I agree with Joe that we can’t slow down because we’re winning, but as gun owners, we have a tendency to do that. Now is the time to begin attacking them on their “secure” territory.
Though, I would have used the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement as my example, rather than the KKK or neo-nazis. The gun control movement, while wrong headed, often dishonest, certainly not respecting of the entire Bill of Rights, doesn’t even begin to approach the level of those types of groups on the totem poll of evil.
What we’re looking for is to destroy them as a political movement, and let them settle out on the fringe. The only thing from preventing that from happening is a gun control friendly media culture, which keeps the issue alive for them even when its at death’s door.
Ironically, the KKK did more in upholding First Amendment rights than a lot of organizations because of the court cases brought against it because of its very unpopularity (same applies to NAMBLA).
Despite the evil of both of those organizations, I will defend their right to spread their twisted and evil messages to the hilt provided it remains merely hateful SPEECH. Those who sued these groups on the basis they should be censored because of their speech were blind to the implications of those challenges and in most cases, the evil prevailed but for the wrong reasons.
However, when any group crosses the line from saying “I hate niggers and Jews!” to “Let’s go hang a bunch of niggers and Jews!”, all bets are off. First Amendment protections no longer apply since they are now using speech to incite to action and they have crossed from the realm of personal rights into the infringement of others.
We need to get to that point with the media and get the views on the 2nd on par with that of the 1st in terms of how it is protected despite the hateful and shrill rhetoric of the gun controllers. Get them to the point where they are seen as the KKK or NAMBLA: an extremist bunch of nuts with a hateful message that those exalted journalists will defend their right to speak but not publish a damn word of lest they dignify such speech.
Then we will have true victory.
To Sebastian: Feel free to censor the above N word if you wish. I didn’t because I am not going to be afraid of speaking despised words. There is no harm in using them in illustration but I understand if your other readers might offended by such.
I think the context you used them is fine. I would only censor if it was used in a hateful context rather than as an example of other people’s hate.
Your point about needing to fix the media is well taken. I’d place the MSM closer to the KKK/Nazis on the “totem pole of evil”.
Sorry guys… as much as I dislike the gun control folks and the media… I’m a big believer in Godwin’s Law, and for the reasons that Godwin suggested it in the first place. When the gun controllers start putting people into ovens, or lynching gun owners, then we’ll talk about those analogies.
Ok ok… maybe that blogger guy that keeps harassing Robb might get close to that category, but he’s certainly not representative of the larger movement, which is more slick and slippery than violent… and it’s kind of amusing, because even though he might like to see me hanged, it would be amusing to see him try.
There are examples of anti-gun bigots advocating/using violence. Rosie O’Donnell, for example, wanted us all in jail. The action of the ATF/FBI/Federal-Marshals at Ruby Ridge was deployable. Waco was even more so. And do I need go find the video of the old woman being knocked to the floor when her gun was being confiscated in New Orleans after Katrina? And shall we discuss how gun owners are treated by the police in New York City and New Jersey? It’s more like the classic sterotype of a KKK sheriff down south dealing with non-whites than it is something along the lines of the WCTM.
Sebastian, I understand your point. And perhaps I could “convert” more people if I were use the WCTM example. But I think the case can be made for the more extreme comparison.
Sorry Joe, your comment got flagged by Akismet for some reason. I do see what you’re saying, and wouldn’t disagree that some gun control advocates have called for violence, but it’s not the same kind of systematic intimidation, violence or ethic extermination that were carried out by the nazis, or the KKK, which were essentially operating as a domestic terrorist group.
Of course, the irony is that Jesse Jackson, and his pal Snuffy are getting precipitously close to meeting that standard with their last stunt in Chicago, when Snuffy threatened that gun shop owner.
But I’m not convinced of the argument because of law enforcement excesses, and because violence is used to enforce laws, that the gun control movement as a whole amounts to a domestic terrorist organization. There are certainly parallels that could be drawn, but I don’t think the whole analogy quite works.