http://progunnews.com/articles/usa-today-makes-sloppy-attempt-to-link-gun-owners-with-extremism
USA Today Makes Sloppy Attempt to Link Gun Owners with Extremism
Extremism by N/A is licensed under YouTube N/A
It's no secret that the enemies of the Second Amendment are a paranoid bunch. They are generally convinced that any individual who is a gun owner is on the fast track to domestic extremism.
Will Carless, a national correspondent at USA TODAY, penned a piece at USA TODAY titled "Down the barrel of a gun: How Second Amendment activism can be a gateway to extremist ideologies" in which he attempted to portray gun owners as radical.
He covered the Atlanta Gun Show, which was held in late September. At the event he claimed that it had "everything one might need for a coming apocalypse or civil war: flame throwers, hundreds of rifles, thousands of handguns and knives, body armor, survival kits, medical supplies."
Carless' observation automatically set the tone of associating lawful gun ownership with extremism. He cited the case of a man at the show "proudly" displaying "Nazi memorabilia: medals, swastika patches and a model of a German amphibious vehicle occupied by toy Nazi soldiers."
Carless claims that "experts and former members of the extremist far-right said a passion for gun rights often serves as a gateway to radicalization."
The USA TODAY national correspondent also made the obligatory reference of "The Turner Diaries", the infamous white nationalist text that's been linked to right-wing extremism.
In his piece, Carless added that gun shows were "traditionally hotbeds for such recruitment [right-wing extremism]."
Carless also noted how far right individuals are flocking to new social media platforms such as Telegram.
So-called "experts" on domestic extremism have derisively labeled Telegram as "Terrorgam" for its alleged role in being a hub for right-wing "extremists".
To Carless's credit, he at least covered the case of Michael Cargill, the owner of Central Texas Gun Works.
Cargill is an African American and has been in a homosexual relationship for several decades.
"The new shooters are people that are liberals, who are concerned with that threat from the right, from the extremist groups," Cargill declared. "They're saying, 'Look, you know, we may need to defend ourselves, we may get caught up in something going down the road.'"
Cargill's case is part of the growing trend of Gun Culture 2.0, where more non-white minorities and other groups not traditionally associated with the prevailing American majority are getting into gun ownership. This disrupts the overall media narrative about gun ownership being exclusively the domain of whites.
Overall, the media can never be trusted to objectively cover any Second Amendment related matters.
This institution's entire M.O. is to credit Middle Americans and attack the institutions and practices that are inextricably linked to them.
American gun owners are among the most lawful people in the nation. They're not committing crimes or launching insurrections like the corporate press says. The thing is we live in a post-truth society where the media invent false narratives about certain segments of the population and many people end up gobbling it up.
That's it's why it's up to gun owners to stand up and refute this malicious blood libel being tossed against them.