Probably the most uncomfortable lesson some leftists and liberals had to learn during the Vietnam War was to separate the soldiers from the civilian military decision-makers. The stories of angry hippies spitting on weary veterans returning from Vietnam, while often apocryphal, did lasting damage to the Left’s credibility. It was resurrected on a national stage during the 2004 presidential election, when the Right successfully, if unfairly, painted decorated war veteran John Kerry as a “pinko” who “hated the troops.”
Clear lesson: The soldiers may be the ones fighting the war, but they are not the ones responsible for it. Respect the troops.
The smug corollary adopted by the Right was equally simple: We never needed that lesson. We always respected and honored the troops. It’s you Commie lefties that spit on the soldiers, burn the flag, and so forth. The facts don’t support that arrogant little contention, but nevertheless it has been a powerful weapon to wield against American liberals.
That is changing. Republicans consistently wage war on veterans, blocking jobs for veterans, gutting benefits, and refusing to fund the VA.
Now the conservatives’ legislative war on our military has expanded to the streets of Texas, with far-right gun fetishists verbally hounding a former Marine and attempting to spark a physical confrontation with him.
The assault actually took place on Memorial Day, but is just now being reported. The story is simple: James, a former Marine who does not allow his full name to be used, learned of a gathering by a dozen or so “open-carry” activists strutting and posturing in downtown Fort Worth, brandishing semi-automatic weapons and intimidating innocent civilians. James knew how ugly that confrontation could become, and, as an independent TV commercial producer who films live events, took his camera downtown to get some footage.
James was struck by how confrontational the open-carry activists were. They had come to a densely populated area of town full of families with their kids just three days after a gun-fueled massacre in Isla Vista, California. Could the situation be any more volatile? James would learn that the answer to that question was “yes.”
James is a former infantryman, gun owner, and staunch supporter of gun rights, including the right of concealed carry. But as someone knowledgeable about guns, he understands that the open-carry activists are not merely “exercising their rights,” they are going over the line:
I’m all for responsible gun owners. What I was taught was not to wear it around like a gold chain. What they’re doing is irresponsible. It intimidates the public, and people have just as much right to be comfortable in their public environment as these guys have a right to own their firearms.
When the group of activists — members of the groups Open Carry Texas and Open Carry Tarrant County — spotted James and his camera, they asked him which network he is with. When he identified himself as an independent citizen journalist, they demanded to know what he thinks of the demonstration. James told them just what he thought of it, with profanity, which he later says he wishes he had not used. At that point, the activists swarmed him, hurling insults and accusations of being a traitor to his country. He recalls:
I said, ‘Are you kidding me? I served in the military.’ They were trying to intimidate me, and when I didn’t cower that upset them.
Even a former Marine knows when it’s time to disengage, and James attempted to walk away. The activists began pursuing him, some carrying their own cameras, hurling insults. James retorted with his own insults, prompting one to complain that it is James who is being impolite. James said,
You’re not being polite out here with assault rifles the weekend after people lost their children.
The insults and attempts at intimidation ratcheted up quickly, with one of them demanding if he was “gonna cry,” and others asking if he is a liberal.
Later, the activists posted their own video on Facebook, making sure to include a shot of James’s truck with his company’s name, contact information and license plate. The comments posted on the page were telling: multiple accusations of James being a “fruit,” aspersions cast on his military career, and threats to “smash *ssholes like him.” One commenter asked:
Who here wants to help ruin him?
Since then, James has weathered a storm of telephone and e-mail attacks, including threats to break his jaw. But he has also received a stream of positive support, including some from open-carry advocates who feel that their colleagues went too far in harassing James.
Interestingly, after bad experiences in trying to intimidate and harass customers at local restaurants and the firestorm of negative reactions those efforts provoked, several open-carry groups in Texas have asked their supporters to curb their provocative behavior. And some of them are calling out the attempt to harass and bully James: “Following him makes you the bad guy and could be considered intimidation,” one says. And a member of Open Carry Texas says, “Nothing about this video benefits our movement.”
Here’s a hint for the gun goons. Trying to “occupy” local restaurants and neighborhoods with groups of agitators openly brandishing firearms doesn’t indicate your support for the Second Amendment, it makes you terrorists. You’re not going to win ordinary citizens’ support by terrifying them, much less their spouses and children. In your Turner Diary-driven fantasies, thousands of citizens will spontaneously join you in your wildly improbable attempts to foment armed insurrection against a government that hasn’t made a single move to “confiscate your guns.” In real life, they will consider you a threat that they won’t long tolerate. And screaming anti-gay insults at former Marines just demonstrate how low — and yes, how anti-American — some of you have become.
Watch this unbelievable video. This is what a hero looks like.
edited by tw
