Dominatus by D. W. Ulsterman Page B

of by more and more government – that the people working hard should be forced to take care of the ones who refused to work at all. What’s that saying by Thomas Jefferson about that?  You know that quote?”
     
    I knew the exact quote Mac was referring to.  The words had resided behind my father’s desk in his home office on a small plaque, a plaque the compliance officers had removed, along with most of his other personal items, following his death.  They were words I continued to repeat to myself often:
     
    “Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
     
    “That’s the one!  That’s it!  As soon as enough people started taking something for nothing from the government, the country was finished.  If that government did wrong, people didn’t care as long as the checks kept coming.  Benghazi?  The people didn’t care. Just keep sending those food-stamps, that unemployment check, a tax refund for taxes they didn’t even pay, government run healthcare.  It crept up quick on us back then didn’t it?  Those years set up America for the collapse that happened so fast after that.”
     
    Mac’s words were reminding me of so many things my dad had told me over the years, and before her own death, my mother as well.  They both would point out how things were changing, how the debt was unsustainable, how people stopped caring about anything but whatever mindless entertainment was being shown on the television or the Internet, and how much more the government was promising to give them, until eventually, whatever America once was, simply ceased to exist and in its place was a society of dependence and near total governmental authority – the authority of the New United Nations.
     
    As the recollections of my parents’ words quickly gathered and dissipated from my mind, I saw Mac take out a single handgun from behind the bar and place it on the counter.
     
    “You know how to use one of these, right?”
     
    I nodded.
     
    “Yes – a few years ago I started to practice.  It wasn’t easy.  The mandates forbid it of course. My dad had an area outside the city…we would go out there at least once a month and shoot.  He kept a handgun in his office at all times.  They, the compliance officers, they took it after he died.  They asked me about it but told them I had no idea it was in there.”
     
    “That was good of him to do that – to teach you.  This weapon, we just call it our sidearm up here.  We all…almost all of us has one.  Every adult around here is given the opportunity to keep one of these.  It’s nothing fancy, your basic Glock19, simple loading 10-round magazine.  Ton of them produced years ago and after the weapons ban they hit the Black Market so the Old Man, he was able to gather up…let’s just say a whole lot of ‘em.  It’s a low maintenance model, reliable as hell, smooth, safe action.  Maybe the best all around handgun for the average user ever made. This thing will get the job done if need be.  The only thing I ask of you besides wearing it, is that if you pull it out, you be prepared to use it.  I’m no fan of people using a weapon like this just to intimidate. That’s bullshit and bluster garbage, not my style and I find it disrespectful of the responsibility of carrying a loaded weapon.   A handgun is meant for one thing only – to kill another human being.  If you can’t do that, if that’s not in you to point this at someone and pull that trigger, I would rather not give it to you at all.  It’s a last resort, but one you have to be willing to utilize if the situation requires.  So…do you want the weapon?”
     
    My response came out more certain and quickly than I expected.
     
    “No Mac – thank you, but no.  I don’t want a gun.  Not right now.  I just want to learn more about this place, and tell its story to the people who want to hear, and I think there’s a