Mark Walters writes [via ammoland.com]
You know, I used to tell my employees a few years back, when writing a sensitive email or replying to one, just sit on it. Write it then stick it in “drafts” for a day and return to it for another proofread later. It might save your ass. I can’t count how many times I’ve done that then wiped my brow thinking how lucky I was for not hitting the “send” button. I’ve had people thank me for giving them that advice.
The point I’m making is when you respond to a sensitive situation or topic when your blood pressure is up or you are upset, your response is usually emotionally dictated rather than rational and isn’t that the epitome of liberalism, feeling–not thinking?
When it comes to the loss of Bob Owens, it’s hard not to let my emotions invade my space.
Days have gone by, and I’m still trying to process the fact that he is gone. Like many of us in this community, I too had just seen Bob days before at the NRA annual meeting in Atlanta. The evening before the convention kicked off; I had the opportunity to introduce him, Jenn Jacques and Stephen Gutowski to my wife and kids for the first time when a group I was with ran into him and his party at a restaurant in town.
Bob hugged me and among other things, apologized for not being able to give me more radio time as he was working on his book. I reminded him, as I had in previous conversations, that no apologies were necessary and when the book was finished we would discuss it on air.
That will never happen. The finality of his action has begun to sink in.
Look, I am angry about what he did for a lot of different reasons. That is normal. I am upset the community lost such a vocal champion; I’m upset we all lost his wit and wisdom, and I am angry that he was capable of doing such a thing. I do not understand it and never will.
However, I am also very grateful. I am grateful for the very things that make me angry. I am grateful the community had him as a vocal champion, agree or disagree with some of his work. I am thankful that I was able to share his wit and wisdom, albeit not nearly enough. I am grateful for the short on air time we had and being able to share his thoughts with anyone listening.
Now to the “other side.”
Bob willfully put himself in the public eye and as such had drawn the angst of the rabid, militant, hateful, vile, despicable, left wing, sanctimonious lunatics who claim some moral authority over the rest of us.
I learned a long time ago not to “feed the trolls” but I gotta tell you, it’s getting difficult. I expected, and I’m sure Bob would too, the response from those who hate everything he stood for, which is essentially everything you stand for also.
I will resist identifying those people by name (I’ll leave that to others) as it’s what they want, however seeing such hateful rhetoric directed at another human being as I am witnessing now is not surprising considering the source.
I’m talking about the comments from some of these animals on Bob’s Facebook page, Twitter accounts, etc. Certainly, some are fake accounts but nonetheless, fake accounts run by real people, if you can even call them people.
There is no such thing as the “tolerant” left. There has never been. The left tolerates only that with which they agree. If they disagree with you, they will leave no stone unturned coming after you, especially after you pass and can’t respond. Cowards, plain and straightforward. What they don’t realize is, they only strengthen our resolve.
They remind us that we don’t need to react the way they do for one simple reason. It is not necessary for us to “impose” our will upon people. Freedom already belongs to those who choose it. It doesn’t have to be forced upon us. Freedom is the natural state of the universe. While we have to fight for it from those who hate it, it only has to be grasped by those who seek it, and there are more of us than there are of them.
That’s why they hide behind phony accounts, masks, and anonymous internet screen names. They are desperate, and desperate people do and say desperate things.
That Bob’s death is bringing out such hateful rhetoric from these monsters is proof that Bob was winning, that we are winning. It is proof of their moral bankruptcy.
While Bob won’t be around to witness our continued winning streak, he certainly contributed significantly to its success. He was a fierce fighter, and a true warrior on this battlefield of rights and I’m honored to have known him. Please donate to help his family.
https://www.gofundme.com/the-bob-owens-memorial-family-fund
About Mark Walters
Mark Walters is the host of two nationally syndicated radio broadcasts, Armed American Radio and Armed American Radio’s Daily Defense with Mark Walters. He is the Second Amendment Foundations 2015 Gun Rights Defender of the Year award recipient and co-author of two books, Lessons from Armed America with Kathy Jackson (Whitefeather Press) and Lessons from UnArmed America with Rob Pincus (Whitefeather Press)
“The left tolerates only that with which they agree.”
