Pro Gun Rally Virginia
(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Seeing Nazis and white supremacists around every cornier and under every bed: Talia Lavin is the same former New Yorker writer who falsely accused an ICE agent of wearing Nazi tattoos.

Here are some of her deep thoughts about the peaceful pro-gun crowd in Richmond on Monday.

But even with the Base threat—which was thoroughly ignored by right-wing media—neutralized, it seems myopic at best to describe the Monday event as “peaceful.” There was, it was true, an absence of immediate bloodshed; but what abounded, in that armed and insurrectionist sea of humanity, was the promise that bloodshed might happen at any time, should the will of the mob be thwarted.

America’s exceptional tolerance towards armed white gunmen—its brooking of gun-toting militias around the country, and the po-faced seriousness with which the media takes claims of “freedom” when it comes to the right to own weapons of mass slaughter—is entirely restricted to this demographic.

Famously, California enacted gun-control legislation prohibiting the open carrying of firearms after a demonstration of armed Black Panthers on the steps of the state house; this swift reactive prohibition was enacted by then-governor Ronald Reagan. The threat of white supremacist violence, despite resulting in multiple shooting massacres against black people, Jews, and Latinos in the last several years, has yet to pierce the national consciousness as the vast and threatening specter it is.

Terrorists were intercepted on the way to this rally with the open goal of sparking civil war; the thousands of armed individuals roaming the streets of an American city openly proclaimed their intent not to obey laws they might disagree with. Yet their very whiteness rendered them invisible as a threat: in America, if you are white, you can wear a mask and carry a gun and hang a governor in effigy, and go home quietly at the end of the day, unmolested.

– Talia Lavin in That Pro-Gun Rally in Virginia Wasn’t Exactly “Peaceful”

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

112 COMMENTS

  1. People as arrogant and deranged as this go even farther off the rails when they’re proven wrong, repeatedly!

    • Speaking of being wrong, the author states above in the article:

      “Famously, California enacted gun-control legislation prohibiting the open carrying of firearms after a demonstration of armed Black Panthers on the steps of the state house;…”

      Absolutely false. Open carry of loaded weapons was prohibited by then-Gov. Reagan, but we were allowed to open carry unloaded weapons (ammo on opposite side of body) for almost half a century longer until Gov. “Moonbeam” Brown removed that as well as one of the first actions after he attained office in 2011. In fact, Brown openly admitted that his reason for doing so was not due to any threat by citizens, but by widespread misinterpretation of the law by LEOs, and he wanted to avoid any further standoffs between cops and lawfully carrying individuals.

      • Vlad loves Impaling! But it’s really called pegging and Shannon makes sure he knows his place while being pegged.

  2. To this writer only minorities are the victims of mass shooters, when this is not true. Funny how the media likes to quote facts that are dubious in nature.

  3. Conflating the suspected terrorists with the protestors and showing disdain for white people. What’s new? What makes her think the armed protestors wouldn’t take out any terrorist threat?

    • She’s upset the police snipers and the machine guns in the Bearcats were not unleashed on the protesters. She wanted to see another Lidic example.

  4. The answer is always equal suffering with these people.
    Instead of saying Reagans actions toward the demonstrating Panthers was wrong and should be undone
    they say Reagans actions were wrong and should be applied to more people.

    The left really wants a full return to Jim Crow. They want government sanctioned oppression of “others” and they want every clique, race, gender, orientation and religious group to have their own tidy, segregated spaces where no others are allowed to be. Except for white people of course. They want white people exterminated for some asinine reason. And this is the party of tolerance and compassion.

    • “The answer is always equal suffering with these people.”

      Good point. In order to right the wrong of past racism, we should be racist toward another group of people instead of honoring MLK’s dream.

      • The only equality socialism ever achieved was making the poverty and suffering equal to all.

    • “They want white people exterminated for some asinine reason.”

      Hitler had the Jews, Pol Pot had the educated, Stalin had the kulaks. And the notion of the scapegoat is way older than all that. Asinine? Perhaps, but for those who want to sucker people into giving them absolute power, it tends to work.

      • In Progressive’s minds, we have to be punished and atone for our present and past “white privilege”.

        • My ‘white privilege’ allowed me to work 2 jobs for 25 years. I guess I should apologize for taking care of my ‘privileged kids’.

    • “And this is the party of tolerance and compassion.”

      Tolerance, compassion of others less fortunate, and accepting of others not like themselves.

      Unless you support Trump, of course…

    • The most liberating toy I have is a cell phone which is ONLY a cell phone. There are those who do not understand that, so, no apps, no GPS, no camera, no texts, no web, no email, no playlist, a phone. Period. As I watch everyone around me with their noses continuously glued to a tiny video screen, including when they are driving, I am continuously amazed.

