"'Treason' to a government based upon treason to its own founding document is no treason at all." The "law" versus the Rule of Law. "The enemies of liberty can only make you a slave to their appetites if you give them your permission by your inaction."

Corrected transcript of my Patriot's Day speech, Canon City, CO, 19 April 2015.

I'm going to tell you about this struggle from the worm's eye view. There's a lot of talk about the politics and what we have to do to have this political success or another. But I'm proud to say that I've been on the enemies' lists of the last three White Houses, irrespective of party. So I'm an equal opportunity gadfly. I disagreed with George Bush on the PATRIOT Act and I disagreed with him on his amnesty policy.

You know, I've given a lot of Patriot's Day speeches the past few years, especially the last few years -- from the steps of the Connecticut state house to Bunch Ranch. But I couldn't have chosen a prettier or more meaningful venue than here in Colorado this beautiful Sunday morning -- the 240th anniversary of the battles at Lexington and Concord.

I wasn't able to go to church this morning, but God was close by. As I drove down out of Custer County just after dawn, I was struck dumb with the power and majesty of God. As the light played off the mountains in colors that were stark and shaded at the same time -- it was breathtaking. How anyone can see such grandeur and not be convinced of the power and majesty of the Almighty Creator is beyond me. Amen?

You know we think we have mountains in North Alabama -- but they're really just foothills of the Appalachians, which are an old, tired bunch of mountains anyway. You have some new fresh mountains out here. But those (points to mountains outside Canon City) -- now THOSE are mountains. The other thing I noticed as a member in good standing of the armed citizenry, and it was not exactly a religious observation, is what GOOD KILLING GROUND it is. May God have pity on any tyrant who tries to invade here. especially Custer County.

The scariest thing about the present regime is that they have made every day "opposite day" as my friend David Codrea calls it by redefining reality as they choose to see it. Up is down. Deviancy is normal. War is Peace. Freedom is slavery. -- and worse, lawlessness is now codified as law -- but ONLY as they wish it it to be -- and only applying to their enemies -- that is, to the rest of us -- and not to THEM.

There is a scene in A Man For All Seasons that applies here. Sir Thomas More is arguing with a young lawyer, William Roper. Roper accuses More: "So now you give the Devil the benefit of the law!" More answers, "Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?"

"Yes!" shouts Roper, "I'd cut down every law in England to do that!" And More replies: "Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!"

The Founders understood this, especially after the Alien and Sedition act crisis almost tore the young Republic apart -- never pass a law that you're not willing to see your own worst enemy enforce upon you. That was my principal criticism of the PATRIOT Act. People trusted George Bush -- "Oh, well, he'll never do detentions of American citizens." How do you like it now? You know I had this vision at the time of John Ashcroft being hauled off in handcuffs, you know, thinking Hillary was going to be the next president, saying "No! No! That;s not what the PATRIOT Act means! I know! I wrote it!"

The Founders knew this from John Locke who wrote a century before them -- Locke understood that the rule of law in a constitutional republic is a precious and necessary thing for it protects all of us and it keeps the game fair and free. But as Locke warned:

Whenever the legislators endeavour to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience, and are left to the common refuge, which God hath provided for all men, against force and violence.

The clarity and the power . . . and he wrote more than a century before the Founders. It is more than a little ironic that those of us who swore an oath to the rule of law of the Founder's Republic find ourselves forced to be law breakers in fidelity to that same oath. But here's the truth that our present would-be rulers don't get -- THE RULE OF LAW PROTECTS THEM FROM US FAR MORE THAN IT PROTECTS US FROM THEM!

The collectivists currently in charge of the Executive Branch and those in charge of this state believe that the law is whatever they say it is because they won the last election. We understand that the rule of law means that any law must be subject to the limits of the Constitution. As their definition of "law" means that they have the power to compel you -- regardless of the constitutionality of their purpose -- I leave it to you to decide who is in fact "law-abiding" and who is faithful to the rule of law as the Founder's understood it.

