Henry Bowman heard the shouts when he was waiting at the cash register. He left his tray and ran to where Jenkins was sitting.

Anvil Jenkins lay slumped to the side in the molded chair. His eyes were open but lifeless. "Does anyone here know CPR?" a man shouted.

"I do!" came a quick reply. "Get him down on the ground!"

Be a sin to let him check out at a damn fast food tent Henry Bowman thought. He stepped over to the second man, put a firm hand on his bicep, and squeezed hard.

"Let him be."

"But-"

"He does this sometimes. Just a little too much walking, that's all. C'mon, Anvil," Henry said as he scooped

Jenkins' corpse into his arms. "Let's find us a golf cart, get you back to the car." Henry carried the body out of the tent and away from the crowd. A couple of the people stared, but in a few moments they interested themselves in other things.

The Navy's Blue Angels tent. That's less than a half mile he said to himself. As he walked toward the distant shelter, Henry Bowman considered the plans Anvil Jenkins had been making when his heart gave out.

"You were lucky, Master Chief Jenkins," Henry said quietly to the corpse in his arms. "Not everybody dies happy."

"Not a bad turnout," the man said as he looked from the Lincoln Memorial out over the reflecting pool towards the Washington Monument. "Looks like eight, maybe ten thousand people."

"More than that," the photographer for the New York Times said. "Close to fifteen. Paper won't run an article on it, though. Not unless there's a riot or something." His companion nodded. A national rally in support of restoring gun rights to the citizenry did not fit in with the editorial policy of the nation's largest newspaper. "The people I've talked to here don't seem as excited about the crime bill going down as I would have thought," the photographer said, changing the subject. His companion shook his head.

"It's just been delayed, and they all know it. President'll loot the Treasury if he has to, to buy the votes he needs to get it passed." The man shook his head ruefully.

"You know, I grew up with a fellow who wasn't ashamed of his racism. Lot of people are like that, but Jerry was one of my best friends. He had a favorite joke you've probably heard: 'How do you keep five niggers from raping a white girl? Throw them a basketball.' Wherever he is, Jerry's probably laughing his ass off right now, since our Administration has seen fit to adopt that strategy as a major part of its anticrime policy."

The man was referring to one of the many controversial provisions in the proposed 'crime bill' which the House had three days earlier voted not to consider and which would, if passed, cost the taxpayers over thirty billion dollars. Among other things, it called for taxpayers' money to be spent to fund midnight basketball in the inner cities in the hope that this would reduce crime.

The provision that was of most immediate interest to the fifteen thousand people massed at the Lincoln Memorial that day was the proposed bill would ban the manufacture of over 200 types of firearms and several thousand types of magazines.

"Yeah, well let's just hope the people who voted this down show some spine and don't cave in on this one," the photographer said. "I've heard more than one person say that if this 'crime bill' passes we'll be a lot closer to a civil war." He looked at the podium and said suddenly. "Hey, I hear this guy is really good."

The two men turned to look at the next speaker, who was being introduced by the Master of Ceremonies. The speaker was a man of medium height with short dark hair, who wore a navy blue suit and a lightcolored yarmulke. His name was Jay Simkin, and he was a Holocaust scholar speaking for the civil rights organization Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

"There have been many genocides in the last century," Simkin said. "The Holocaust was not the largest. There have been at least two other genocides, one of them much more recent, which have been even larger. The Holocaust has received much more coverage and discussion than any other genocide, for two reasons. It is the only genocide that has been carefully researched and documented, and it is the only genocide where the ones responsible have been brought to public trial for their crimes."

The two men listened, along with the rest of the crowd, as Simkin discussed the Holocaust and all the other genocides of the twentieth century. The Times reporter was familiar with much of the speech, for he had read Simkin's first book Gateway to Tyranny, which included the entire text of the Nazi gun law of 1938, printed next to the U.S. law passed thirty years later. The domestic legislation appeared to have been copied verbatim from the German.

