Guest post: NRA and talk radio fueled bullies open carrying through parking lots
Originally a comment by cazz on These are men with guns who have declared themselves outside the law.
This is the ‘new’ reality of the Rural West. Armed, well off, mostly white males looking for a fight. These are not the hunters and ‘varmint’ shooters of previous generations, but NRA and talk radio fueled bullies open carrying through parking lots and grocery stores looking for some reason to show off their faux manhood, any reason.
They have no reason for rebellion other than repeated refrains of “Government Comin’ for Your Guns” and palpable fears of the Pending Race War.
I’ve lived in the rural PNW for over 30 years, and I’ve watched this generation of “Patriots” with growing concern, and I have counted some of these guys as friends and co-workers. Some of these folks are even liberal in every way you can count, except for the fact that they “need to arm themselves for the upcoming “. They spend their weekends either on the shooting range or at any one of the local fair grounds sure to have a “gun show” where they can add to their collections.
Or, if they happen to own acreage, they’re out target practicing on it usually with semi-automatic weapons, making any given weekend afternoon sound like a war zone in my back yard.
I’ve even been a unwilling party to a near shooting incident in a state campground where one person decided to challenge another’s right to camp in a certain spot, ending in nearly all the males in the whole campground strapping on their holsters and parading around a campground where infants and children were present. After the Sheriff left, things quieted down, until after midnight and one brave soul decided to punctuate his displeasure by starting up drunken ‘target practice’ in the woods.
Personally, I blame the NRA. At one time, more that 30 years ago, the NRA stood for gun safety and responsible gun ownership. Sometime after that, they became what has to be the most successful marketing entity in the US, using fear of “Government Gun Grabs” and fictional race wars as effective as any jingle or slogan ever was.
“Pending race war” is an interesting comment, as an outside observer, I’ve often wondered if that fear is the real motivation behind the US gun culture, not some unspecified foreign enemy or oppressive government.
It’s a funny thing when Dixie-mongers and armed occupiers of US government buildings, for instance, get called patriots.
@RJW
It’s also worth noting that the “Pending Race War” is typically thought of as a pre-emptive strike. When you know the blahs are coming for your hoarded food, it only makes sense, right?
*gag*
One thing I’ve noticed is how few people not involved in this world have any real clue what it’s all about. I hear people sympathetic to these lawbreakers, because “anti-government”. Even my most liberal friends now assume these “patriots” are standing up against some abuse. They have no idea that the real “freedom” being protected here is the freedom to continue getting filthy rich while the rest of us pay for it. Most people are totally unaware of the grazing permits on public land, that they are incredibly cheap compared to private permits, and that the “owners” of those permits can sell them to other people for a huge profit, which they pocket, making them millionaires at the expense of the rest of us. So actually, there is effective (though legal) theft going on even if they actually pay for their permits.
There is one US senator from Nebraska that ran for Congress specifically to protect these ranchers from an threatened increase in grazing permits, so they could continue lining their pockets with government silver. Why did she do this? Because that is how she got rich. Her opponent referred to her as a “welfare rancher” but most people in Nebraska didn’t get the message and voted for her.
Meanwhile, Occupy, which did not arm itself and was not getting rich off anyone, was seen as an illegal movement, portrayed by the media as the lowest of the low in many cases.
So we now have the irony that rich jerks who effectively steal money from the working man are portrayed as a champion of the working man when they arm themselves and take over public land to ensure their ability to continue getting rich off the taxes of the working and middle classes.
iknklast @4
“Most people are totally unaware of the grazing permits on public land, that they are incredibly cheap compared to private permits,”
Ah, so that’s what it is all about. We had a similar situation in my home state here in Australia where ranchers had been given permits to graze their cattle on the alpine ‘high country’, where they were causing considerable environmental damage. When the greenies objected the ranchers were outraged that their ‘traditional rights’ were violated, however no one resorted to guns or the occupation of public buildings.
These people are affiliated with the Sovereign Citizen movement.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_citizen_movement
Scroll down for a paragraph on Cliven Bundy. Briefly, they think they are not “federal citizens,” and not bound by U.S. law (or Canadian; I gather there are some up there too.)
PZ has one of these guys pestering him; I think it’s the one who inserts commas and semicolons inappropriately into everything he writes. That’s supposed to mean something-or-other.
Being Canadian this is all background noise. However, if these ‘patriots’ are fans of guns, engage in illegal occupations and make threatening gestures, then they’ll only end up stoking the ire of Americans who’ll then push for greater gun controle. So these fans of firearms will eventually shoot themselves in the foot, won’t they?
@John
Nah. That only happens when the armed people are black and not occupying or threatening anyone.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug01/barillari/pantherprologue.html
St. Ronnie supported gun control after that, I tell you what.