Regards, Ivan
Posted on 12/13/2002 5:28:35 PM PST by MadIvan
The days of frontier justice have returned to Tombstone, the legendary outlaw outpost where the old West really was Wild and Wyatt Earp, his brothers and Doc Holliday walked up to the OK Corral to battle it out with the Clanton gang.
Now the only gunshots in town are the blanks fired off as the showdown is recreated for tourists. But, behind the shops hawking Earp T-shirts and Doc ashtrays, a group of local desperados have, to the horror of Tombstone's law-abiding citizens, decided it is time to strap on their gunbelts for real and take the law into their hands one more time.
Their target is not cattle rustlers or horse thieves but illegal immigrants who sneak across the border, bringing with them, they insist, drugs, weapons and a new class of criminals.
Forty local men have pledged to create a militia to stop them. They include David McCallister, who has been wearing a gun since he was 16. Now 53, he said he had recently been shot at by illegal immigrants who he found trying a night crossing. He fired back but no one was injured.
Then there is Henry Esparza, 50, who said the illegal immigrants caused US-born Hispanics like himself to "lose respect" from the rest of the community, and Lawrence Joyce, 48, a local lawyer who said he had heard a rumour that Arabs were dressing as Mexicans to cross the border and spread terror in America.
Their leader is Chris Simcox, 42, a former Los Angeles primary school teacher who is now editor of the local newspaper, the Tombstone Tumbleweed, and spends his spare time with a .45 handgun scouring riverbeds for outlaws.
More than one million illegal immigrants are expected to be detained this year along the Mexican border but up to three times as many are predicted to get through. Mr Simcox says he has seen numerous groups pass Tombstone at night, sometimes on foot, other times in Jeeps with the lights off, and says that people have had enough of government inaction.
"I dare the President of the United States to arrest Americans who are protecting their own country," he challenged. It is this disdain for existing law enforcement and the scale of people's frustration at the government's present border policies that worries the authorities. For it is not only Tombstone that is taking matters into its own hands. Two other militia groups are understood to be already operating in Arizona.
In Texas, a band calling itself the Ranch Rescue is patrolling. Last month it claimed to have chased a group of marijuana smugglers back into Mexico. In the Sierra Vista a group known as the American Border Patrol has set up its own surveillance equipment to monitor the situation.
Scare stories about armed gringos shooting at families crossing the border have already started appearing in the Mexican press.
In Tombstone, Dusty Escapule, the mayor, says he fears the new militia will attract to town "radicals who want to go on a human hunt". Mr Simcox insists the guns his men carry are only for self-protection. But what everyone agrees on is that it is only a matter of time before someone gets killed.
The Clanton gang can expect new neighbours in the graveyard at Boothill.
Regards, Ivan
Clockwise from top left: Wyatt, Virgil, James Earp, Doc Holliday, and Morgan Earp (center)
Now, I'm not endorsing Mr. Simcox's tactics with this litle project, but it is worth pointing out that the line above originated in an LA times piece this past Sunday. The source was given as Mr. Simcox himself, agreeing that someone would eventually get killed, but that someone would be one of his group, killed by a drug smuggler.
The international flurry of hit pieces against these three groups is revealing, in the attempt to demonize these 'vigilantes', while attempting to justify or ignore breaking the U.S.'s border control laws.
Things are about to get very interesting.
I spit on journalists who misuse definitions to advance an agenda. I suppose it's OK for me to call them 'propagandists'. Actually, the true moniker for these idiots is 'LIAR'!
I think that we have gone over the edge, and it's a matter of time before armed conflict breaks out between various factions in this country and some of our neighbors. So-called journalists have become a willing fifth column in the US. I just hope that these 'propagandists' are high on the frag list.
The Clantons aren't buried at Boot Hill. Boot Hill is in Dodge City, Kansas.
BTW I used to live in Dodge City. There is a remnant of the original in the current re-creation. I understand the original one is now covered by the nearby grammar school.
Excellent!
Carrying without a permit
Date updated: Thursday, July 11, 2002
Arizona is an open carry state. Handguns should be holstered when not actually in use to avoid issues related to brandishing or questions regarding the concealed nature of the firearm. The law states that as long as a portion of the holster is visible, the weapon is not concealed. It is recommended that at least 2-3 inches of the holster be visible. Fanny packs designed to carry a handgun do not qualify as a holster; only permit holders may carry a weapon in a fanny pack (State v. Moerman). An unholstered handgun carried by a non-permitee which is only partially visible is considered concealed, hence the recommendation to keep carried handguns holstered. Weapons carried in a vehicle that are not in a holster or case must be clearly visible and obvious, unless the weapon is in the trunk, glove box or a storage compartment of the vehicle. Weapons may be transported/carried loaded or unloaded. Indian reservations do not usually allow open carry on reservation lands (Indian Nations). Other locations may be posted "no weapons" or be covered under State or Federal law
It seems these people are just meeting their community responsibility; because of the fact their federal and local governments seem to think it is politically incorrect to use adequate measures to do so.