The other, less-familiar genocides were covered in Simkin's second work, Lethal Laws, which had just been published. In each case, the mass killings had been preceded by gun bans, and Simkin's book documented this. The two men watched as he held aloft a copy of the book and began talking about a current genocide in the central African country of Rwanda.

"I hold in my hand at this moment as I speak the authentic text of Rwanda's gun control law passed 21 November 1964 as published by the Rwanda government. This document is the key to the murder of over 250,000 people in the last several months. During all the tremendous news coverage of the slaughter in Rwanda," Simkin thundered, "there is one simple question that no journalist from any national publication has addressed. It is a question that goes to the heart of every genocide that has ever occurred. That question is this: How is it physically possible that so many people could be murdered in a so short a time by a mere handful of oppressors? The answer is gun control.

"There is a downside to gun control, and it is not, I repeat not, inconvenience to hunters, and it is not inconvenience to people who want to buy a gun for the purpose of target shooting. The downside to gun control is genocide. Mountains of corpses. In each of the seven major genocides in this century in which over 56 million people were murdered, including millions of children, there was, on the books, prior to the onset of the genocide, at least one and in most cases several gun control laws. Yo u cannot have a genocide without having gun control." The applause the audience gave Simkin was overwhelming.

"Wouldn't Carl Schaumberg have apoplexy if he heard this guy talk?" commented the photographer. He was referring to the U.S. Congressman who chaired the crime committee and who was the principal architect of many of the recent proposals to prevent U.S. voters from owning guns.

"I always look at it the other way. What do Holocaust survivors make of Jews like Schaumberg? Misguided? Well-intentioned? Courageous? What?"

The news photographer shrugged in reply and shook his head. He had no idea how to respond to his companion's question.

Though few would realize it when they saw it printed, the correct answer to the man's inquiry would eventually be found on the front page of the same newspaper that had sent the photographer to the Lincoln Memorial rally.

"Hello."

"Henry-Tom Fleming. Go turn on C-SPAN. Stick a tape in your recorder if you've got one handy. It's on right now."

"I'll call you back." Henry Bowman hung up and went to his study, where he grabbed a blank tape from the stack on the shelf. He slipped it into his VCR, turned the recorder and the television set on, punched in the channel for C-SPAN on the VCR's tuner, and pressed the RECORD button. He set his television set to 'Video', then sat back to watch.

There was a podium and a large crowd around it. Henry recognized the Lincoln Memorial in the background, and realized that he was looking at footage of the Gun Rights Rally that had been held in the nation's capital the previous Sunday. A bearded man in a grey suit was delivering an address to more than 10,000 people that were gathered around the reflecting pool. He was squinting in the bright sunlight, but his voice carried great conviction.

"...heard a lot of good history today, and I'm not going to repeat it. What I'm going to do is tell you some things you haven't heard. Some of them are shameful things, but you must face them. After that, I'm going to tell you what you can do instead of just coming here and feeling good. First though, I'd like to add to what other speakers have said about freedom. The Second Amendment is about freedom, and the people fighting for it-you people-are on the cutting edge of the human rights issue.

"In some countries, the people have not yet wrested control of their destiny from tyrants, and America has become the adopted home of many of the world's oppressed people. That's why the Founders wrote the first ten articles of our Bill of Rights to remind the government of the freedoms that all people have merely by drawing breath. They knew firsthand what can happen when the government, its standing army, and the police have too much power. They wrote the Bill of Rights as a reminder to the government of where it had no authority. Nine of those ten articles were promises to the people. The other one was the Second Amendment, and it wasn't a promise. It was the guarantee that backed up all the promises.

