Bowles: The Richmond gun rally proves liberal media has clear agenda
These are the kinds of photos media outlets were using to push their false narratives. Very few outlets included pictures of the diversity at the rally.
January 23, 2020
The Richmond gun rally this past Monday featured a deadly clash between 22,000 pro-gun protesters and the Richmond police force. Protesters were throwing Molotov cocktails and waving around their Confederate flags all while dressed in KKK robes and chanting “white lives matter.” Soon enough, the streets were littered with bullet shells and the corpses of both police officers and protesters alike. At least, that’s what CNN and MSNBC wanted to happen.
Despite MSNBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell saying that citizens were praying the rally wouldn’t be a repeat of the 2017 Charlottesville disaster, almost nothing happened. There were no reported deaths or injuries. Police only arrested one person, and even that was just for wearing a bandanna. This all sounds pretty silly, right? Yeah, I think so, too.
CNN Newsroom co-host Jim Sciutto spoke about how citizens “were in fear extremists and white supremacists could cause violence.” Interestingly, CNN had interviewed numerous peaceful protesters, and just hours earlier, the mother of the late Heather Hayer (the woman killed in Charlottesville by actual white nationalists in 2017) on her opposition to gun control proposed by the Virginia Democrats.
These media sources are clearly ignoring the facts to push their agenda. The people at the rally were there for one thing and one thing only: to support the second amendment. It had nothing to do with race, ethnicity or sex, as evidenced by the women, African Americans, Asians and Latinos present at the rally.
But that didn’t stop almost all major media sources from writing off the protesters as “white supremacists” and “white nationalists.” It is clear to see that these media outlets simply can’t accept the fact that not everyone who disagrees with them on gun control is racist. They’ve missed the glaring fact that many everyday Americans care about gun rights and will actively defend them, and pushing their liberal agenda to paint these people out as racists and extremists will only tear people further apart.
This is what the “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville, N.C. looked like.
The Washington Post, for instance, ran a story claiming the gun rights rally was, “in the words of some, to fan the flames of a civil war,” with Vox also echoing similar rhetoric. Does that sound like they were describing a peaceful protest with no deaths or injuries, or does that sound like loaded language attempting to scare readers ignorant of the actual event?
The rally also caused a storm on Instagram. Activist Shaun King (@shaunking, 1.5 million followers) claimed that the protest was “despicable” because it was held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but I would pose the exact opposite. This rally was peaceful to the core. Although the rally itself wasn’t about race, it was clearly in line with the ideas of civil disobedience and peaceful protest, both ideas championed by Dr. King. One Asian protester even held a sign saying, “Armed minorities are harder to oppress,” a view shared by another major Civil Rights Movement leader, Malcolm X.
Ralph Northam, Virginia governor, appeared in black-face in a college yearbook, and many signs at the rally pointed this out. It’s sad to see minorities like Shaun King calling for the same government that has historically oppressed them to be the only group with firearms, and even worse, allying with a proven racist to do so. Antonia Okafor, an African American woman and the Gun Owners of America spokesperson, even joked about the matter. “This was by far, hands down, the worst white supremacist rally I have ever seen,” Okafor said.
What I once thought to be a perception gap between normal American citizens and the media can now easily be identified as a chasm. The media officials are living in another world. They may be talking to average Americans, but they aren’t listening. It’s true that gun control is becoming increasingly popular, but ignoring pro-gun advocates only widens the already extremely wide chasm. These pro-gun men and women see guns as a means of self-defense, and most importantly, a valuable tool in the fight against government tyranny. The media is painting pro-gun individuals out to be racist monsters, but fail to see that they are Americans, just like you and me, fighting for a Constitutional right as old as the country itself.
“A man with a rifle can only be stopped by a person who defends himself with a rifle. If you have a rifle, I must have a rifle. This is equality. If the United States Government doesn’t want you and me to get rifles, then take the rifles away from those racists.” -Malcolm X
_crop.jpg){kind=link}
LCol(RET) Gary Bowles • Jan 31, 2020 at 10:49 am
Agree wholeheartedly with Luke. The 2nd Amendment was adopted for 2 reasons, as stated: (1) For self defense and (2) For Defense against Government Tyranny. The 2nd Amendment depicts an “individual” right to keep and bear arms and that was confirmed in the 2008 Supreme Court “Heller” decision. It cannot be changed without amending the Constitution.
As for the State of Virginia it has only recently become a more liberal State only because of the movement of more liberal government workers into the northern part of the State near D.C.
I have done a lot of research on the subject matter and lived in Virginia for several years while on active duty in the military.