the United States. Some desirable CB transceivers are capable of SSB operation. Originally twenty-three channels, the Citizen’s Band was later expanded to forty channels during the golden age of CB, in the 1970s.
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