BEEVILLE – Do not think Gregory Gooch is a little strange just because he was standing by the Bee County Courthouse Saturday, Feb. 23, holding up a sign.

Gooch was probably the only person in Beeville publicly showing his support for what gun rights activists had dubbed .223 National Day of Resistance.

The Day of Resistance was launched by supporters of the Second Amendment and by opponents of the Obama administration’s recent efforts to restrict what many law-abiding Americans believe are their God-given right to own firearms.

The movement was started by a number of pro-Constitution organizations including Oath Keepers. Gooch was one of the original organizers of that movement several years ago.

“I think this is the latest attempt to cow the public into giving up another one of their natural, creator-given, unalienable rights,” Gooch said this week.

He called the assault by the federal government on the right to keep and bear arms “another step in the not-secret plan” of the New World Order crowd.

Gooch’s Oath Keepers organization is made up of current and former military members and law enforcement officers throughout the nation.

The group has published a list of 10 orders that its members will refuse to obey if those orders are issued by federal, state or local governments.

The first order on the list says, “We will not obey orders to disarm the American people.”

Other orders they refuse to obey include warrantless searches, the detention of American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants,” the imposition of martial law, the subjugation of a state that asserts its sovereignty, the blockade of American cities, forcing Americans into detention camps, the use of foreign troops on American soil to “keep the peace” or “maintain control,” the confiscation of property to include food and other essentials and the infringement on the right of the people to free speech, peaceful assembly or the right to petition the government with grievances.

“I don’t think the majority of the public actually understands how close to the tipping point we are and what the consequences of passing that point actually can be,” Gooch said.

The retired Merchant Marine captain said he thinks most Americans fail to understand the nature of this republic. And the United States is a republic, not a democracy.

Gooch criticized the way the so-called mainstream media is covering an attempt by supporters of the “New World Order” to turn Earth into a “prison planet.”

“It is my hope to be able to inform those who care to restore the original republic to its republican system,” Gooch said. He stressed the fact that “republican” is spelled with a small “r” because the word does not refer to a political party but to a form of government.

“Ours is supposed to be a republic with democratically elected representation, not a rule by the mob,” Gooch said.

Any attempts to rewrite the Constitution, and especially the first 10 Amendments to it, should be opposed.

Gooch said the American citizen has four “boxes” which can be used to oppose a power-grabbing government. Those include the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box and (heaven forbid) the bullet box.

“We are sworn Americans who want the Constitution returned to its legal and rightful place, intact, as the ultimate law of the land,” Gooch said of Oath Keepers. All members of the organization have, at one time or another, sworn to protect and defend that all important document.

Gary Kent is a reporter at the Bee-Picayune and can be reached at 358-2550, ext. 120, or at reporter@mySouTex.com.