World News Korner

Open Carry demonstration in Virginia attracts two.

Courtesy of the Roanoke Times:

More than 300 people were invited on Facebook to walk down Cary Street on July Fourth with handguns, rifles and other so-called “long guns” proudly displayed.

Two showed up — and they were the organizers of the midday event in the family-oriented Carytown shopping district.

“I don’t know why,” said organizer Jason Spitzer, 29, when asked to explain the low turnout for what he described as an Independence Day demonstration to “spread Constitutional awareness” of Americans’ Second Amendment right to bear arms.

“But even if nobody came I’d still walk,” the Chesterfield County steel mill worker said, holding a large American flag in his hands, with a rifle slung over his shoulder and a holstered handgun on his hip. “It’s the Fourth of July and I love my country.”

Yes and loving your country inspires you to terrify its residents during a holiday?

The fact that nobody except these two nitwits felt that the demonstration was a good idea is nice to know, but exactly what the hell is the motivation for these people?

Salon thinks they have the answer:

Meditate for a moment on the notion of making people comfortable with the sight of guns in public via habituating them to the instinctual terror of seeing one, and two issues immediately arise: firstly, it resembles other illogical forms of activism in which the goal is wholly incompatible with the means, such as murdering abortion providers to achieve a culture of life; secondly, it is, above all else, an effort at achieving control.

After all, it isn’t as though the advocates of openly carrying guns in public are unaware of the effect they have on the public; they are usually met with resistance precisely because they terrify innocent bystanders, while their constitutional concerns – such as they are – tend to be swallowed up by the technique of their “protest.” It is rather the case that they claim the period of fear they deliberately inspire is one they intend to force the public to endure until they are no longer met with resistance. If their narrative is to be thought genuine, then their intention is literally to forcibly habituate the public to the idea that they are constantly in danger, and that there is little that can be done about it. Or, as Open Carry Texas puts it, the goal is to: “condition Texans to feel safe around law-abiding citizens that choose to carry [guns].” Of course, the fact that they are willing to inflict terror to achieve, bizarrely, a sense of safety demonstrates that people feeling safe isn’t really a goal here; otherwise pictures of guns or speech campaigns would surely suffice. The fear is, in other words, intentional.

In other words these folks are attempting to terrify us with their guns into also carrying guns so that we will not longer feel defenseless against their guns.

So what we are dealing with are bullies.

Bullies who have no problem terrifying you, and putting you in fear for the lives of your children, simply so that they can intimidate you into buying and carrying a gun of your own to put your mind at ease.

However this will undoubtedly fail, because most of us are far too civilized to believe that having more guns around increases our safety.

Especially in the hands of individuals who believe in using fear tactics to get their message out.

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