Big Media and the left seem disappointed that yesterday’s gun rights rally at the Virginia state capitol in Richmond passed not only without incident, but in fact exactly as every *knowledgable* commentator on the subject predicted – utterly peacefully, nothing close to violence, and despite weeks of media gaslighting about “white supremacy”, a crowd that was probably more racially integrated than a “Protect Minnesota” or “Moms Demand Action” or “Minnesota Reformer” meeting.
I’m getting a feeling of deja vu.
This all feels like the Tea Party days, ten years ago – when the establishments on both sides of the aisle, terrified of a unregulated, organic grass roots movement, gaslit the public into thinking the most inclusive, idealistic political movement in my lifetime was either “racist” or “establishment”, depending on the targets.
The gaslighting? Oh ,yeah ,it’s back.
Virginia governor Blackface McMinstrel, presiding over the most ghastly bit of government overreach I can recall, desperately needed to paint the vast, law-abiding majority of gun owners as depraved evildoers just waiting for their moment to cut loose
But every last g****mn word of it was a lie. As predicted. A smear. Collective defamation.
If you know anything about the subject you predicted this – because nationwide, carry permittees are about 1/6 as likely to commit *any* kind of crime…
…as are the police. Who are, themselves, 1/7 as likely to commit any sort of crime as the general public.
Statistically, you are safer in a room full of carry permit holders – people who’ve passed background checks, and in Minnesota, have had to prove they know the law – than you are in a room full of cops.
White supremacy? B***s**t. It was the police that denied the Reverend King a permit to carry a gun – as they denied *every* black applicant in Birmingham in the fifties – even though he and his families lives were being threatened constantly.
It was the eeeeeeeevil NRA that stood with Dr. King – allowing his volunteer bodyguards to train at their firing range (the only desegregated one in the DC area at the time), giving them ammunition at cost.
No, the Richmond rally was peaceful. Were there “white supremacists” there? Other than Governor McMinstrel, I mean? Well, sure – in the sense that *everyone* that dissents from Big Left’s narrative is a “white supremacist” these days. Actual “white supremacy”, as in “hatred for non-whites?”
Mark my words – less than among the general public.
Look – I get it. A fair chunk of our society was raised to be terrified of guns. I grew up in a non-gun-owning, gun-control-supporting Democrat home. The TV shows I grew up with in the seventies and eighties treated gun ownership like a character flaw.
I changed. “Elite” culture and politics didn’t.
And Governor McMinstrel is clearly terrified by the genie he let out of the bottle. While the law-abiding gun owner doesn’t have much political killer instinct, when he or she is threatened, they – we – can not be stopped.
If it’s about guns, and the media says it, distrust but verify – and then, almost without exception, keep right on distrusting.
And by the way – for all my gun-rights brothers in arms who are treating Virginia like the final Mexican assault on the Alamo – take a deep breath. Cam Edwards notes that your – our – voices are getting through even to some of the Democrat villains in this story.
So, for all my “progressive” friends? This is what Democracy looks like. Lots of imperfect schlubs, workadaddy hugamommy people of all races, orientations, creeds and faiths, the very backbone of this country, showing you that *we are not for turning*.
Here we stand. We’ve compromised enough. We’re done.
All due respect to my “progressive” friends – but if you bring nothing but emotion or Big Left’s chanting points to this discussion, you will not fare well. God have mercy on your argument, for I shall not.