There is a subgenre of gun control activism whose chief goal is not persuasion, but to provoke anger from the pro-Second Amendment side of the debate.
Don’t take the bait. They are trying to play you for a fool.
This brand of incendiary activism made a strong showing this weekend at the March for Our Lives, when thousands of protesters descended on the nation’s capital to lobby for more restrictive gun laws.
This isn’t to say all marchers were deliberately provocative, and it’d be incorrect to write off the entire event as such. Rather, this is to say that the purposely inflammatory subgenre was out in force this weekend, and that it was light on policy discussion and heavy on personal attacks.
One speaker accused Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., of putting a “price tag” on student lives. Another argued that if one is to accept money from the National Rifle Association, then that person has “chosen death.” That same speaker also argued that if anyone disagrees with his call for Congress to pass “common-sense gun legislation,” that person has “chosen death.”
And this is to say nothing of some of the signs seen at the march:
This #MarchForOurLives attacks Marco Rubio for his Catholic faith and draws a blood cross on his forehead. pic.twitter.com/4zrhlkQreN
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) March 24, 2018
The best thing to do with this sort of activism, especially when it comes from the Parkland teens, is to ignore it. Many on the gun control side of the debate are counting on you getting angry enough to respond. To criticize or question the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students is to set yourself up to be accused of attacking traumatized kids, regardless of what is even being said.
Another thing: The fact that Rubio is the specific target, despite the fact that he’s already pushed through two gun measures and has been especially constructive in working with members of both parties, is a clear sign that partisan operatives have hitched their star to Parkland. The activism going on at least within the space of the above photograph (or here) has a lot more to do with Democratic Party politics than it does with concern about schoolchildren’s lives.
