By Jeff Knox : Opinion
I warned you this was getting ugly.
Buckeye, AZ –-(Ammoland.com)- The temperature’s rising, and I’m not talking about “global warming.”
I’m talking about the political rhetoric and hype, and the ever-growing anger and hatred of the political “left,” as their ongoing calls for people to “resist,” “by any means,” were answered yesterday by a 66-year old, “happy-go-lucky,” Bernie Sanders supporter, who actually believed the hype and hate being spewed non-stop from virtually every “mainstream” media outlet in the “free world,” and with even greater vitriol and malice in internet forums, blogs, and propaganda outlets.
Had the assassin been a Tea Partier, or his target a Democrat, the media and politicians’ heavy fingers of blame would be pointing at “right-wing” talk show hosts, for “encouraging” violence – and they might go there anyway – but you can bet that since the attacker was a “progressive,” and his targets were Republicans, there will be no “mainstream” media, or prominent politicians criticizing the “progressive” fomenters of hate that fueled the assailant’s psychosis.
Perhaps they’ll make the stretch and describe this extremist’s actions as an “over-reaction” to the “rising hatred and bigotry” from the “right,” but that would be stretching the veil a bit thin. More likely they will stick primarily to their other favorite targets and lay most of the blame on “lax gun laws,” the NRA, and Republicans, for kowtowing to the NRA and failing to do anything about the “lax gun laws.”
In the less regulated, and more anonymous bubble of the internet, the discussions are already going so far as to suggest that “it served them right,” and “that Republicans are reaping what they’ve sown.”
Yesterday evening I received a fundraising email from Shannon Watts, head of Bloomberg’s front group, Mothers Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. In it she talked about the attack on Representative Scalise, and the suicidal UPS driver in San Francisco, who killed three of his co-workers before taking his own life. Ms. Watts wanted to invite people to join her in sending condolences to the families and survivors, while taking the opportunity to share some bogus statistics, and express her frustration at the scourge of “gun violence.”
The primary purpose of her “sympathy card” is to collect names and email addresses to build her list and inflate her “supporter” numbers.
Meanwhile, Former Representative Gabby Giffords – another victim of a violently deranged “progressive” – sought out reporters to tell them that this was really bad, and that we must do something about the “epidemic of gun violence” in our country.
I guess reducing murder by 50%, and other violent crime by almost 30% over the past couple of decades is now considered an “epidemic.” That’s even more astounding when you consider that as violent crime has been going down, gun ownership has been going up – dramatically. More people own more guns today than at any time in our history, yet crime – including “gun crime” – keeps going down.
Of course the Mayor of San Francisco had to decry the rampant “gun violence” in our society as he was expressing his sincere condolences to the victims and families of the UPS attack in his, most gun-restricted city, in the most gun-restricted state in the union. His police department did their part too, bragging that the killer committed suicide as they closed in, so they never had to fire a shot, and describing one of the two handguns the murderer had, as an “assault-type pistol,” whatever that is.
But the Mindless Anti-Rights Ranting award of the day goes to Virginia Governor, and Clinton pal, Terry McAuliffe.
McAuliffe who took the opportunity of an assassination attempt on a member of Congress, to declare it as proof that there are “too many guns on the street,” and followed that up with repeated declarations that “gun violence” takes the lives of “93 million Americans each day.” Even though reporters questioned him on that statistic several times, it wasn’t until one pointed out that this would reduce the population of the United States down to zero in less than 4 days, that Governor McAuliffe backed away from the statistic and simply declared the death toll too high.
And of course, the attacks on our rights have only just begun. Some anti-rights politicians at least have the decency to wait a day or two before politicizing a tragedy. Or perhaps it’s just that the reporters were too busy to get around to them yesterday, so they had to hold their comments ’til today or tomorrow. But you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll be coming in all of their righteous indignation, demanding that, since a radical, probably anti-gun “progressive” used a probably illegally obtained, probably ugly, military-looking gun, in his quest to promote his “progressive,” anti-gun agenda, and silence his opponents, America should give in to his demands, and make gun buying and possession, more complicated and expensive, if not outright impossible. We should let the terrorist win, and punish the hundred million or so gun owners who never have, and probably never will, abuse their right to arms, while we let more violent criminals out of prison, and give them another chance to rape, pillage, and murder, but in a much more “peaceful,” and vulnerable America.
Something about that whole idea just seems a little un-American to me.
And unfortunately, it will serve only to widen the chasm between the “left” and the “right,” feeding the anarcho-communists and internet warriors, encouraging them to add NRA-types to their long list of people they should feel free to call names, dehumanize, and if possible, physically assault. Which would probably lead to some of them getting shot. But that’s okay with the “progressives,” because no serious blame ever falls on them when those “well-intentioned rowdies” cross the line, and besides, odds are good they could spin a defensive shooting into a heinous act of cold-blooded murder, and really get this bonfire rockin’.
About Jeff Knox:
Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father Neal Knox led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition has offices in Buckeye, Arizona and Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.