Culture War on the Innocent and the Persecution of Gun Owners

by David LaPell March 15, 2018

U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- I often wonder what George Orwell would think of the society we have become, when he wrote his landmark novel, 1984, it was seen as a work of science fiction but as we see fiction becoming reality with frightening results it’s hard to look at that book now as anything but prophetic.

One particular telling excerpt was what Orwell described as the Two-Minutes Hate. This was done every day by party members of Oceania, where the protagonist of the story lived. During this daily ritual, the party members would watch a film of the enemies of Oceania and vent their hatred for them for exactly two minutes.

Orwell wrote about the Two Minutes Hate:

“The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one’s will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp”

I believe we saw something very close to this when CNN hosted their town hall of hate following the Parkland shooting. The frenzy that we all witnessed I believe did more to harden the resolve of gun owners than any political speech we have since seen.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, blames the NRA at CCN pretend town hall debate.

Gun owners saw the open and raw hatred for not only the NRA but the Constitution and the Second Amendment.

Make no mistake, whether you are a member of the NRA or not, agree with them or not, we are all in the crosshairs of the anti-freedom left at this moment, and the drumbeat against guns and gun owners continues.

Leading this charge isn’t the usual suspects in the political realm, but the media who are using teenagers and school kids as pawns following the Parkland shooting. While they have been coaching, filming, interviewing and pushing school-age kids to speak their mind on guns and their opposition to gun owners, they at the same time attack any opposition as evil, suggesting only the lowest of the low would criticize children who simply want better safety in their schools.

Bloomberg & Everytown for Gun Safety Behind So Called "Student-Led" Anti-Gun March — Bloomberg & Everytown for Gun Safety Behind So Called “Student-Led” Anti-Gun March

At the same time, many in the media are pushing for students to walk out of their schools nationwide to protest guns, the NRA, and gun owners by extension, have themselves have been targeting anyone who supports the Second Amendment. I know my own local paper in addition to very preachy editorials espousing gun control posted a simple cartoon stating;

“The National Rifle Association is pure evil.”

As gun owners, we are now seeing every aspect of the Second Amendment under attack, and there is no sign of that letting up. This past week, the city of Saratoga Springs, NY, under the helm of a Democrat Mayor Meg Kelly, with almost no notice, held a special meeting in the middle of the day along with the entire city council to ban a long-running gun show, one that has been held for more than thirty years without incident or any issues. When asked why there was a push to end the long-running show, Mayor Kelly, citing the Parkland shooting, which happened a couple of thousand miles away from Saratoga Springs, and despite no one who has ever attended there participated in that event, said;

“We have a big problem in our country. We don’t want anybody else to die from assault weapons or any kind of gun and this is the first step in a long process.”

So again, despite the fact that not one single person who has attended that particular gun show has been proven to have committed a crime of any kind, they are all being punished, as are the dealers who drive there, legally pay for the venue, and conduct a lawful business.

Sadly Mayor Kelly wasn’t the only one who held such a low opinion of gun owners at the meeting, John Franck, the Commissioner of Accounts for the city of Saratoga Springs responded to a comment of a concerned citizen who thought that the city was acting too fast to pass the amendment prohibiting the show by saying;

“I don’t think this is moving too fast. I’ve been here since 2006. There have been over 300 school shootings since 2016. Hundreds of people have been killed, even more have been injured at the school level, I’m just very concerned in general. I don’t think this is moving fast. I think it’s actually moving way too slow. I mean, how many times does this have to happen before somebody does something?”

What Mr. Franck said is exactly what is at the heart of what is happening nationwide with the entire gun control debate, that the left thinks they are moving too slowly. Hurry up, pass legislation, don’t think about it, capture the moment, or as liberals have often practiced, never let a tragedy go to waste. Even though there have been school shootings in other places, Mr. Franck is holding those who go to and put on the gun shows in his city responsible for them. By simply practicing their Second Amendment rights, they are guilty by association, and they must be punished for it.

This, of course, is not the only attack on gun owners, while many cities and states are fighting these smaller battles locally, companies like Walmart, Kroger, Dick’s Sporting Goods are now setting their own rules against those who have done nothing illegal simply by changing the age that someone can buy a firearm at their store to the age of 21. So millions of people who less than a month ago may have been planning on buying a gun at one of those stores can now no longer do so, simply because some idealist in a boardroom would rather appeal to the social justice movement and cave into hysteria.

Goodbye, Dick's. And good riddance. — Goodbye, Dick’s. And good riddance.

They are not the only ones, in the state of Florida, with a push from the media, student activists who seem to hold a huge amount of political sway and are looked at as scholars and savants, are now not even purchase a rifle or shotgun in their own state because Governor Rick Scott signed into law today strict gun control measures raising the age to purchase any gun in the state to age 21 and added a three day waiting period for all purchases. What is more troubling that even though the Governor said there were parts of the bill he didn’t agree with, he signed it into law anyway. Scott stated in defense of his attempt to appease both sides.

“However, there are things in this bill that I oppose, and I’ve been open about that,” said Scott. The three-day waiting period for gun purchases “wouldn’t have had an impact on this killer”

So despite the fact that Governor Scott admitted that the three day waiting period would have done nothing to stop a single death at the Parkland shooting, he signed the bill into law anyway. Again, more law-abiding citizens being punished for the crime of one person, and what’s worse, the rationale of trying to make those on left feel better and safer at the expense of our rights. The NRA promptly filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida to block the law.

Gun owners, now more than ever must stand, because as gun owners we are all under attack from not only the left, but those on the right who think that they have to do something simply for the sake of acting, and they are acting without thinking about those whom they sweep up in their web of good intentions. Those same good intentions that pave the road to hell as the saying goes.

We are seeing the country and the very fabric of it being torn in two, and it should be to no one’s surprise that it is guns that are being used as the wedge. Leftists and liberals have been using this game plan for decades here and abroad. One of the heroes of Progressives, Karl Marx wrote in The Communist Manifesto;

“In a word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend.”

More than ever gun owners must not only stand together but speak out. Write, call, email your elected officials, whether you voted for them or not, whether they support the Second Amendment or not. Because as gun owners, all of us, no matter if you own an AR-15 or a flintlock Kentucky Rifle, are in danger of losing our rights, especially in the name of “compromise”. Ask yourself when was the last time you saw anyone on the left compromising when it comes to what they want on guns? I think we all know the answer to that question.

Right now with not only the midterm elections, but also many state and local elections ahead, we need to demand answers from those in office, and those running for it. Make sure you know who is going to stand up for the Second Amendment, not just part of it, or what part they think is worth defending. It’s an all or nothing proposition, our rights and the rights of the next generation is at stake. How will we be able to look at them and explain how we just let their birthright go to waste, in the spirit of compromise? Because as Henry David Thoreau once wrote:

“Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.”

About David LaPell

David LaPell has been a Corrections Officer with the local Sheriff’s Department for thirteen years. A collector of antique and vintage firearms for over twenty years and an avid hunter. David has been writing articles about firearms, hunting and western history for ten years. In addition to having a passion for vintage guns, he is also a fan of old trucks and has written articles on those as well.