Trump is literally Hitler; give him your guns
When Trump was elected I, like huge swaths of the country, was quite surprised. I didn't have a dog in the race mind you. Hated both major candidates. Interpret that how you will.
But, I saw the silver lining of the moment:
- Maybe my lefty friends would remember that they hated the government?
I expected there to be hundreds of overweight basement dwellers with short, asymmetric, artificially dyed hair becoming super ra-ra 2nd amendment. As they had just seen their own personal apocalypse:
- A man who they dubbed to be "Literally Hitler" elected to be the boss of the world's most powerful country.
Turns out that was not the case.
Instead, the Left in short order returned to it's tired narrative of:
We need to repack and close Pandora's box.
Gun's shouldn't exist.
If we believe hard enough, then they wont!
I was shocked, that they would return to this livestock mentality. The belief in a parent like state, given that to them we were living in the darkest timeline.
This is where the NRA fucked up.
They should have been ready to feed these shellshocked lefty's the narrative that personal firearms are there to keep a bad regime from easily becoming an evil regime. That the right to bear arms is the last guardrail keeping us away from tyranny.
The Left was at this point:
- Deathly afraid of the President
- Willing to go to any means to protect themselves from him/it
- Dissilusioned with the democratic process, believing the Election to have been "stolen"
They were primed primed to become dedicated protectors of American Rights. They had overnight become ideal recruits for the NRA.
- Naturally, Liberals would act in their own self interest and seek to arm themselves against the aggressions of the state, which was again in their eyes now run by the Anti-christ.
- Naturally, they would seek to keep this "evil-er" state from disarming them.
And Naturally, the NRA wouldn't miss this Black Swan event and would bring in new members by changing their messaging
But, No.
The NRA did not run with the messaging of "Guns are for killing oppressive Governemnts agents" they continued with their old (and admittedly effective) strategy of blah blah, the flag, blah blah, hunting , blah blah tradition, blah blah, self defense.
By restoring their narrative to private arms prevent tyrants from arising, they could have increased their membership dramatically. Reminding the disheartened left about what guns were really for: Killing agents of an oppressive state
The NRA just needed to bring out a new figurehead to court these people. That was all, get a trans-woman with a nose ring and pink hair to talk about how 'they' armed themselves because of the fear of a totalitarian state arising. It's a message that would have resonated.
They could have doubled their numbers. And they fucking missed it.
Gun rights advocates have traditionally appealed to people that had at least the nagging feeling that while people are alright, governments murder.
The Left was ready to hear that message.
But there were naught but crickets from the gun lobby.