“There is, I think, only one realistic way forward for advocates of stricter gun control,” Alex Pareene writes at gawker.com, “and it involves adopting the tactics of one of the most despicable groups in contemporary American politics: the anti-abortion movement.” In short, Pareene is goading gun control advocates, urging them to become “fanatics.” It’s part and parcel of the gun control movement’s move towards the fascist left, exemplified by the Brady Campaign’s recent denunciation of the NRA as “terrorists.” Here’s how that works . . .
If you believe, as this small core of anti-abortion crusaders do, that a fetus is a human infant, then unwavering fanaticism absolutely makes sense . . . When it comes to the slaughter of walking, talking persons, cut down helplessly by weapons specifically designed for killing, we behave as if nothing can really be done. When it comes to protecting the lives of actual children from gun violence, fanaticism seems to be in order . . .
This doesn’t just mean marches and protests. It means constant marches and protests, and open and blatant harassment of your political opponents. It means protesting at the homes of gun manufacturing company executives and trying to shut down gun stores. It means very publicly making a scene at as many gun shops as possible, and personally attacking—verbally, but bordering on physically—people trying to enter those stores to legally purchase guns.
After all, the point of screaming at women outside a clinic isn’t to erect a legal barrier to abortion access, it’s to prevent that woman from getting an abortion, and to dissuade others from even considering it. It’s to prevent abortion from being considered a legitimate option. Aren’t there a couple thousand gun control activists out there passionate enough to want to stand outside gun shops and provoke confrontations with open-carry wingnuts?
I guess Pareene couldn’t be bothered to Google “gun dealer protest.” The search would have yielded various stories about the Brady Campaign to Prevent Violence’s short-lived “Bad Apple” anti-gun dealer campaign. Or maybe Pareene saw the articles and clocked the fact that the “direct action” had zero impact on gun sales, gun politics or “gun violence” and decided to move on dot org. To incendiary imagery. Gore.
It also means going all-in on gore. It means waving gruesome photos of dead children in the faces of Republican legislators, gun store owners, and gun manufacturers. This is where the conservatives shine. Good liberals are too squeamish to look past the police tape. They worry that if they focus, up close and without flinching, on the goriest details of the carnage, it’ll glorify violence, or worse, inspire future killers. Maybe, but it’ll also scare the shit out of future killers’ mothers before they fill their houses with guns, to feel safe.
Anti-abortion activists revel in gore. They want to get their cameras in the room to capture the most stomach-churning images possible and broadcast them to the world. Gun control advocates hoist signs with pictures of smiling cherubic kids, taken before their lives were cut short. Anti-abortion activists put up billboards with graphic photos of blood and fetal tissue. There will need to be graphic photographs of bullet-riddled corpses.
One of the interesting things about anti-gunners: they fail to realize that most people who see images of horrific firearms-related violence don’t think “Wow! I better lobby for gun control.” They think, “What kind of animal did this?” and “Why wasn’t this bad guy rotting in jail, or locked-up in a mental institution?” For many, it’s “I’m glad I have a gun!” Or, increasingly, “I better get a gun.” Which is why people like Pareene are becoming increasingly, dangerously radicalized.
The anti-gun movement doesn’t need money as much as it needs fanatics.
Almost every single clinic in the United States that performs abortions has reported experiencing at least one incident of harassment. There are 130,000 gun stores in the United States. It’s time for gun control activists to get familiar with them.
Is Pareene’s call for gun store harassment “bordering on physical,” fueled by incendiary imagery and rhetoric, a thinly-veiled incitement to violence? Sure! Will it find favor amongst the majority of gun control advocates? I doubt it. But it’s clear that the gun control movement – including Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton – is re-positioning itself in preparation for more radical action.
Today’s post on Bloomberg’s thetrace.org – which contains an image of a “bullet ridden corpse” – indicates that Pareene’s polemic is finding favor amongst the anti-firearms freedom fraternity. How great is that?