As for me, I have made my decision -- and so have all those in states like Colorado, Connecticut, New York, Maryland and now in Washington state who must confront the reality of unconstitutional laws and who have decided that armed civil disobedience of such laws is the only course open to men and women who wish to remain free. These people now find themselves in a true sense behind enemy lines. I have the safety of going home to Alabama. Y'all are stuck here. Worse, you could be in Connecticut or Washington state where the authorities there are far more thirsty for power -- and far more likely that conflict will break out there. Your recall elections put the fear of God into some of these people here -- obviously not enough, though, because they wouldn't repeal the magazine law, one of the things that brings me here today.

But for this resistance we find ourselves being called many things including "insurrectionists," "seditionists," "anti-government," and even, here lately, "traitors." To these people, all who resist them are "traitors." But I tell you now and I'll tell the world:

TREASON TO A GOVERNMENT BASED UPON TREASON TO ITS OWN FOUNDING DOCUMENT IS NO TREASON AT ALL! It is merely obedience to God and the truest expression of the inalienable and natural rights to life, liberty and property that HE gave us. It is also an act of fidelity to the rule of law and the Founders' constitutional republic. And anyone who tells you differently is selling something.

And what they are selling is the notion that you, the individual, must subordinate yourself to their benevolent collective -- OR ELSE. Quite benevolent, really. "Do what we say or get eaten." What they are selling is that YOU are an "enemy of the people," not them -- that YOU are "anti-government," not them -- that YOU are a "law breaker" and a criminal, not them, because you believe as the Founders did that an unconstitutional law is null and void. And that's inscribed in American jurisprudence and has been for two hundred plus years. An unconstitutional law is null and void. And what they are selling most is the lie that they that they aren't what their actions prove them to be -- what the Founders would have called them in all honesty, in fact referred to them in the Constitution-- they are in fact DOMESTIC ENEMIES OF THE CONSTITUTION!

What they are selling is a lie told by pathological collectivist liars in service of those liars and their hidden purpose -- to satisfy their insatiable appetites for your liberty and your property even at the cost of your life and the lives of all you hold dear. THAT is the steel fist of tyranny that they wrap their sweet lies around, hoping you that won't notice until it is too late. For collectivism is the oldest human moral disease. And like the Terminator, it cannot be bargained with, it cannot be appeased, it can only be defeated. Collectivism in the last century consumed hundreds of millions of innocents and STILL has practitioners who want more -- and more -- and more. In this century and for all time, these people's appetites never go away. They have this. . . this lack. . . this hunger that they have to fill somehow, and they kill, in the end, they kill to try to fill that hunger. You can't negotiate with that. You can't bargain. You can only beat it.

But, increasingly our would be rulers are discovering to their horror that there is NO unconstitutional law that they can pass that we can't nullify with armed civil disobedience. From Connecticut to New York York to Maryland to Colorado and now Washington state, at every turn the tyrannical laws they passed after Sandy Hook have been negated. NEGATED! Completely. And the elites don't know whether to defecate or go blind. Connecticut and New York have non-compliance rates of 85 and 90 percent! New York like Colorado has the advantage of county sheriffs who have told the state police, "If you come into my county to enforce the SAFE Act, I will arrest YOU. And I will put YOU in my jail." In Washington state, Michael Bloomberg bought himself a universal background check law which is nothing more than a lawful gun owner registration act. For the purposes of citizen disarmament, this is much more effective than firearms registration. It's us potential troublemakers that they want to identify. That's why they want us all on the list.

