As TTAG reported, the Huffington Post has launched a media meme equating the April 19th Second Amendment March with all manner of domestic terrorism and spree killing. In an editorial entitled April is “National Gun Violence Prevention Month,“ the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence climbs on board the smear campaign express. Hang on. Let’s see . . . National Sexual Assault Awareness & Prevention Month, National Child Abuse Prevention Month, Alcohol Awareness Month, Injury Prevention Month and National Youth Sports Safety Month. Nope. On October 20, we’re invited to celebrate (if that’s the right word) the Day of National Concern about Young People & Gun Violence. But that’s as “month” as it gets on the gun violence front this year. Never mind. I guess it’s a case of start as you meme to finish. Although Brady Prez Paul Helmke takes his sweet time getting to the Second Amendment March slur, preferring to warm-up with his April-restricted Google search on “gun violence.” Skipping ahead . . .
In recent days, anti-government zealots have made veiled threats to take up arms against the government because of health care reform, or perceived threats to gun rights. On April 19, the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the burning of the compound at Waco, Texas in 1993, zealots are organizing both an “open carry” of guns in Virginia, a rifle shot’s distance across the Potomac River from our Nation’s Capital, as well as a march near the White House with one featured speaker who has blogged about starting a Civil War against our American government.
Helmke is happy to leave readers with the impression that the same “zealots” are organizing both events. Which he knows to be false. And what of the fact that the Second Amendment March is about . . . wait for it . . . the Second Amendment? It simply doesn’t get a look in. Helmke doesn’t even use the group’s name, just in case someone might get the idea that they have a legitimate political stance.
Helmke goes on to connect the dots between the Hutaree’s evil plans with Lord Voldemort’s rally. I mean, the Second Amendment March.
After nine members of a gun-toting, military-training extremist group trying to start a civil war got arrested in Michigan a few days ago, their lawyer argues that “all you’ve got is a lot of talk from people who like to dress up in fatigues and carry around guns in the woods.” We’re concerned by groups like this because others like them have already started killing people for their causes and their grievances. Just ask the widows of those Pittsburgh police officers, the parents of the young innocent lives lost at Virginia Tech, and the friends and brothers and sisters of the children of Columbine who never made it to their high school prom.
Too many in our country are fueled by hatred, resentment and guns.
There’s rhetorical violence here: Helmke is guilty of character assassination. As always the gun control advocate fails to strike the telling blow (to use Palin-ese terminology). His supposed coupe de grace leaves us wondering what how many hate-filled, gun-wielding maniacs Helmke considers acceptable. And he pulls a Stevie Wonder (i.e. he doesn’t know when to stop).
I don’t like these anniversaries, and don’t want to add any more tragedies to the list. To quote Eliot again from “The Waste Land,”
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.Let’s pray for a month without gun violence.
I’m not sure what the hell Helmke’s talking about here (I’m not the best poem parser), but amen.