"The guarantee was and is very simple. Every citizen over sixteen is a member of the militia, and the founders wanted every one of us to have the same basic weapon as a soldier in a modern military. In 1775, that basic weapon was a flintlock musket. In 1925, it was a bolt action rifle and a BAR. In 1945, it was a BAR and a semiautomatic Garand, and in 1995 it will be an M16A2 and an M249 Squad Automatic. The army may have cannons, mortars, and explosive shells, but if every citizen has the basic infantryman's rifle, no army, foreign or domestic, can ever prevail. That was true in the eighteenth century when the cannons fired round balls and the bombs were filled with black powder, and it's true in the twentieth century when the cannons shoot twenty miles and the bombs carry nuclear warheads. In Switzerland, every household with a male over eighteen has at least one machine gun, identical to those used by the military. Anyplace on earth where the citizens have the same small arms as the soldiers to defend their freedoms, you will find a free nation. Anywhere there is tyranny you will find that the people were first disarmed.

"America has served as a beacon for oppressed people all over the world. We have led by example, and we have watched our example of individual freedom be embraced by others who cherish liberty. It is a bitter irony that today, as we watch the Soviet Union disintegrate and we watch people all over the planet throw off their yokes of oppression, we ourselves stand meekly by while our own government slowly strips us of our final guarantee of freedom.

"What can you do about this? Several things. One: Always remember that freedom isn't free, and freedom is much too precious to expect someone else to secure for us. The NRA was founded 120 years ago to promote safety, proficiency, and competition. Those are good things, but they're still recreation. Even today, the NRA spends only a fraction of its budget on civil rights. Don't expect anyone else, particularly not a group whose primary focus is recreation, to safeguard your freedom.

"Two: Don't ever think it can't happen here. It has happened here. We have a shameful history-don't ever forget it. In 1932, twenty thousand World War One veterans peacefully assembled here in Washington to urge Congress to give them their war bonus early. The military drove them out at gunpoint. General Douglas MacArthur had full armament, including foot soldiers with rifles and bayonets, cavalry with pistols and sabers, and tanks. MacArthur led his troops into a place where twenty thousand unarmed American war veterans were camped, and he burned them out. The soldiers shot and bayonetted some of the veterans, their wives, and children. Babies died from tear gas inhalation. The result of this horror was that Hoover was defeated and Franklin Roosevelt was able to seize power and drastically expand the government's reach into your lives. Part of that meant passing the unconstitutional National Firearms Act of 1934, which was the beginning of the terrible situation we now face. What happened at Waco and the disaster we face now is nothing new. It started sixty years ago with Franklin Roosevelt, it's gotten worse ever since, and we let it happen!

"Another shameful thing involves those of you who have always thought of yourself as supportive of law enforcement. You must realize that when the police are ordered to violate your rights, they are not your friends. That brings us to number three: Do not hope police officers will resign instead of carrying out orders they dislike. They will not. The State Police did not resign thirty years ago. Instead, they used tear gas, billy clubs, and German Shepherds on civil rights marchers. Federal Police in Waco, Texas last year did not resign. Instead, they used machine guns and tanks on a group of people they suspected had not paid a $200 tax, and then burned all eighty-six of them alive. In Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Chicago, the police are not resigning. Instead, they are conducting warrantless searches in public housing projects. They are seizing guns that have not been stolen, and they are seizing them from people who do not have criminal records. Federal forms for applicants to the Special Forces contain the question 'Would you seize weapons from U.S. citizens if ordered to do so?' I guarantee the answer they're looking for is 'Yes', not 'No'. The socalled crime bill contains a measure to hire thousands of Hong Kong police. Why? Because these officers are already highly trained in confiscating arms from Chinese, and won't resign when ordered to confiscate them from us.

"Number four: Guns are our ultimate guarantee of freedom, but to take back these rights we need to band together with the millions of people in our country who don't think about how important their gun rights are, but who despise other government intrusions into their lives.

"Millions of people don't want government lawyers telling them what doctor they have to use. Millions of people don't want the police seizing their property without even charging them with a crime. Millions of landowners think they should be able to build a tool shed on their property without risking the government jailing them for destroying wetlands. Millions of business owners don't think Congress should dictate what they should charge for their services, what they should pay for raw materials, what products they should sell, or how much they should pay their employees. Millions of residents of blighted areas in this country think the government should let them work for low wages instead of promoting factories in Mexico. Millions of drivers don't think it's any of Congress' business where their state sets its speed limits or what motorcyclists should wear on their heads. Millions of people think they are the ones, not government, who should decide whether or not to have plastic surgery.

