“Where have you guys been?” people ask us these days. 
Well, the Mid-MO John Brown Gun Club is still here and still active… it’s just that the temporary fade of authoritarianism that happened after the January 6th sacking of the Capitol – about which we warned, at least in a general sense – has resulted in a quieter posture. As with everyone, contributing to our lower profile were continued COVID-19 outbreaks and related general public and societal fatigue. Firearms training – a small part of our work in any year – took a steep drop in 2021 compared to previous years. These requests are often from liberals and were especially prevalent especially prior to the November 2020 election. And yet, from other people who seem to like our work, we still received the predictable and incredulous, “Why do you guys have semi-automatic firearms?”1 question (this from some of the same people who might proclaim in social media posts that “If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany, now you know” or from people who might have flocked to see the movie about Fred Hampton). Despite the January 6th incident, it still seems that the people who are among the most horrified at the rise of authoritarianism and at police-caused deaths remain the most complacent about taking responsibility for their own community security.
Although we took part in no demonstrations as a group in 2021, individual members of the club attended or spoke at many public events and community meetings on topics ranging from abortion rights, to homelessness support, to drug abuse, to ARPA funding. And, although there was reduced turnout compared to previous years, the temporary falloff of COVID-19 cases in the Autumn allowed us to conduct another brakelight replacement clinic in October.
Homeless outreach continued to be a major part of our service work, and took several new turns this year; JBGC members and Friends initiated weekly trash pickups at Columbia’s largest homeless camp; also, inspired by the work of Huntsville’s Young Patriots, we built four tent platforms from pallets at the same camp. The JB Mobile Soup Kitchen, now entering it’s 4th winter season, was about to end its 2020-2021 season in early March like usual… when several stalwart community members picked it all up and valiantly continued the program through Spring, Summer, and Fall, feeding community members breakfast 2 mornings a week throughout the warm months, and 3 mornings a week during the cold months (in addition to supplying fuel and hard goods such as tents, sleeping bags, gloves, socks, and menstrual products – all of this involving a lot of attention to detail and coordinating on the part of the organizers). Although it has been dismaying to see the amount of need escalate – in previous winters we typically served 25-35 hot meals each morning, whereas this year the number rose to between 55-60 meals for each run – we couldn’t be happier to be able to hand this initiative off. Whether the increased need is due to a general increase in homelessness, increased homelessness due to evictions, or an improved ability to locate people in need, is hard to say; in any case, we are grateful that our allies opted to keep the “JB” part of the name of the Mobile Soup Kitchen, and whether they want it to stand for John Brown, James Brown, or James Baldwin, as long as people are being fed, it’s all good as far as we’re concerned. 🙂
In addition to the targeted efforts above, JBGC members continued to serve as doorkeepers at Wilkes Blvd UMC (the little hands-on church that does the bulk of Columbia’s work with the homeless community), and to serve along with Friends once a month at Wilkes for the Catholic Workers’ Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen. Individual JBGC members also continued to help with Room At The Inn and Operation Safe Winter-CoMo.
While we remain wary about the gentrified & individualistic nature of homesteading and alternative/artisanal food movements as currently manifested in the US, we still feel that dissemination of skills related to this is important as society continues to change and decline. The Friends of John Brown thus continued this year in a homesteading and bushcrafting direction, with workshops in chicken processing, a seed exchange, and a nettle & cordage workshop.
That’s about it for this year. Things are quiet right now, but we do not expect that to last. While Trump may have neutralized himself – ironically, by pointing out one of the few things his administration did right (supporting the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines) – the people who supported him are still out there, and they haven’t become any more moderate or reasonable in their beliefs or aspirations. Moreover, the circumstances that emboldened them have not changed.
We Can’t Believe Your Disbelief
Huntsville Young Patriots (Facebook)
Mobile Soup Kitchen Provides Food to Unsheltered Members of the Community (KOMU)
Notes:
1. Every time this happens, it eventually and invariably comes out that liberals either use “automatic” and “semiautomatic” interchangeably, or that they incorrectly believe a “semi-automatic” firearm means a firearm that fires automatically, maybe not all the time, but some of the time…
Additional text by Alan Buddug