But you know what? The uncompromising firearms owners of Washington state came together at the state capitol in the largest firearm rights demonstration ever staged there. TWO THOUSAND ARMED MEN AND WOMEN MET, DEFIED THE TRANSFER LAW AND NOTHING HAPPENED! Nothing happened. Despite the threats of the state authorities to arrest us all. First they denied us a permit -- and the Washington state activists said, "We don' need no steenkeeng permits! We're coming anyway. Deal with it." When we got there, and every access to vehicles was blocked with barricades., the Liberty for All leadership said to them, "That's okay. You take them down or we will. Your choice." They're talking at this point just a few hundred armed people but they are talking to a few hundred armed people. The authorities decided in that case that discretion was the better part of valor and the barricades came down under their own locomotion. In the end, we held our rally, we defied Bloomberg's Law and we received the praise and thanks of the state police for the professional way we conducted ourselves.

In the end, all Michael Bloomberg and his paid minions could do was grind their teeth in frustration. Since that time there have been other rallies defying Bloomberg's Law. At the last one, in direct violation of the hated Intolerable Act, I was presented with this --

Meet Mrs. Bloomberg -- Charlotte to her closest friends. She is named after Michael Bloomberg's mother. Really. Charlotte Bloomberg was his mother. I take her around to every rally and speaking engagement these days to grind in the message that there is no unconstitutional law that can be passed that we cannot negate, defy, resist, evade and smuggle in opposition to. (Hands off shotgun to assistant.) Take Charlotte and be nice to her.

This is dangerous ground. It's dangerous, dangerous ground. BUT IT IS NOT GROUND THAT WE CHOSE. THIS GROUND WAS CHOSEN BY THE DOMESTIC ENEMIES OF THE CONSTITUTION. They chose to destroy the rule of law under the Constitution. They did. Not us. They're the ones who are trying to break down all of the laws, and we'll see if they stand in the winds that come then. Because that's what they're risking. The rule of law to them means nothing more than a fart in the wind.

Which brings me to Colorado today. You know, your legislature refused to repeal the magazine ban last week. So, in honor of those arrogant tyrants, I've brought them a present. (Laughter from crowd.) Really, really, I've brought them a present.

(Assistant dumps a box of magazines on the grass in front of the dais.)

This is a box filled with fifty misdemeanors -- they are magazines that mysteriously appeared in your state yesterday coincident of my arrival. Now these are "politician grade" magazines. You know, we've been smuggling hundreds of perfectly reliable magazines into Connecticut and Colorado for years now, since the laws were passed. We call the good ones "freedom fighter" magazines -- they're perfectly serviceable magazines that you can bet your life on. But now politician-grade magazines. . . like politicians they are kinda unreliable and probably won't work as advertised. However, they are perfect, therefore, for presentation to anti-gun politicians. The first politician who actually got one of these was your own governor. What's his name? Chickenpooper or something? Anyway, I sent him -- the first governor to get one under my "Toys for Totalitarians" program -- I sent him a magazine along with a letter suggesting what he should do with it. And I said, basically, you know, now that you've got it, you're in violation of your own law, go arrest yourself! True, I did.

But what I am looking for here today is co-conspirators in liberty. I'm looking for volunteers to take these fifty misdemeanors, to present them however you choose in whatever legal manner you choose, along with the message -- "This was smuggled into Colorado in violation of your law. Now that you've taken possession of it, why don't you go arrest yourself?"

Or words to that effect.

So the alternative is yours -- will you join in the nationwide conspiracy for liberty? It is not without risk, but somewhere the Founders from 240 years ago will be smiling. THE ENEMIES OF LIBERTY CAN ONLY MAKE YOU A SLAVE TO THEIR APPETITES IF YOU GIVE THEM YOUR PERMISSION BY YOUR INACTION. The choice is yours. Do I have any volunteers? There's fifty misdemeanors up here. Take 'em. Send 'em to the politicians that need to see 'em. Fifty misdemeanors. C'mon. You don't have to bid anything. All you gotta do is risk a little. But you know what we discovered? If enough of us risk, all of a sudden they decide that the risk is theirs, and not ours. And I thank you very much for your time.

(Every magazine was picked up by a member of the audience. There was no lack of volunteers.)