Amen, brother.
These people like Cond O’leased have untreated or undiagnosed mental health issues. Social media bullying is real and has very real harmful effects on those being bullied. We need to encourage these bullies to seek treatment. They need to stop putting down others so they can feel better about themselves. This only prolongs their depression and also can cause depression and even lead to others taking their own lives to escape the constant online bullying.
The treatment I would recommend would be in poor taste considering the genesis of this article.
Just like some people shouldn’t drink, and some shouldn’t gamble, some people shouldn’t go online.
Some, because they like destroying other’s wings because they themselves can’t fly, and that’s a really twisted way to make yourself feel better or more important.
Others, because for whatever reason they care far too much about what some faceless jerk writes about them.
“Just like some people shouldn’t drink, and some shouldn’t gamble, some people shouldn’t go online.”
I can handle my booze, don’t care for gambling, and should never be allowed to post prior to coffee, or after I’ve taken Ambien. But these haters post that crap intentionally.
That Cond O’Lease guy seems like a human dumpster fire. Could use a few pro-gun computer hacker types to turn his life upside down for a little while to give him some perspective.
Anyway, I thought cyber bullying was an actual punishable crime these days?
Every time someone identifies as a liberal, their mental illness is diagnosed.
I too miss Bob Owens. He was a role model for me personally in his work and writing. Bob Owens remains a true American patriot.
If I become half the man Bob Owens was in the gun rights world, my life will be a success.
As former Sheriff Ken Campbell penned “We are diminished” by Bob’s loss.
Instead of buying a wilson combat xpf100 wrx or a meteorite Cabot, I should buy a used ruger p89 and send the difference to bob’s families’ gofundme.
Just sayin.
Either way I’m sure his family would appreciate it.
you wont regret buying a p89, except for the fact that the ruger PC9 is the perfect companion but hard to find.
Why are we lionizing and celebrating this sellout, he was a virulent anti-Trumper, a Salem Media, Erick Erickson, Stuart “Say It With A Lisp” Stevens, Mitt Romney stooge? If it was up to Bob Owens Willard “Mittens” Romney would’ve been the GOP nominee and most likely president with that as payment for the support of the Cabal of Corruption (Chamber of Commerce) “Amnesty” for millions of illegal aliens would’ve been passed in the first month additionally our 2nd Amendment Rights would have been sold down the river.
And for those who don’t believe Bob Owens would have betrayed us, he would and he would have made a bundle of money doing it as traffic to his website was sure to increase exponentially with “old, fat, White guys” complaining and Owners himself writing editorials regaling us how he tried to use his influence as a member of Romney’s Mormon Mafia Clan to steer policy.and keep the president and congress from going too far.
Holy cow MKDDVD, you were right about Owens.
Supposedy he may have been a strong 2’nd amendment supporter but his insistence on being an anti-Trumper in the face of a Hillary presidency is absolutely nuts.
In his twitter feed he even stated he felt certain Hillary was going to win but being a “true conservative” he just couldn’t bring himself to vote for the only viable candidate who could stop her …and who actually DID stop her.
MUH PRINCIPLES were more important to him than actually facing political reality.
Whatever.
Trump is not a conservative. He is also not about small limited government either. He wasn’t my first choice in the primaries either. I did prefer him over Hillary, and that’s about it.
But congratulations shitting on the legacy of a man who worked hard to defend our gun rights. He certainly did more and achieved more than you guys did.
I didn’t shit on Bob Owens legacy he did that all by himself by insulting Trump and Trump’s supporters and scheming to insert Romney as the nominee at the GOP convention.
