One of the most astounding aspects of the politics after the Parkland school shooting is how quickly a small group of student leaders and a large number of leftist groups backing them focused on the NRA. The CNN three-ring circus event in which thousands of people jeered and shouted at Dana Loesch was one of the low points in an already low political theater.
Meanwhile, the facts have come out proving that this shooting could have been and should have been prevented without a single change in the gun laws.
The perpetrator was reported to police and the FBI dozens of times, including specific warnings that he wanted to kill people and shoot up a school – yet law enforcement did nothing. At least one, and possibly up to four, Broward County Deputy Sheriff, meanwhile, waited outside the school building as the killing was in progress rather than enter and confront the shooter. The Sheriff himself, who must have known much or all of this information during the CNN circus, nonetheless pretended like he and his office did everything they could as he mocked and berated Dana in front of the jeering crowd.
In an instance when law enforcement proved incapable of protecting us because of its sheer incompetence, we are asked to disarm and rely on law enforcement for our personal defense. No thank you.
Yet the NRA is the media and social activist focus for reasons having nothing to do with student safety.
There is an ongoing campaign touted on social media by the small group of students but organizes by groups like Think Progress. Sleeping Giants and Moms Demand Action, who are targeting corporations that do business with the NRA, mostly though discounts offered to NRA members. Using a playbook refined against Glenn Beck, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and others, companies are being bombarded on social media with demands they sever ties.
It’s not surprising that they are having immediate success. Corporations are cowards when faced with such leftist campaigns. Hertz, Delta, United and many others have severed ties.
This graphic posted by Think Progress may not be complete, but it will give you an idea:
This is not going to be a fatal blow, or likely much of a blow, to the NRA. Unlike targeting advertisers of conservative radio and TV shows, these partnering deals are not central to the NRA’s finances.
But it’s going further. People like Joe Scarborough have joined a campaign to deplatform NRA-TV. That is, to force companies like Apple, Amazon and YouTube to shut down NRA-TV’s ability to stream content.
It should surprise no one that what starts with an attack on 2nd Amendment rights quickly moved to an attack on free speech via the handful of internet oligopolies. Leftists have identified a weak point — private entities are not constrained by the 1st Amendment the way the government is, but they perform on the internet quasi-governmental functions over internet infrastructure and access.
I wrote about this in our 9th Anniversary post:
If the assault on the Electoral College was the game changer for me, a runner up was waking up to implications of the concentration of power in a small number of social media and internet companies who have been weaponized to shut down speech and expression. Google, Facebook, Twitter and two handfuls of other companies now completely control our ability to communicate with each other, while internet backbone companies are poised to block internet access altogether.Imagine living in a repressive country in which the government blocked access to and suppressed internet content. You don’t need to move. It’s coming here but from private industry. This is, in many ways, more dangerous than government suppression of free speech because at least in the U.S. the government is subject to the First Amendment, and can be voted out of office.I don’t know if there are any uncorrupted institutions left that matter.
If you think the attacks on the NRA are only about the 2nd Amendment, then you haven’t been paying attention. These people are totalitarian in nature, and that nature is on full display.
So I’ve renewed my lapsed NRA membership, which had lapsed.
I don’t really recall when I joined the NRA, it probably was around the time my wife and I took an NRA handgun safety course several years ago.
Why did I renew the membership?
First and foremost, because the corporate cowardice and campaigns to deplatform the NRA are a threat not just to our 2nd Amendment rights, but to our liberty generally. Attacks on our 2nd Amendment rights are the gateway drug to tyranny.
I set forth my thoughts on Twitter today:
♦ Renewed lapsed @NRA membership for 5 years b/c of corporate cowardice in face of social media tactics that regularly get used against conservatives on a range of issues, not just #2A #TweetYourNRAMembership Anyone who thinks they will not also go after #1A isn’t paying attn
♦ In fact, already going trying to silence @NRATV by cutting off ability to stream content
♦ Cutting back or eliminating your #2A rights is just that start, not the end
♦ Just visit almost any campus, where non-leftist words and thoughts they don’t like are equated to violence that needs to be repressed and driven off campus, it’s what’s going on now in corporate America too, and @Hertz @Delta and others are just more evidence
♦. @afbranco got it right: “The #2ndAmendment is also a symbol of our freedom and independence as a people – and that is why the left hate it so and are playing the long game to take it”
♦ Proving my point that they will not stop w #2A @JoeNBC joins chorus to cut off @NRATV from streaming services
(click on images if you want to Retweet)
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