      • Unless your cell is pre 2003 or a custom build you have GPS and it can be activated. With that said not having a smart phone likely does wonders for attention span and overall concentration.

  6. It’s good to have a real racist around. This way you can point to them and say “here is our example of the Liberal Racist”.
    A person who Projects their intolerance and bigotry on to innocent people.

    I like it when Libertarians, Liberals, Leftists, or whoever like to bring up the Black Panthers and Ronald Reagan signing the Mulford Act in California. Because Ronald Reagan is dead. That law was publicly endorsed by the elected proud homosexual leadership of State Senate President Tom Ammiano. When asked by gun rights groups to repeal this law, state senator Ammiano stated he supported the law and would not repeal it.

    That makes this white homosexual lawmaker just a racist Pig. Since that’s what liberals like to call Ronald Reagan who signed it into law.

    But the responsibility for that law still being on the books, rests with the current elected Liberal white racist leadership of the State of California.

    The three L’s never hold elected gay officials accountable for keeping this racist law on the books.
    But they sure do like to keep beating up the dead body of Ronald Reagan.

  8. … what abounded, in that armed and insurrectionist sea of humanity, was the promise that bloodshed might happen at any time, should the will of the mob be thwarted. — Talia Lavin

    No, what abounded in that sea of humanity was the promise of bloodshed if government violates our Natural, God-given inalienable rights — especially those rights codified in the Virginia and United States Constitutions which are the Supreme Law of the Land and supersede laws which elected governments enact.

    Ms. Lavin’s statement exposes the deep brokenness of her ilk. When she and her ilk like government, it is god-like and cannot ever be wrong. And we must obey every dictate and whim of said government. Of course Ms. Lavin and her ilk espouse the exact opposite of those principles if she and her ilk don’t like government. Then it is good and right for her side to oppose and violate despised governments.

    In other words Ms. Lavin and her ilk operate on emotion, fantasy, and their arbitrary notion of “virtue”. Intense feelings, fantasies, and “virtuous” goals are sufficient justification for quite literally anything and everything, especially if a lot of people share the same emotional rant. There are no timeless, unchanging standards of right or wrong, good or bad, truth or falsehood, attacker or victim.

  9. —its brooking of gun-toting militias around the country, and the po-faced seriousness with which the media takes claims of “freedom” when it comes to the right to own weapons of mass slaughter—is entirely restricted to this demographic.”

    Except these guys do not do mass shootings. They stop them. meanwhile in Chicago Il. and all over CA. millions of blacks are killing each other over terf wars and dope. But that’s OK because the dems have orchestrated it.

    The author of the article is an ignorant, American rights hating snowflake socialist democrat. Up hers.

    • “Millions”, huh? So you’re having a fun time fact-checking an author while simultaneously spouting off wildly erroneous claims of your own?

    • do you mean “tUrf wars”? yes, drug prohibition is the one of the biggest reasons why gangs kill one another. End prohibition of things. It has never, not ever, in the history of the entire world, reduced crime.

      • Just like the various organized crime types changed their ways after the prohibition of alcohol was lifted?

        • When was the last time you saw two sets of liquor store employees shoot it out over who was going to build a new store on a particular corner?

      • Post prohibition the Mafia diversified into narcotics, kidnapping, extortion, murder, hijacking, illegal gambling, prostitution, labor racketeering, and more. Actually they were doing these during these during Prohibition but simply continued them afterwards.

  10. There was at least one incident that I bet she/he/it won’t report about. Some guy began yelling over his bull horn for the crowd to tear down the fence to the cattle pen. A plainly illegal action. He didn’t get many words out before some of the crowd explained the error of his ways in shall we say plain language. He desisted and didn’t do anything else stupid. This crowd was self enforcing good manners. An armed society is a polite society. That is a large part of the reason the LEO’s in attendance were so relaxed with us surrounding them while armed, we did not represent a threat to them. In fact many of the LEO’s would be allies not enemies if push comes to shove.

  11. To be honest, The Mulford Act(Reagan banning open carry in response to the Black Panthers as referenced by the histrionic writer)was/is an atrocious piece of legislation …it was almost Bill Of Attainder -like in it’s intent,but really shafted EVERYONE in it cost to basic rights.
    Lavin is a blinder-wearing fool. The one thing in the article( somewhat) correct was Reagan’s action as specifically applying to fear of non whites.
    But the rest of it? She seems to have completely missed the fact that virtually EVERY piece of anti-RKBA ” common sense” in existence in the US has as it’s root an attempt to disarm and disenfranchise those deemed as ” other” ,and to leave them vulnerable to those who’s favored group membership left them able to be armed-essentially converting a Natural Right into a Privilege.
    I’m quite certain that many in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising greatly lamented their prior” law abiding nature” in cooperation with the Nazi(and other countries) edicts reserving arms for the Party Members In Good Standing…Alles Ist Ordung

  12. “…..the promise that bloodshed might happen at any time, should the will of the mob be thwarted.”

