From the Brady Campaign on Twitter. Oh no! People with guns! Big guns! Let me ask this though, why is the Brady Campaign covering this march instead of the main one? Should we be thankful there’s probably as many reporters there as there are protesters? Think of all the public education that’s going on with all those slung rifles!
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest none of the major news coverage of the sideshow march in Virginia is going to be positive, but it will distract greatly from the main rally in Washington. Why? Because it helps advance a narrative. I’ve never understood why people on our side are so willing to play into the hands of the people who want to destroy us.
“I’ve never understood why people on our side are so willing to play into the hands of the people who want to destroy us.”
Do you mean by “play into the hands,” that they look like fanatics and give the rest of you a bad name?
What can’t you understand about that?
The opposition is trying to whip of a narrative of gun ownership being extreme and dangerous… that’s what I mean by “play into their hands.”
They’ve been doing that for decades, Sebastian, and they always will. The thing is, nobody is even watching them anymore. Besides, they lose credibility every time they “ZOMGohnoes!!! BL00d iun teh streetz!,” especially now that (I think) more people are actually paying attention and thinking about the whole “individual liberty” thing than have been in the last 80 years or so.
The opposition is trying to whip of a narrative of gun ownership being extreme and dangerous
And in that, as these open carry / slung rifle carry events continue, the media will utterly fail. I was there today and I can say that it was almost boring. And that’s a good thing. We’re trying to desensitize them, remember.
The interviewers I spoke with all seemed amazed that I was normal.
I’ll go out on a limb as well and predict something completely different. Even though there was extensive media attention to this event on the ground, but there were no shootouts, no NDs, no anti-semitic or racist rants, and nothing else really noteworthy that would line up with their narrative, this will actually get minimal airplay. Rachel Madcow and Tingle Matthews will conveniently ‘forget’ to do any followups.
But I suspect it will get plenty of write-ups on the blogs of those who attended, with pictures of how many from the media were there…and they will call the media out for their intentional squelching of news about a peaceful, armed rally.
You know, Sebastian, we all know how you feel about open carry and rallies like this. It’s your blog and you can write what you want, how you want. But you keep writing about the ‘big tent’ and then you insult us by calling what we do a ‘sideshow’. So while I can’t insist on it, obviously, I (and I’m sure I speak for others involved) would really appreciate it if you would knock it off.
“I’ve never understood why people on our side are so willing to play into the hands of the people who want to destroy us.”
I believe that “I’ve never understood why people on our side are so willing to do stuff that I disagree with” would have been a bit more accurate.
But you keep writing about the ‘big tent’ and then you insult us by calling what we do a ’sideshow’
It depends on how many people leave the tent because they don’t want to be associated with certain tactics. I don’t want anything to do with people who call for vandalism of private property and condone it. A lot of other gun owners apparently feel the same way or you would have had a lot more people at the rally. I can’t have a big tent with those people in it, because they stink up the tent and make other people not want to be there.