America's Terrorists
Open carry is an open invitation for trouble.
Emil Mazey, the secretary-treasurer of the United Automobile Workers for 33 years, said at a labor meeting in 1946:
I can’t prove you are a Communist. But when I see a bird that quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, has feathers and webbed feet and associates with ducks—I’m certainly going to assume that he IS a duck.
Same could be said for terrorists.
There are reasons I don’t own a gun.
And those reasons are these—I have a temper and I have a sense of entitlement. I fear I would find a reason to use it. I fear seeing red and then finding myself staring at a smoking gun wondering what the hell had happened. I fear a gun would be a “solution in search of a problem.”
If I carried it around with me, open or concealed, I imagine it would factor into every interaction I had. I would be keenly aware of its presence, weight, consequence. If it were a combat weapon—say a Smith & Wesson M&P15, like the one owned by Kyle Rittenhouse—it would be impossible for the weapon to not factor into every interaction. It would be a statement.
And not a statement that implies I have an open mind.
With a weapon of mass destruction slung across my shoulder, I would be dangerous. To myself and everyone else.
Do you remember the incident in Dallas where a shooter wearing tactical garb gunned down 5 police officers and wounded a bunch of other police officers and innocent bystanders? It was during protests in downtown Dallas over police shootings of black men. The shooter—in this case—was a black man. He had been in the military and he had been “other than honorably discharged” after serving for almost a decade.
He went to the protests with the intent to kill white police officers. He was a terrorist. An American terrorist.
One of the lessons the Dallas Police Department learned that night was how difficult it was to determine who were the hostile shooters. Apparently, they remain unconvinced there might not have been more than one shooter. The reason for this is because there were multiple individuals “open carrying” battle-grade weapons at the protest.
It’s legal for them to do so in Texas. As it is in many other states.
This, of course, is insane.
Walking about in public with a weapon of mass destruction is an open invitation for trouble of all kinds. Attending a mass protest with a weapon of that sort is ludicrously stupid. Outrageously stupid. Stupendously stupid.
You think if trouble breaks out you will be able to defend yourself but you are just as likely to be gunned down by the ‘good guys and gals’ in official uniforms, or the ‘good guys and gals’ who also thought they would protect their freedoms by sauntering about in public with the actual symbol of anti-freedom.
If the shit hits the fan in that sort of situation, no one will know you from Adam.
Here is my comment in a Twitter thread about the kid who went to the Kenosha protests carrying a weapon of mass destruction—not slung across his shoulder—but at the ready:
If he'd been unarmed, if friend's stepdad hadn't left weapon out for him to retrieve, if he hadn't chosen to buy a combat rifle, if his friend hadn't helped him purchase it - none of this would've happened.
No deaths.
No lives - including his own - upended.
Choices matter.
It doesn’t matter that he did not actually transport the weapon across state lines. It doesn’t matter that his mom didn’t drive him to the protests. It doesn’t matter that he was seventeen when he made these decisions. It doesn’t matter what his intentions were with the first aid kit. It doesn’t matter that he was ‘buddying up’ to the Kenosha cops. It doesn’t matter that he blubbered like an infant during his testimony. It doesn’t matter that when the shit went down he felt compelled to defend himself. It doesn’t matter that before all of those ludicrously, outrageously, stupendously bad decisions were made that he was a fan of Andrew Yang, and not the 46th best president we’ve ever had.
His choices do matter.
Kyle Rittenhouse waded into a sea of people he didn’t know armed and dangerous. He was making a statement of his own. He had no authority backing him up, even though he might have imagined the Kenosha cops giving him a thumb’s up, or a drink of water, was some kind of implicit authority. He was a loose cannon.
A cannon who had unloosed itself on the general population.
It was his choice to be an American terrorist.
If I were on the jury, I’d want to give him the maximum sentence possible.
I came across this hopeful story in David Byrne’s Reasons to Be Cheerful website. It’s about Black and white citizens in Portland volunteering their help to people in Black neighborhoods to repair and maintain their houses in an effort to keep them from losing them. These sorts of stories need highlighting.
Reasons to Be Cheerful also has a podcast. Check it out here.
Also, PoliticsGirl—aka Leigh McGowan—with the help of Meidas Media Network launched her new podcast on the 16th of November. I think I’ll let her words about the podcast speak for themselves.
American Democracy is not promised to us and, with all the forces working against it, saving it will take a level of work most people aren’t ready for. The Politics Girl Podcast is here to give people a reason to care and a reason to fight. Our goal is to inspire. To instill in people a true understanding of what this country COULD be, if the right people were fighting for it, and what it WILL be if they don’t. It’s a political podcast yes, but more than that, it’s a podcast about America’s potential, where one passionate, and slightly mouthy, immigrant attempts to motivate the country to become what it promised to be but, so far, has yet to become. You’ll leave more knowledgeable, more engaged, and more sure that you, personally, can make a difference to the future of American democracy. Everyone’s got a little time for that right? Subscribe for new episodes every Tuesday. We’re in a fight for our country. We sure as hell better know what we’re fighting for. xo
Yes, she’s adorable, but that’s only one reason why you might want to tune in. She’s also incredibly smart (about politics and government, for sure), willing to admit her mistakes, empathetic and funny. I’ve been following her since 2016. Get on board!