    If more people actually believed this, 2A rights might remain in tact. Based on the actions and votes of the VA legislators, it would appear as though few people actually believe ‘bloodshed might happen should the will of the mob be thwarted’.

    • I was gonna say, “good, she understood.” Just because she doesn’t like a message, doesn’t mean it is illegitimate. As you said, if she really believes her own words, she’s bound to soften her pressure on this issue.

      • We had some big rallies in New Yorkistan back before SAFE got passed. I attended and it was an awesome upbeat atmosphere. No violence. No destruction. Cuomo ignored us and then sent us a bill for lawn repairs…. which was paid despite the fact that the lawn was in rough shape before we all got there. SAFE act got passed.

        A few months later there was some NYC festival or parade. I can’t remember which one, but there was violence and a couple people got shot. Cuomo paid attention to that group and the demands being made by the organizers. The message these dictators are sending is that they reward violence. It’s like they want things to go hot.

        • At the very heart of political maneuvering is the truism that it pays (politicians) for politicians to reward the violent. If everyone is peaceful and well behaved, politicians have no problems to solve and thus no way to incite fear in the lives of their constituents. So, the truism that an “armed society is a polite society” is actually anathema to any aspiring politico and must be undone. The solution to this horrible fact is, as free citizens, to keep doggedly hounding the politicos with open threats of abject retribution should they infringe on our rights, and by this I mean NOT relying on law enforcement to actually enforce laws. We should openly, resolutely and often escort promise breakers and rights infringers to the jailhouse and see to it ourselves that they stay there. Sadly, very few people actually have the courage to shoulder the burden of their own liberty. Most, and I do mean MOST people would rather be comfortable prisoners than risk a little discomfort in their freedom.

  13. Now, let’s look at Ms. Lavin’s comment from another perspective.

    … the promise that bloodshed might happen at any time, should the will of the mob be thwarted.

    Ms. Lavin claims that she does not approve of bloodshed for not obeying the will of the mob.

    And yet we so often hear that Ms. Lavin’s ilk actually DO approve of bloodshed for not obeying the will of the mob’s proxy — government — as long as government enforcers are shedding the blood.

    Of course History shows us over-and-over that mobs often direct government to violate our inalienable rights — something that no government ever has righteous authority to do.

  14. Talia Lavin was educated at Harvard and was fact checker for the New Yorker who once claimed an ICE agent had a “Nazi” tattoo. Turns out it was just a Maltese cross. She resigned from the New Yorker after that and went on to work at Media Matters as an “extremism researcher”. She was going to teach an elective class in “Reporting on the Far Right” at NYU in 2019, but that was cancelled due to lack of interest.

    And that’s pretty much all you need to know about her to get her figured out. She’s one of the left-wing Twitterati who would jump at their own shadow and then call it a Nazi.

    • She was going to teach an elective class in “Reporting on the Far Right” at NYU in 2019, but that was cancelled due to lack of interest.

      That’s hilarious. I’m sure Vlad would love that class if only he could afford it. Maybe he would take out a student loan with no intention of paying it back, like the others that blew money on useless classes.

    • It’s interesting to note that after she was canned from the New Yorker for accusing the agent (who is a double amputee veteran, btw) of having Nazi tatoos, it was all about her in the aftermath.

      “I feel like I’ve made a small mistake, and it’s destroyed my life” was her quote in an interview afterwards.

      Total narcissist.

  15. “Nazi” has no significant meaning anymore, because of goons like this woman. Among the guilty who have overused and mischaracterized it are many posters on this site.

  16. There were a lot of black folks and women there for it all being white guys. I’d say the majority of signage was EASILY anti-racist, going from calling out the governor for blackface frat games, to “black rifles matter” “armed minorities are harder to oppress” slogans, to a hilarious black man with dreds holding a pro-gun sign & shouting ironically that he was a white supremacist, lol.

    The vibe was like Woodstock with guns instead of acid, for the most part. Moments of protest –thousands chanting “WE WILL NOT COMPLY” in unison at the capital– in a sea of comraderie. Even the cops guarding were overwhelmingly cool & supportive within the confines of their rules.