I suspect there are several more, Les Moore's buried in other Western towns, probably all fictional.<p.It is clever tho.
What if the BATFags are not sent in to confiscate "gun hoards"? What if the FBI does not investigate the inevitable border shootings?
This will be the ultimate expression of the old republic if 2 years from now, the Federal Military was used to put down foreign aggressors (in Iraq? etc?) -AND- no FEDERAL action has been taken against the border-protecting citizen "militias" as it most certainly would have in Reno days.
A guy can dream caint he????....
Of course, if the States themselves choose to do something, well that's ok by me, just keep the Feds in DC or Iraq.
In Arizona no permit is required for open carry.
This is nothing new. Every now and then there will be a show on Mexican TV showing a disheveled Border Patrol Agent mowing down an enitre family of illegals in a river bed. You should have seen the lies the Mexican press told after one of my fellow agents shot a smuggler. They didn't even try to twist or misrepresent the facts. They just blatantly lied.
How's that for twisted coverage. The law abiding citizens forming a posse to deal with lawbreakers are "desperados". Presumably the law abiding citizens in horror of this are the ACLU and MALDEF.
"Due to the increased threat of terrorist infiltration, I am hereby changing the rules of engagement for our Border Patrol. Anyone found in the no-go border strip will be presumed to be a terrorist infiltrator, and will be shot. Don't cross the border away from official crossings, or we cannot be responsible for your safety."
I think the mere announcement would do it.
vigilante n. U.S. 1. One of a body of men self-organized for the enforcement of law, public morality and the administration of summary justice. 2. A member of a Vigilance committee: also vigilance man.Is the Tombstone Militia proposing to make lawful citizen arrests or are they planning on a lynching? Are they doing this to force their style of public morality or to enforce the law? Will they turn the law breakers over to local authorities or employ summary justice? Are they responding to repel an actual invasion of their state, in the best tradition of our founding fathers, or are they just imagining this crisis?
OK, I give up. Would somebody please show me where the vigilantism is in the proposal to organize the Tombstone Militia?
The author leaves the story's real question unasked and unanswered: Since Art.I, Sec.8, cl.15 and Art.IV, Sec.4 of the Constitution require the federal government to act to protect the states from invasion, by what right have they abdicated their requirement to act?
Hang 'em high,
Boot Hill
(PS: jmc813, thanks for pinging me to this thread.)
While there were many cities and towns in the old west with a cemetery, formally or informally, called "Boot Hill", only a handful have survived to this day. One, of course, is located in Dodge City. Another two are in Montana; one in Powder River County and the other in Virginia City (Montana, not Nevada). But arguably the old west's most famous Boot Hill is located in Tombstone, Arizona, the site of "the shootout at the OK Corral".
And unless continental drift has gotten completely out of hand recently, the Clantons remain buried in the Boot Hill Cemetery located in Tombstone, Arizona.
(Ask me how I know...)
Regards,
Boot Hill
There is no doubt that the shootout at the OK corral was the most famous gunfight in history tho.
Right here you go. They've been looking for a Florida volunteer coordinator, by the way- you may be able to do them an immense service without even having to leave your home state. Take a look and see what you think, and give Jack an e-mail at
volunteer@ranchrescue.com
-archy-/-
Be cautious; the BushGestapo at Free Republic hates to hear people talk about their favourite presidente and his business partners that way.
-archy-/-
Four shots from a .44
No Les, No More."
--Inscription on a tombstone at Boot Hill Cemetery, Tombstone, Arizona.
Not quite. The epitaph reads:
Here lies Lester Moore,
Four slugs from a .44,
No Les, No more.
It has also been observed that had it been an original epitaph from the period, it more likely would have read *Four balls from a .44....*
-archy-/-
The worse danger they bring with them are opportunists who seek political power using the ignorance and greed of the growing population of their people. 
You may wish to add another *Boot Hill* to your list, since you are a likely source of expertise and a probable reference on the subject: the one in Idaho, at the Yankee Fork Mining District on the Salmon River, which includes both the main cemetery for the Bonanza mining settlement and a nearby *Boot Hill* adjunct facility.
-archy-/-
LOL, I knew that even when I modified "most famous" with "arguably", I was still going to catch some flak over that. I guess I tend to side with the Tombstone group only because that is where my political and ethical heart has always been.
Regards,
Boot Hill
Regards,
Boot Hill
I actually think that this is a good idea, and would rapidly solve many of the dangerous and irritating problems with our less considerate neighbors that the cops have no time for.
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