Vice News paints Second Amendment supporters as extremists
May 11, 2021
In a new piece, Vice News misrepresents Second Amendment advocates as far-right extremists.
As more states become Second Amendment sanctuaries, the article lumps in their conservative governors with “anti-government extremists” and “militias.”
It depicts states’ defense of Second Amendment rights as insincere “political grandstanding” that could “trigger a nasty constitutional showdown.” The author faults these states for a “nasty…showdown.”
One of her sources lacks any self-awareness of the Left. He cites “anti-government rhetoric now dominating mainstream GOP politics.” If that’s the case, then pro-government rhetoric certainly dominates mainstream Democratic politics.
The author references an “ideological, anti-government undercurrent driving this movement” with no acknowledgment of the ideological, pro-government forces underpinning her article and the modern Left.
“[Second Amendment advocacy] dovetails with the broader antagonism toward government that was fed during the Trump years and culminated with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol,” her source says. “Even though just a handful of them carried guns, it was still a part of that larger movement that is still very much connected to guns.”
The author thus endorses the view that mainstream Republican governors are in bed with the Capitol rioters.
Not only is that false, but it’s also willfully or accidentally ignorant of CHOP, formerly known as CHAZ. The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle last summer was an insurrection whose homicide rate was almost 50 times more than that of Chicago.
The article doesn’t even mention that murderous, crime-ridden insurrection, much less link mainstream Democratic politicians to it. That’s a double standard because by the article’s logic, anyone on the Left – no matter how far left – is a part of their larger movement.
Throughout the piece, the writer ironically conflates support for the Second Amendment with being “anti-government.” Such support can be seen as being staunchly pro-government since it seeks to preserve an amendment to one of the national government’s founding documents, the Constitution.
That’s the “longer game in play,” in the writer’s words.
She misrepresents Second Amendment support as far-right extremism to push her pro-gun control agenda. She also misrepresents support for more restrictive forms of gun control as a moderate position. It’s a left-wing stance.
Defense of the Second Amendment remains a mainstream position despite the writer’s insistence to the contrary. She provides the facts that betray her.
As she says, America has at least 20 million assault rifles in circulation. Texas would be the 11th sanctuary state. There’s widespread resistance to an assault weapons ban. Simply put, there are too many Second Amendment supporters for them to be described as extremists.