Conservatives, mostly white Christians, have told us repeatedly that you can’t fight terrorism properly unless you are prepared to call it what it is. Tr-mp proudly gets to say these days, “radical Islamic terrorism,” as if invoking an ancient biblical curse on Muslim extremists.
Well, about a week ago Sara Rodriguez, a 16-year-old Florida student from a school near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, named names:
Cameron Kasky, a 17-year-old who survived the massacre last week at his school, is a founder of the #NEVERAGAIN movement that is inspiring those of us who were losing hope for a better American future. Kasky said:
This is simply a matter of are you with us or are you against us? Are you for taking steps to save us or are you for taking NRA blood money? We are not letting the United States be run by that terrorist organization. My friends and I, my community and I have stared down the barrel of an AR-15 the way you have not. We have seen this weapon of war mow down people we know and love the way you have not. How dare you tell us we don’t know what we’re talking about? You have no idea what you are talking about.
Some of the “adults” tried to temper Kasky’s remarks about the NRA, saying it is a mistake to label it a terrorist group. Hooey.
These teenagers have earned the right to call the NRA anything they want to. And, by the way, they are onto something. Kasky shut down his Facebook account yesterday, saying,
Temporarily got off Facebook because there’s no character count so the death threats from the
@NRA cultists are a bit more graphic than those on twitter.
And today we had NRA jihadist Wayne LaPierre say to CPAC, the annual gathering of family-values phonies, the following:
I call on every citizen who loves this country and treasures its freedom to stand and unflinchingly defend the Second Amendment, the one freedom that protects us all.
Taken along with his other inflammatory remarks in his speech (as well as provocative remarks by NRA propagandist Dana Loesch, who preceded him), I interpret that sentence—a “call”—as a terrorist threat. “Every citizen who loves this country” is a separatist statement. I interpret “stand” as “Stand Your Ground,” a legal justification for using violence even when it isn’t necessary. I interpret “unflinchingly” as using violence without fear.
Largely because of the NRA, but with help from other gun manufacturing lobbyists and the politicians they purchase, children in every American school have to wonder if their last recess was literally their last recess, or if their last math test was their last test of any kind, or if their last glance of parents or siblings or friends would flash through their minds as the sound of gunshots echoed down the halls. If living with that reality isn’t a kind of terror, what is it?
If LaPierre, who clearly is afraid of what is happening before his eyes, was threatening a kind of civil war over the gun issue, he’ll have to go through young citizens who love their country, who are standing their ground with words, or are unflinchingly using their justified outrage to do something that my generation has shamefully failed to do: stare down the NRA.
Cameron Kasky, appearing on the Rachel Maddow Show on Monday, said:
This is going to be the last time a school shooting is going to look like a terrorist attack. That’s a promise.
Kasky and others in the students’ movement, who are now fighting the NRA and its political prostitutes and promoters all across the country and in Washington, ultimately may not be able to keep that commitment. But there is a revitalizing hope in the mere fact that impassioned teenagers are engaged enough and bold enough to make such a promise to the country they love.
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UPDATE: I implore you to read this article on the specific damage AR-15 killing machines do to human bodies:
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
thgeneralist
/ February 22, 2018What can you say? The young are in no one’s hip pocket. The desperation of the right wingers and NRAers attacking these kids and common sense liberals is sickly cartoonish.
Courage. Vote. Resist. Remove.
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R. Duane Graham
/ February 22, 2018Amen. And, Amen.
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Herb Van Fleet
/ February 22, 2018I watched most of the student protests yesterday – in Tallahassee and the White house. I also saw the Town Hall meeting last night. The students who spoke were eloquent, thoughtful and full of passion. Their ideas about how to handle future school shooting were reasonable; much better than the cowardly politicians who didn’t bother to show up and face the devastation that their failure to act had wrought on yet another community. You could tell these kids had grown up in a hurry. You could see the pain. But you could also see a resolve to deal with the issue in a mature way, without the hysteria. My fear is that they will lose momentum over time.
Trump’s absurd solution was to arm teachers and envisioned a gun fight with a would-be terrorist shooter. Of course, Trump doesn’t have a nanogram of empathy in his whole body. He had to have notes prepared by his staff so he would know how he should react. He looked to me like he was ready to get out of there as soon as possible. Asshole.
Real presidents should handle these situations like Obama did right after Sandy Hook. http://www.history.com/the-obama-years/newtown.html
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R. Duane Graham
/ February 23, 2018Yes. Loved that Obama response. Pitch perfect.
As far as Tr-mp, if you have to have a cheat sheet to remind you to say “I hear you,” then your handlers have told you to STFU and stick to the script or you will do damage to the NRA and conservatism for generations to come. That “performance” and the one today at CPAC are both appalling for different reasons. The former because it wasn’t really Tr-mp sitting there, and the latter because it was.
Duane
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Ben Field
/ February 22, 2018Duane,
Well, since Charleton Heston is dead, I guess Wayne La Pierre had to pry his weapon from his cold, dead fingers and assume the role of stupidity. George Carlin asked, “What the hell kind of name is Wayne La Pierre for the leader of the dickless lunatics in the NRA? Shouldn’t he have a manly name like Biff or Chuck Steak?” Now, Democrats and liberals are not patriotic for resisting allowing any fool to pack a weapon of war?
Wrapping himself in the flag, he accuses any common sense approach to gun control as enemies of true patriots. You know, the patriots that frequent gun shows and militias, not the ones seeking healthcare for all Americans and don’t mind paying taxes. Who is living in the fantasy world thinking that armed teachers are a good idea, and can jump up calm, cool, and collected like a Navy Seal and gun down any attackers?
Ford, Carter, and Reagan all supported the ban on these weapons from 1994-2004 when the law ended from sunset provisions. The ban was never challenged in courts under 2nd Amendment grounds. In 2008, Scalia for the Supreme Court, ruled that a person’s right to firearms for the lawful purpose of defending one’s home be allowed under the 2nd Amendment. Now, gun nuts parade in the streets with them, to “educate” the citizenry of their rights.
The fundamentalist Republicans in the name of 2nd Amendment might just allow rail guns, lasers, and thermonuclear devices in protection of their home. If you oppose that, you are the enemy. Even though their beloved Reagan was for the assault weapons ban, the party today is rabid. Aurora, Colorado, Orlando Pulse, Newtown Elementary, San Bernardino, Oakland, and others assault weapons victims all occurred as a result. God forgive them, because I don’t.
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Ben Field
/ February 23, 2018There was an assault weapon ban from 1994-2004 that sunsetted, we need it back, it was never challenged under the 2nd Amendment. Even the hero of conservatives, Reagan, supported it. These radical, rabid GOP partisans of today may be too far down the toilet to accept common sense legislation.
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