    • All of the antiracist virtue signalling did exactly nothing. You don’t win by taking up leftist position.

      • Being against racism isn’t leftist, and promoting it certainly isn’t right wing. OTOH, deciding that past racism needs to be remedied by giving preferential treatment to someone based on his skin color (racism today in retaliation) is a very leftist concept. I can oppose affirmative action and discrimination against minorities at the same time, especially since I consider both to be variations of the same repugnant policies and behaviors. I welcome people of any race, religion, sex, gender, or partner preference to exercise their 2A rights. Many have been brainwashed by the Dems that they don’t or shouldn’t have those rights.

        • No shit, yeah? Yup, calling attention to a neglected but crucial aspect of the RKBA so frequently ignored, and which dovetails nicely as a message with the clear racism of both the governor & his minions, is merely “virtue signaling.’

          A line from one of my favorite shows (Boondocks); “And that’s when I suddenly realized; racists are really fucking stupid.” I’ll give that poster the benefit of the doubt, and assume he’s merely among the blindly-partisan set of folks rather than racists, which would make him merely “pretty stupid.”

    • Yup. But knowing how the left news media is, they know better than to not show pictures of the non-white folks and females.

  18. She is racist and sexist to hate only white males. The Demonrat party is the party of hating white males so, obviously, I do not vote for them. They also hate the Constitution and the Amendments that I respect, so strike two.

  19. A little bloodshed & insurrection can be a good thing…that famous old white man(and Virginian) Tom Jefferson wrote about such things😏

  20. The left doesn’t care about racism, it is just a weapon to attack the right.
    Multicultural politics is a team sport. You don’t win by pretending there are no teams.

    • “You don’t win by pretending there are no teams.”

      They are making it harder and harder. But I still absolutely refuse to participate in identity politics.

    • So, we should ignore the civil rights implications for black folks because they’re mostly Democrat, because we hate them? Even though black folks were about 5-10% of the attendees (IE thousands of people there)

      Got it; you’re just here to sow hatred, defeatism, and spew bile. Couldn’t even be bothered to attend, from wherever you are.

  21. It is precisely because of the on going threat that there might be bloodshed, the very reason why people buy, have, and carry guns. It is a founding part of why the 2nd Amendment exists.

  22. “…was the promise that bloodshed might happen at any time…”

    Indeed. Not “promise”, but “option.” “If someone tries to kill you, you try to kill them right back.” Or “Don’t start nothin; won’t be nothin.” And there wasn’t nothin.

    The rally folks may have displayed capability, but they demonstrated discfetion. One may understand how folks not to be trusted with sticks, bandannas, bicycle locks or keyboards don’t understand discretion. That doesn’t mean the rest of us should be limited to only what you’d hand a caffeinated toddler.

  23. Hey, we’re for everyone who desires to be armed to be armed, regardless of race. Reagan’s push for gun control has been well documented on this site, and almost universally condemned. But what Mizz Lavin really wants is for everyone who disagrees with her to be disarmed, regardless of race.

  24. Should we donate to these people who are making out point for us, or are they getting enough Bloomie-bucks to stay in business?

    • This is getting really stupid now, TTAG. Every day now, amidst my (at least a dozen every day) comments, I’m randomly subjected to CAPTCHAs or my posts disappear. I never use foul language, am sparing with the HTML tags and links, and I stay on topic. Why is this site so wonky and unstable? My reply to Possum was posted, and then sent off to the TTAG dungeon somewhere…again!

      It’s to the point where I’m visiting this site less often than before due to the frustration. And I’ve seen several other users complain about the same thing, and at least two have left because of it. Get this fixed.

  27. This so-called 30-ish (that makes her wise and expert) journalist has a background as a Harvard grad and a political journalist for (among others) the New Yorker and Huff Post. She falsely smeared an ICE agent (military vet who lost both legs in the Sandbox) for allegedly having a Nazi tattoo, got fired and began writing for another lib/prog journal called “Foreward.” Supposedly worth millions. IMHO, that puts her squarely in the ranks of the New York City liberal/progressive elite intelligensia. Heaven save us from such condescending “experts.”

  29. Know what you call someone who wakes up every morning obsessed by the whiteness of others, looking for justification to attack others on the basis of perceived race?

    • They aren’t racists, though; they simply use it as a means to an end. They truly don’t have any particular loyalty to any particular demographic group, beyond their utility for promoting leftist hegemony.

  30. Hey Lefty, Try this. If you don’t want large groups of people(of any color, race or creed) to show up armed to the teeth protesting for their right to defend themselves and their country, STOP trying to take that right away from them. If you do that, we can all go back home to our families, our jobs, and our PEACEFUL lives. Stop F’ing with us and we won’t have to get in your face.