Face the facts. Bob was all about “the bottom line” ie. MONEY. Like Michelle “Me Love You Long Time” Malkin, Katie “The Bitch” Pavlich, Dana “My ‘Lips’ Are Beet Red” Loesch and other so-called “Conservative” voices all worried about their Salem Media radio shows (Erick Erickson/Mitt Romney) Bob Owens like the others sold out their loyal followers and took orders from their boss at Salem Media.
Bob Owens was not only selfish, he was greedy and weak morally and politically :
Funny how Trump “who’s not a conservative !” completely swept away all 16 other Republican candidates who supposedly were ….conservative ? Even Ted Cruz was shit-canned by the voters. Was Cruz not conservative enough ?
I’m sure you knew Bob Owens was making excuses for Springfield and RRA from accusations of political subterfuge ( and subtly referencing “another gun blog” …..guess who ! )
Your previous defensive comments are now in the proper context since you appear to be a Owens groupie.
He didn’t deserve to die but the more I learn about the guy the more creepy he appears to me.
The way these people act is disgusting. That doesn’t need to be said.
However, there is something that needs to be said here. TTAG doesn’t get a lot of flat out shitposting, and while I’m aware that most people here are adults with some serious interwebz time under their belts let me just say this because it’s something I want to SCREAM on other websites and sometimes I want to scream here because people fall for some of this this again and again. .
Trolls thrive on replies. IGNORE THEM. Unless you can counter-troll better than they troll it’s not worth your time and counter trolling requires that you’re in it for the lulz only or willing to be a total dick and also requires that they are invested in the trolling.
When you can milk the lulzcows for their lulz go ahead but other than that DON’T respond. “Le Résistance” and his ilk are hit and run assholes no different than what’s going on with Mr. Owen’s FB page. You will never get satisfaction from them and they delight in watching you spend time and effort with time, facts and logic to refute them so that they can ignore it. They’re just wasting your time so DON’T LET THEM.
There are ways to get back at them, but generally speaking those of us here don’t have time to become a “shitlord” and really go after them, which in reality would require a good dox and just isn’t worth it. So don’t bother. Just ignore them and let them wither. Nothing makes these little drama queens squirm more than being completely and utterly ignored.
Like “airlocking”, let them die. Let them die cold and utterly alone.
Truth.
I figured that out back in the days of local dial-up BBS & the dawn of 8-color ASCII site graphics. There were some pretty nasty denizens on those boards; but it was pretty easy even then to figure out who the proto-trolls were, and how to make them go away.
I also learned that there are some people who get off on arguing with trolls, and their abusive codependency really is funny sad. And later still I learned that troll-baiting is great sport, but only when it doesn’t lower the tone of an otherwise salient discussion.
I agree, please don’t feed the trolls.
Hopefully, if everyone completely ignores them maybe they will go away. Faint hope but let’s try it.
I feel bad for Bob’s family. I know GOD rushed out to meet him.
I don’t mean to throw out any inappropriate sentiment, and I don’t know anything about Bob’s circumstance(s), but the first thought I had when I heard he had passed was that it was foul-play.
It’s like Scalia in TX, sure, coulda happened, but awful convenient for the POS crowd.
“I know GOD rushed out to meet him.”
Wow, Christianity has sure gone soft since I stopped practicing 17 years ago.
Back then the prevailing view among Catholics and Protestants was that suicide was an automatic trip into the fires of Hell…even for believers
Well. Maybe you can start practicing again now that it’s so soft.
I’ll take harsh reality …thanks anyway.
In the U.S., our democracy is built on the idea of achieving balance through tension between differing viewpoints. For such a framework to be successful, those differing viewpoints must have vocal advocates. Bob Owens was one of those advocates. He was vocal about his viewpoints. He had skin in the game. And, even though I did not always agree with his viewpoints, I am certain that we are all poorer for the fact that his voice is now silent. I’ll miss Bob Owens and the contributions he made to the ongoing debate that defines our democracy.
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