I’m not sure I can wrap my brain around this kind of double-think, so I’m going to have to take baby steps.

For years now, terrorist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda have told local Radical Islamic Fundamentalists (RIFs) to use our supposedly lax gun laws to arm themselves.

This video shows one RIF leader telling recruits they could go to a gun show and pick up a full-auto weapon without a background check. As a result, groups like the Brady Campaign to Celebrate Prevent Gun Violence and Everytown for Gun Safety have been pushing for Congress to “close the terror gap” and pass other gun control measures.

Amanda Marcotte of Salon.com is taking it one step further, accusing NRATV of promulgating a “conspiracy theory.” So what’s this insane, black helicopter, tin-foil hatted lunatic “conspiracy theory” the NRA is pushing? In the words of Ms. Marcotte:

the NRA … [is] claiming that ISIS is praising lax gun laws in an effort to dupe gullible Americans into supporting gun control.

ISIS and Al-Qaeda are praising lax gun laws: True. Various American anti-gun groups are using this fact to promote gun control: True. As NRATV host Grant Stinchfield concluded:

ISIS issues this calling not just to arm jihadists, but to scare the left into issuing a call for more gun control indicating that the NRA believes that one of the goals of this calling might be to get more gun control passed: Amanda says that this is insane.

So those of us who believe that the “gun show full-auto” video was a RIF propaganda ploy are nut-job conspiracy freaks, while Marcotte’s belief that these RIF leaders are far too backward and stupid to engage in such chicanery is a result of sensible, mature analysis. I thought it was conservatives who were the racists.

But let’s delve into the array of lies, red herrings and straw men that Ms. Marcotte has presented us with. She starts with some lovely passive-aggression:

One of the biggest tension points for gun industry apologists in this country is the issue of terrorism. On the one hand, the conservatives who make up most of the gun industry’s customer base think of themselves as stalwart defenders of Second Amendment “rights.”

I’m not sure just why Amanda put scare quotes around the word “rights.” I can only assume that she doesn’t consider an enumerated Constitutional right — one upheld by the Supreme Court in Heller v. District of Columbia — to be an actual right. And she accuses us of ignoring facts.

Let’s dive deep into the outright lies:

On the other hand, the same conservatives like to imagine they are tough on terrorism. That’s a problem, because the lax gun laws in this country are perhaps the biggest friend a modern-day terrorist has, as evidenced by the high-profile shootings in San Bernardino, California, and Orlando, Florida, in the past year and a half.

Lax gun laws…in California. The state that’s every gun grabber’s scorecard leader, with 48 out of a possible 50 Brady points for “Keeping Guns Out of the Hands of Dangerous People.” Is that the California Marcotte’s talking about?

Even the old Grey Liberal Lady herself, The New York Times, admits in this piece that all the guns used by the San Bernardino shooters were purchased lawfully (although the rifles were transferred to the husband without the required background check…which he would have passed anyway).

As for the Orlando shooter, again, the Grey Lady tells us he was not a “prohibited person” and passed the necessary background checks when he lawfully purchased the weapons he used in his killing spree.

So just exactly what “lax gun laws” is Marcotte objecting to?

She never says precisely, referring instead to an ISIS propaganda article which, she says “outlined a number of loopholes that allow would-be gun buyers to evade background checks — loopholes that gun-safety activists have been trying to shut down for years.”

These “loopholes” are the laundry list of private sales avenues which the antis have been campaigning against for years.

Oddly enough, these are the same people who have been trying for decades to increase the number of private sales by choking off the number of FFLs. Increasing fees (from $10 a year to $200 for three years with passage of the Brady Bill), increasing paperwork (requiring photographs and fingerprints with applications), increasing penalties for paperwork violations, eliminating “kitchen table” dealers who were not “engaged in the business” of dealing firearms (guys like the TMC on my first sub who got his FFL to increase his collection and help guys on the boat get cheap prices for guns) and so on have led to us going from about 250,000 Class 1 FFLs in 1993 to 56,623 dealers as of 04/10/17.

Near the end of her screed, Marcotte again alludes to supposedly “lax laws” when she states:

Before the Rumiyah article appeared, liberals and gun-safety advocates were not lacking evidence that ISIS-inspired terrorists would exploit easy access to high-powered weapons. The aforementioned shootings in San Bernardino and Orlando offered gruesome examples of how demented people inspired by overseas terrorists, plus easy access to firearms, can add up to an appalling body count.

In other words, as far as Ms. Marcotte is concerned, California’s gun control regimen is far too lax, .even though it features:

• Laws requiring background checks for all gun sales
• laws that give law enforcement full discretion in issuing carry permits
• laws allowing law enforcement to conduct thorough screening for all firearms purchases
• laws requiring fingerprints as part of that screening
• laws prohibiting violent misdemeanants from purchasing firearms
• laws prohibiting violent juvenile offenders from purchasing firearms
• laws prohibiting the severely mentally ill from purchasing firearms
• laws prohibiting drug and alcohol abusers from purchasing firearms
• laws prohibiting domestic and intimate abusers from purchasing firearms
• laws prohibiting those under 21 from purchasing a handgun
• laws requiring records of all gun purchases be provided to law enforcement so owners can be identified if they become prohibited
• laws securing guns from armed and prohibited people
• laws securing firearms from domestic abusers
• laws providing legal tools for family members to prevent gun violence (gun violence restraining orders)
• laws empowering state law enforcement to shut down “bad apple” dealers
• laws allowing law enforcement to verify gun store inventory through dealer records
• laws mandating security measures to prevent gun theft from stores
• laws requiring dealers to report weapons lost and stolen from stores
• laws permitting law enforcement to conduct warrantless searches (aka “inspections”) of gun dealers
• laws to prevent bulk purchases of handguns
• laws to make straw purchasing even more illegal for straw buyers
• and laws requiring dealers to report sales of multiple guns to law enforcement

I can just imagine the sorts of “reasonable, common sense” gun laws the Salon writer and her friend in the civilian disarmament industrial complex would like to see put in place in California and nationwide. But I don’t want to.

