What do you do when the facts aren’t on your side? You either adapt, or you lie.
When it comes to the gun issue, the anti-gun lobbyists refuse to adapt. That’s why it isn’t hard to catch them in a lie. Even when the lie is exposed, do they retract it? Do they amend their statements? Or do they double-down and make the lie bigger?
Well, let’s have a look at some examples, and you can judge for yourself.
Before we get to the details, we must remember a thing or two about the tactics the Left tend to prefer. They have learned how to get a more powerful emotional response by using some tactics pioneered and codified by Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals (summed up here).
Rules 8 and 12 are the ones I want you to keep in mind as we proceed. Rule 8 is an encouragement to be relentless in whatever cause you are supporting or enemy you are attacking. Rule 12 is all about demonizing the enemy. Personalizing the issue. This is normally applied to people, but they have found a way to adapt it for their purposes here.
Right on cue, even before the bodies were cold, the violence in Orlando was put to political use. [“Never let a crisis go to waste.” — Rahm Emanuel] The calls for new gun legislation were swift and loud. Guilt was distributed liberally everywhere except, it seems, on the attacker himself and his ISIS sympathies.
Instead, the media seized upon early reports that the gunman used an AR-15. (These were later proven false. But why should gun-grabbers let that triviality stop them?) Calls went out for assault rifles, automatic weapons and weapons of war to be banned.
We see here both Alinsky rules being applied. At every opportunity, get the emotional link between tragedy and gun control plugged into the narrative early. Have that set up as the preferred focus of conversation when pundits pontificate on panels. Create a pattern of thought in the public themselves where they default to this assumption even before the media coaches them. When that begins to happen, mission accomplished.
But we need a villain. People cannot rage or rally against generalizations. They cannot denounce a philosophy. They need a face. The NRA is a good start (from their perspective), but is not specific enough. The NRA has membership rumored to be in the millions of people. What they really need is a fall guy, a lightning rod.
Enter the AR-15. Present in some of the more notorious shootings, (which they are happy to capitalize on) the AR-15 has become the focus of media attention for exactly this reason. It’s a “scary black rifle”. It’s iconic. And it makes pussified New York reporters wet their pants.
Truth be told, the facts about the rifle aren’t that interesting. It has no ability to go “full auto”. (Sorry guys, if you buy this gun with visions of “Rambo” running through your head, you will be sadly disappointed.) It’s a simple firing system. One trigger pull, one shot fired. Want to fire more than once? You will have to pull the trigger each time.
But the gun “shoots 700 rounds in a minute!” (Alan Grayson, D-Fla). That’s another lie. Remember. One shot fired for each pull. Could YOU pull a trigger eleven or twelve times EACH SECOND? Those replying to him suggested a more reasonable ROF would be somewhere around a dozen shots per minute. Rate of fire, obviously, is also limited by the capacity of the magazine.
The fun one came from VOX. In the middle of an article, they presented a picture of the rifle, with a “helpful” image identifying its various parts. The part that’s left egg on their face is the part that identifies a “grenade launcher” feature on the gun. If you look at the image credit, you will notice the name “Law Centre to Prevent Gun Violence”.
I’ve mentioned them before. They’re not people to let facts get in the way of good propaganda.
It should go without saying that civilians do not have access to grenade launchers. And that the 37mm launcher incorrectly identified as a grenade launcher cannot be used by civilians for anti-personnel cartridges. As per ATF ruling 95:3:
“37/38 mm gas/flare guns possessed with cartridges containing wood pellets, rubber pellets or balls, or bean bags are classified as destructive devices for purposes of the Gun Control Act, 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44, and the National Firearms Act, 26 U.S.C. Chapter 53.”
It’s used for flares. C’mon now… will we be banning flare guns next?
To sum up, we have a group determined to “fundamentally transform America”. One of the things they want to transform is the American culture of gun ownership. So they are relentlessly attacking, undermining and casting doubt on the legitimacy of gun ownership. Why?
To demonize it in public opinion. If they gain control of public opinion, the political dominoes will begin to fall. It’s their standard playbook.
How are they attacking? They are zeroing in on one particular model of weapon they have chosen as their fall guy — the AR-15. Every possible evil in the world — including tooth decay — will be soon be blamed on the AR-15. And if they get their way, they will politicize this enough that citizens’ rights themselves will be rescinded.
Now you know the plan. It’s your move, Patriot.