"We must continue to forge alliances with these people. The things these people want may not be of particular interest to us, but we all share a common bond: None of us want our lives controlled by faceless, uniformed, jackbooted bureaucrats.

"Fifth, stop fighting a defensive battle. Get informed, and then get pro-civil-rights people elected and prohuman-rights laws passed in your state. It's working. In the last two years, more states have repealed the Jim Crow laws that were designed to disarm blacks and that now give violent criminals a government guarantee that citizens are defenseless. Thirty-seven states now allow at least some of their citizens to protect themselves outside their homes. For over 200 years in Vermont, not just Vermont residents, but every U.S. citizen has had the right to carry a gun for self-protection without asking the government for permission, just as our Founders promised. Vermont, which shares a long border with New York, is the safest state in the union in which to live. Self-Defense Laws and Violent Crime Rates in the United States documents how armed citizens, not police, reduce crime and engender freedom. Get copies of this and force your legislators to read it. We must make every state return to Vermont's law. We must elect representatives which support human rights and who will repeal the 1934 National Firearms Act and the 1968 Gun Control Act. We must continue to identify the statist slime in our local, state, and national legislatures and throw them from office!

"Sixth, take advantage of the great improvements in technology that are now available to all of us. If you're not on a network now, get on one immediately! When you hear of a politician introducing a bill that restricts your freedoms, spread the word, mobilize, and fight! When a legislator introduces a bill to restore your rights, mobilize and help.

"ATF now has Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and the FBI has just bought over two thousand silenced sniper rifles. They decided after Waco and Ruby Ridge that they need more firepower. If you don't want more Wacos, and you don't want your neighbors to be the next Weaver family, it's up to you to keep it from happening. Internal security at ATF is dismal. When you hear of an impending raid near you, and I guarantee some of you will, get the word out to every person you know in the area. Be there with video cameras to record everything. A photographic record of their actions is the last thing these storm troopers want. Statist thugs view video cameras the way vampires view crosses and sunlight.

"Last of all, I know that every one of you here has felt discouraged at each new government attempt to take away your freedom. I know you have felt helpless when you hear that the people responsible for burning eighty citizens alive over a $200 tax dispute go unpunished.

"Whenever you feel this way, I want you to take heart. I want you to remember that these policies of tyranny have ultimately failed everywhere they have been forced on the people. Josef Stalin was willing to murder twenty million of his own people trying to make socialism stick, and he still failed. People will always move towards freedom. Even farmers in Albania know that, so don't you forget it.

"The recent policies of raising your taxes, banning your guns, seizing your property, and chilling your freedoms are the last gasp of an evil monster. That evil monster is socialism, and it is dying. I want to see every one of you at the funeral. Thank you."

The applause was thunderous, and as the man stepped down, the moderator began to announce another speaker. As Henry watched, his phone rang again. It was Tom Fleming.

"What did you think? That guy wasn't even the best one. I saw someone else who was even better. Apparently the whole rally was filled with speakers like that. The speakers had their history down cold. You'll see more on C-SPAN."

"Why hasn't there been any other coverage on local or national news? Jesus, it looked like there were ten or fifteen thousand people there when they panned the crowd. Haven't seen word one in any newspaper." "Does that really surprise you?" Tom Fleming asked. "Hey, like the guy said, cheer up. Socialism's dying all around the globe. Washington just wants to give it one more try."

"They better hope it doesn't kill 'em first," Henry said before hanging up the phone.

May 12,1995 "What are all these Highway Patrol guys doing here in the Capitol?" Cindy Caswell asked. "Are they all here to lobby against our bill?" Cindy had just arrived in the cafeteria of the State Capitol building in Jefferson City. It was the last day of the 1995 Missouri legislative session, and once again a final vote on the concealed carry measure was imminent.