Meanwhile, if Ms. Marcotte is looking for groundless conspiracy theories she doesn’t have to look far. Her article will suffice.

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38 COMMENTS

  1. Wow, what a nut job. Is that why there’s a picture of Jared Letos Joker at the top?

        • First the Orlando shooter was an armed security guard. Even a disarmed populace wouldn’t have prevented Pulse from happening. However if we didn’t allow his father to immigrate here from Afghanistan would have.

          These people don’t believe the second amendment is an individual right. SCOTUS be damned. They do however want California police officers to have surplus military fully automatic rifles. Police aren’t military and civilians aren’t the enemy so if civilians can own those surplus weapons neither should our civilian police.

  3. “So those of us who believe that the “gun show full-auto” video was a RIF propaganda ploy are nut-job conspiracy freaks, while Marcotte’s belief that these RIF leaders are far too backward and stupid to engage in such chicanery is a result of sensible, mature analysis…”

    If you really think ISIS is trying to increase gun control through their videos, yeah, you’re probably a nut-job conspiracy individual (not nice to call people freaks).

    Yes, they are backward. No, they’re not ‘stupid’ but it doesn’t take a stupid person to misunderstand all the laws relating to guns here. Plus the media has portrayed the US as a wild-west gun show compared to the rest of the world so these guys over there probably buy it and think you can go to a gun show like a bazaar in Afghanistan and pick up an auto-AK with cash.

    • There are other reasons they might say it that don’t come from misunderstanding.

      A lot of the higher up people are well educated and well traveled. To assume that they don’t calculate and target their propaganda is a mistake.

    • Ironically, you could probably walk into a bazaar in afganastan and buy a full auto AK with cash….

    • They are backward in their beliefs, but in fact many Islamists are quite well educated otherwise. It’s not at all a stretch to imagine that some of them would understand US law well enough to formulate a FUD campaign targeting useful idiots over here.

      • The carefully planned and co-ordinated 911 attacks were the work of brilliant people.
        Underestimating an enemy is a fast track to defeat.

  4. This is the 2nd or 3rd gun grabber featured on this site in a short amount of time that looks like the Kindergarten teacher from Billy Madison. And this one has paste-eater written all over her.

  5. One of the biggest tension points for media industry apologists in this country is the issue of terrorism. On the one hand, the liberals who make up most of the media industry’s customer base think of themselves as stalwart defenders of First Amendment “rights.”

    See… I are journalist too. Ain’t so hard as I thought. Now gimme byline.

    • Right? Why even bother tap-dancing around it at this point? Look at the laundry list of regulations on the book in CA. There’s really only one other step past that, total firearms ban. So continuing to claim that even more, tougher laws are needed is really just saying to ban ’em all.

      • A complete ban is the second last step. The last is criminalizing any form of self defense. I’m sure some of them think it should be illegal for a private citizen to do anything but cooperate fully with the criminal victimizing him even at the cost of his life.

        • So they want to impose a legal duty on rape victims to spread ’em and enjoy it.

          I wonder how popular such a policy would be with fathers of teenage girls.

  8. Headline says Slate, but the link is to Salon. Come on, those are two entirely different sites. /sarc

  11. You missed a spot of hypocrisy. When people call San Bernardino and Orlando terrorist attacks, the left calls them workplace violence and hate crimes. But here where it’s convenient, they’re terrorist attacks.

  12. The guy in the vid is stupid as hell. Let his “followers” go to gun shows and TRY to buy a full auto. Not only will they find out it can’t be done, but will get arrested for trying. Great way to round them up.

  13. I suspect the powers that be at “Salon” are fully aware that she is a full tilt dingbat.

    Incoherence passing as edgy.

  14. She is definitely taking advantage of lax gum laws. But seriously, what lax gun laws are the Muhammadans using in France?

  16. She looks like she’d imprison a dishwater romance author and cut off his thumb and break his ankles. I wonder how many more than three cats she has.

    To be fair though Snitchfield is high strung and sloppy.

  17. “I thought conservatives were the racists”

    PUH-Lease! The entire liberal ideology is based upon the soft bigotry of low expectations. They aren’t racist (per se) they simply believe all humans are dumb monkeys too stupid to be trusted with their own affairs, but that stacking enough monkeys on top of each other (The State) somehow transmogrifies them into a glorious super-conscious god-head greater than the sum of its parts, which will reign righteously o’er all lands.

    • +5 for comment.

      +500 for use of transmogrify in a sentence and on a gun website no less.

      The Calvin is strong with you.

  18. And yet the worse act of terrorism in the US was perpetrated by box cutters. #2 with a Ryder truck. Go figure.

  20. Amanda Marcotte is an idiot. She’s been caught lying before and will continue to do so.

  22. I should note that Amanduh is a firm defender of reproductive “rights”.

    There seems to be a significant overlap between people who think that any law is unconstitutional if it even slightly burdens unenumerated reproductive rights and those who believe that the enumerated right to keerp and bear arms is a collective right.

  23. So now it is terrorism instead of workplace violence and a self loathing gay killing more gays? Flip it around any way it works for you. Got it.

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