Throughout much of the recent gun control debate I’ve noticed that the state’s old strategy of divide and conquer has been working exceptionally well. Once again many people involved in the fight for gun rights have allowed themselves to be sucked into the black hole of partisan politics. These people have found their target for blame and that target is the Democratic Party. If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard a gun owner recently lay the blame for our current predicament on Democrats I’d have enough money to move to a nice tropical island. It’s sad to see so many gun owners resort to the gun control advocates’ strategy of collective punishment. Gun control advocates have been moving to collectively punish all gun owners for the actions of a very small minority and now many individuals involved in the gun rights debate are collectively punishing all Democrats in a similar way. Seeing this irritates me because I’m friends with many self-proclaimed Democrats who are also advocates of gun rights. Unfortunately they don’t involved themselves in gun rights advocacy because they are continuously ridiculed by, what appears to be, a majority of gun rights activists.
To put it bluntly this shit needs to stop. If those of us advocating for guns rights are going to win this fight we need everybody. That means we need self-proclaimed Democrats, socialists, communists, anarchists, gays, transgendered individuals, punks, hackers, and everybody else willing to stand against the state’s attempt to disarm the general populace. Perhaps I see this entire issue differently now that I’ve moved away from political advocacy in exchange for civil disobedience but it does no good to cut our ranks by insulting people simply because they hold a certain political belief. Remember that public opinion is the important thing in this fight because any political action will merely be a manifestation of it.
The state has been so effective at grabbing power, in part, because of its ability to sucker most individuals into take either the Republican or Democrat side. Most issues that come up seem to be divided between the two parties. People seem to believe that one party is pro-gun and the other party is anti-gun, that one party is pro-war and the other party is anti-war, that one party hates the poor and the other party wants to help the poor, etc. When it comes to politics people seem to forget that those two parties are made up of individuals and individuals can have differing beliefs. Some Democrats are pro-gun and some Republicans are anti-war.
Focus on the individuals who are implementing gun control. Name the advocates of it, senators who vote for it, the governors who sign it, and the law enforcement officers who enforce it. It doesn’t matter what party somebody chooses to affiliate if they’re willing to stand next to you. What matters is whether the person willing to stand next to you is working to maintain your power or transfer power to the state.