"Hi, Cindy," one of the group said in greeting. "You didn't hear? Senate Majority Leader claims his life was threatened. Highway Patrol's here to protect him. The legislators are all in a dither." Everyone there knew the Senate Majority Leader was adamantly opposed to anyone other than the police and himself carrying guns for protection. He owned a security firm in the ghetto, and a concealed carry law would be bad for his business.

"Why does everybody look so bummed out?" Cindy asked. "Don't we still have the votes?" "Yeah, but it may not come up now. The Senator is claiming the death threat came from his biggest fundraiser, about concealed carry."

"What?"

"Word is the Governor promised him the moon to do it."

"Yeah," another person interjected. "Everyone knows his district's just a breeding ground for the prison system, and that's the way he wants it to stay. His business employs all those cops that get suspended from the St. Louis Police Department for shaking down motorists."

"We're trying to figure out what our next move here is," a big man with a full beard explained. His name was Arthur Bedderson, and he was the owner of a medical instruments manufacturing company located in St. Louis. Bedderson's nickname was 'B.I.', a moniker he had acquired in college, and which stood for 'Bad Influence'. Those who had met him in the mid-1980s had thought that it was a takeoff on 'Bad Attitude' Baracas, the character on the television program The A-Team, but Bedderson's sobriquet actually predated the show by almost a decade.

"So what are we going to do?" Cindy asked.

"Damned if I know."

The concealed carry bill in the 1995 session had originated in the Senate, where it had passed overwhelmingly. In the year since the 1994 vote when the Governor's stalling tactics had prevented the measure from becoming law, four more states had passed concealed-carry legislation, bringing the total to 41. The mood of the country was strongly in favor of individual rights, and former Texas Governor Ann Richards' November 1994 defeat was widely attributed to the fact that she had vetoed concealed carry in Texas the year before. Her challenger, former President George Bush's son, had successfully campaigned with the pledge that as soon as a concealed carry bill hit his desk, he would sign it. Missouri remained one of only nine states which absolutely prohibited honest adults from protecting themselves outside their homes, and this state of affairs was due to the singular efforts of Governor Ken Flanagan.

After passing in the Senate, the 1995 Missouri bill had gone to the House, where it had been amended and then passed by a three-to-one margin, just as it had in the three previous years. Now the bill was back in the Senate for a final vote. The death threat claim had been a surprise for everyone. The leaders of the various grassroots organizations were gathered around a large table in the Capitol cafeteria, trying to determine their next move.

"The Governor will do anything in his power to keep our bill from hitting his desk," said the president of the Kansas City Cab Driver's Union. "He knows if he vetoes it, he's out, just like in Texas." "Somebody's pointed that out to him?"

"Only about ten of his big-money supporters," Arthur 'B.I.' Bedderson answered. "He's trying to get a deal cut where the conference committee will stick a public referendum on it, and send it to a statewide vote. That way it bypasses his desk."

"I thought we had the votes to override a veto," Cindy said.

"We do. That's why Flanagan's pissing blood," explained the president of the St. Louis County Realtors Association. "He promised Todd Barnes and Donny Rivetts the same prison if they voted to send the bill to referendum, and then we stripped that measure off in the house."

"Man, I'd hate to fight the smear campaign they'd fund with public money on a referendum deal," another man said. He was referring to the letter the Missouri Police Chiefs Association had sent out the week before. The MPCA letter claimed the supporters of the concealed carry bill in Missouri were in league with the people who had blown up the Federal building in Oklahoma City.

"Civil rights are not subject to a majority vote," Thomas J. Fleming pointed out. "I think someone should explain that to the Governor."

"Yeah," Arthur Bedderson said. "If the Civil Rights Act had been put to a vote here in Missouri in 1964, our current Senate Majority Leader wouldn't be allowed to eat in this cafeteria." Then he thought of something.