"Chris Simcox won't stop fooling with his gun. He paces his tiny office, bouncing on the balls of his feet, and every 15 seconds his hands go to the gun on his belt--hiking it up, adjusting its angle, checking its safety. It's a big gun, a two-toned .45 in a hard plastic holster, and whenever he is photographed by the media--which is often these days--Simcox makes sure the pistol is in every frame.
Simcox speaks of sovereignty, the Pledge of Allegiance and the rule of law, but his body language is all about the gun. Sooner or later he's going to use it, he wants everybody to know, in a showdown with the illegal immigrants and Mexican drug dealers he believes are ruining the United States.
"These are enemies who are wrecking our economy," he says, his eyes shiny with emotion. "This is about national security." If Simcox dies in a blaze of border gunfire, so be it, he says. "Damn them. That's how much I care about my country."
Simcox would be naught but an anonymous zealot with a death wish if, in October, he hadn't flamboyantly demonstrated the dictum that freedom of the press is best enjoyed by those who own one. At 42, he is owner, editor and publisher (and reporter, ad director and circulation manager) of the weekly Tombstone Tumbleweed, circulation 1,200. His Oct. 24 issue bore the headline: "Enough is Enough! A Public Call to Arms!" The paper invited readers to join a "Citizens Border Patrol Militia" whose function, Simcox says, will be to "shame the government into doing its job" of controlling the nation's border with Mexico. "We need some good old-fashioned discipline in this country," Simcox explains as he fitfully circles the one-room Tumbleweed office. "I invite someone to come up with a solution."
So what do we have going here? The co-founder of The Minuteman Project, Chris Simcox, has:
?A Felony Arrest Record
?Seems obsessed with his hand gun
?Wants everyone to know that sooner or later he will use his gun in a showdown with illegal immigrants
?He says that if he dies in a blaze of border gunfire then "so be it."
His Oct. 24 issue of his own newspaper bore the headline: "Enough is Enough! A Public Call to Arms!
Does it take being a rocket scientist to figure out that there is more-A LOT MORE-to this group being on just a "Observe and Report" mission?
Ok, O'Reilly. There you have it. What says you?
Doug Bower is a freelance writer and book author. His most recent writing credits include The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Houston Chronicle, and The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Transitions Abroad. He lives with his wife in Guanajuato, Mexico.
His new book Mexican Living: blogging it from a Third World Country can be seen at http://www.lulu.com/content/126241
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