  31. Anti-gunners (the useful idiot ones)… objecting to people responding sensibly to violence in the world, for breaking their delusion.

    The overlords, aparatchecks n paymasters, OTOH, are grasping for more authoritah n know exactly what they’re doing.

    Most of the politicians in this are just the shallow opportunists they are about everhthing.

  32. It seems we’re seeing the new, latest, greatest talking point emerge from the gun control crowd. I noticed it in Lavin’s shrieking article, and I’ve seen it elsewhere recently: The central theme being “the presence of all those big meanies carrying guns kept everyone else away, so it wasn’t an exercise in free speech, but the suppression of *other* people’s free speech.”

    Good gravy, these people would make themselves out to be the victims if they ran over your dog.

    • Your lack of responsible leash-handling DESTROYED their front driver’s side strut, i tell you what. How dare you!

  33. Ralph Northam’s face was masked by blackness.

    I don’t even care, but it’s funny how hypocritical all these limp wristed leftists are.

  34. Al-Qaeda = The Base (translation)
    Very Subtle Guys.
    Deep State “Intelligence” agencies at work again.

  36. Since there are more “white” people than people of any other individual color I’m not surprised but the dink will be scared crapless when the “white” supremacists and people of “color” unite regarding unconstitutional firearm legislation. Of course, that place to some extent in the NRA. And like the Democratic party, he is ignoring the blacks who participate in marches.

  37. Honestly, reading deranged shit like this, where you just KNOW that no amount of argumentation will even be heard, much less considered just makes me want to grant them all of their paranoid fantasies as true and just say “And don’t you forget it bitch!” 🤦‍♂️ Lunatics.

  38. Gee somewhere, sometime, someone said “Judge them not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”. According to her, it’s ok unless you are white. She might want to look into the mirror to see what a racist looks like. .

  40. What does “she” do with the great # of non-white folks in the Virginie crowd?!?😏

  41. I looked up Talia Levin. I don’t know if she’s ever seen herself in a mirror, but she is WHITE. What is it with all these white commies whining about being white? Obviously YES they are brainwashed… or brainless… or something….

    • “What is it with all these white commies whining about being white…” They’ve looked in the mirror and rightly despise what they see; then decline to look at anyone else for what they actually are.

      Oh, for the good old days when the self-loathing would do it in private.

    • According to Progressives, your birth gender doesn’t matter because gender Identity is fluid depending on your feelings, desires, time of month, season, or phase of the moon. Accordingly your birth race doesn’t matter because you can choose to identify with other cultural groups. This is how white Male ANTIFA identify as being transgendered people of color.

      • Not any more. Now you’ll get called out for cultural appropriation. It’s a tough world out there.

    • White guilt is a weird thing. Infects quite a bit of idiots. Btw was GQ always so left wing? Bunch of similar articles all by the feminist crowd. Counter intuitive.

    • “What is it with all these white commies whining about being white?”

      The Leftists have done an amazing thing – They taught gullible whites to despise themselves. 🙂

  42. I wish the author of this article could have visited the range with me a couple weeks ago in neighboring Maryland. She would have gone into shock and denial at how diverse the crowd there was.

  43. Exactly “WHO” were these terrorists who were intercepted on the way to this rally. How many terrorists were intercepted and where were they intercepted ? I’m sure the fool who wrote this will promptly answer my questions. Could the author/fool of this garbage (Zimmerman) be a little “RACIST” ? Yep !

    • They are govt agents and made the whole thing up to try and give them cred when trying to infiltrate some peaceful law-abiding group?

  44. Another me-or-your-own-lying-eyes moment from the anti-gun media, explaining to us unwashed ignoramuses how peace is actually violence because OmgScaryGunzzz!

    And how the manifest racism of gun control justifies more gun control to fight racism.

  45. Her and her Bernie Bros would send us into camps as soon as they figured out how an AK is operated.
    Or at least they would try.

  47. Stupid b!tch doesn’t like me because I’m white? Fair enough. I detest her because she’s a stupid b!tch, so it’s all good.

  48. if we were ever invaded by a foreign army she would be in the group of people that we would have to figure out what to do with
    -not to put too fine a point on it-
    because those people wont be on our side in the conflict

  49. Dear Talia, there is nothing wrong with being white. Or brown.
    Nothing wrong with being male either. Or female. Didn’t they teach you not to attack people for things they couldn’t choose?

    If you feel there was not enough minority people in the pro-rights crowd, I agree with you on that point. But it’s not fault of those who were present, that those not present don’t care so strongly about their constitutionally protected human rights.

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