Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Are Guns Finally OK Now that Lefties Carry Them?

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

Photo credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch

by James A. Bacon

A loosely organized group of men and women with handguns and rifles are patrolling the Lee Statue on Richmond’s Monument Avenue “intent on keeping visitors safe,” reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Asked why she needed to carry a gun and participate in a volunteer security force, 19-year-old Jasmine Kelley replied, “I don’t want to die.”

That sounds paranoid to me, but as long as Ms. Kelley and her gun-toting friends are obeying the law, I don’t have a problem. The residents of the immediate neighborhood might feel nervous, and I wouldn’t blame them, but Virginia is a right-to-carry state.

I wonder what the tut-tutters who disapproved of the show of arms by peaceful protesters at the gun-rights rally in the state capitol last January might have to say.

— JAB

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25 responses to “Are Guns Finally OK Now that Lefties Carry Them?”

  1. Ben Slone Avatar
    Ben Slone

    “An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”

    ― Robert A. Heinlein, Beyond This Horizon

  2. V N Avatar
    V N

    We have the resident Moms lady who is still spouting her stuff, so bad some of the officials had to block her.

  3. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    Larry said he had never seen anybody on the liberal/radical side arming like the Second Amendment crowd. Now you have, Larry…..

    1. Nancy_Naive Avatar
      Nancy_Naive

      How do you know that those gentlemen are not further to the right than you? Do you own an assault style rifles? They appear then to be staunch 2nd Amendment supporters.

      Can’t tell how they feel about taxes and the economy, but keeping the peace is surely a “law & order” stance.

      I’m lost. Why do you think they are liberals or radicals? Enlighten me, please.

      1. Steve Haner Avatar
        Steve Haner

        The newspaper article, for one….

        1. Nancy_Naive Avatar
          Nancy_Naive

          Didn’t say they were leftists, only that they seek peace and racial justice. That’s racial not radical justice, unless equality is only a leftist desire.

        2. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
          Dick Hall-Sizemore

          Jim’s post did not make it clear, but the article does make it clear that these are members of the protesters. If that makes them lefties, so be it. In answer to the question Jim posed: No.

  4. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    You have three kids with guns and you are trying to make a BIG point. It ain’t exactly blowing skirt up, Bacon

    1. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      It’s more than three people with guns. At what point would you express concern? Or… is it one standard for lefties and a different standard for righties?

  5. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead V

    Carrying firearms open carry or concealed carry is an enormous responsibility. If a gun owner even carelessly or intentionally points a firearm at a person in a non life threatening situation they will be jailed as felons. The law is color blind and cares little about politics. I think it is a simple question of time until somebody rejects this responsibility and creates yet another flashpoint. What happened in Partlow, Virginia last week was a close call.

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      “Carrying firearms open carry or concealed carry is an enormous responsibility.”

      My nomination for Statement of the Day.

  6. Tom Banford Avatar
    Tom Banford

    Guns are okay when they are legally carried by all whether they be Republicans, Democrats, Independents, regardless of their ethnicity or religion. Even so for the west half of the country (lefties) and the east half ( righties). My only concern with the gun-rights rally in the capitol in January was the choice of date. It was not a good optic to have thousands of armed white men in the streets on MLK day.

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      The New Black Panther’s had representatives at that rally. They did not seem to have a problem with the “optics”, they just seemed happy to be around others who support the right to self-defense. One of the many articulate people I heard being interviewed at the the rally was a young black man with an AR-15 slung across his chest. He did not say one thing about “bad optics”, although he did mention MLK’s fight for human rights.

      By the way, MLK Day was not a “choice of dates” for the rally. The VCDL rally is an annual event which is held on Lobby Day in Richmond. Lobby Day historically falls on MLK Day. The VCDL has held a rally on Lobby Day for very close to twenty years, if not longer. This year’s rally just happened to grow into a very large event.

  7. Nancy_Naive Avatar
    Nancy_Naive

    Wow. Amazing. I see three men with weapons. I cannot tell their politics. They wear no slogans or signs. They have their weapons in a “safe” position with barrels pointed down and away. Their stated reason is peacekeeping.

    And yet here the clairvoyants are able to determine that they are careless untrained radical leftists destined to break the law.

    Wow, just wow. You win. Clearly old white guys should be in charge with amazing abilities like those.

    1. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      “Here the clairvoyants are able to determine that they are careless untrained radical leftists.”

      Who on this blog said the people shown in the picture are “careless” and “untrained?”

      Certainly not me. You’re just making stuff up.

      As for how I know they’re on the left side of the political fence… Well, I suppose it’s theoretically possible that the three men pictured are secret members of a white supremacist group posing as protectors of the liberal/progressive visitors and demonstrators who are reveling in the removal of the statues. But I kind of doubt it.

      1. WayneS Avatar
        WayneS

        Jim, isn’t it possible they are simply regular guys who want to protect themselves and their neighborhoods, and not some radical element from one extreme end of the political spectrum or the other?

        In fact, until or unless their actions prove otherwise, that is who I am going to assume they are.

        1. James A. Bacon Avatar
          James A. Bacon

          The guys with the guns are not there to protect the neighborhood, which, to put it delicately, is not very diverse. They’re protecting the people visiting/demonstrating at the statue. The visitors and protesters reflect a broad range of center/left sentiments. It is safe to conclude that the people with the guns fit within that spectrum, otherwise they would not be there.

    2. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      “And yet here the clairvoyants are able to determine that they are careless untrained radical leftists destined to break the law.”

      Speaking of losing one’s brains…

  8. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    I’m not going to say it will never or never happened but I’seen fakery in “reporting” and in photos… and way too much “boogeyman” talk from folks on the right.

    I’ve never had a problem with folks owning guns for protection and who do not feel the need to parade around in public with their weapons.

    I do have a problem with high capacity magazines and the folks who walk around in groups that blathering about traitors and the blood of patriots, etc…

    If folks want REAL trouble – let’s see the left and blacks arm up to the level of the 2A folks – numbers of weapons, numbers carrying – and let them all parade in the streets threatening each other – and see how most of us feel.

    Most of the news I have seen in most of the cities show massive crowds of people wearing shorts, sneakers and masks – not bandoleers…and AR-15s.

    We all better pray that the left does not arm up like the right has.

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      “Most of the news I have seen in most of the cities show massive crowds of people wearing shorts, sneakers and masks – not bandoleers…and AR-15s.”

      Right. And most of the people who demonstrate in support of the 2nd Amendment do not dress like they are going to war.

      Why is it you believe one but not the other?

  9. Ben Slone Avatar
    Ben Slone

    See https://broadandliberty.com/2020/06/19/chipkin-philadelphia-freedom-fighter-maj-toure-has-a-message-and-a-plan/.

  10. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    we’ve seen this movie before:

    https://www.jacksonville.com/article/20100729/NEWS/801247696

  11. UpAgnstTheWall Avatar
    UpAgnstTheWall

    These kids are idiots just like their right-wing counterparts and for the same reason: a gun gives the illusion of safety but doesn’t actually provide it.

    Where the two groups differ is that these kids are at least not delusional. They are right to fear for their physical well being both from a historic and contemporary context in this country. The number of incidents of people driving vehicles into crowds of protesters speaks to that by itself. The water headed jokers screaming about how getting guns out of the houses of wife beaters threatens them have no such justification.

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      “…a gun gives the illusion of safety but doesn’t actually provide it.”

      You are entitled to your opinion about guns, but that statement is demonstrably false. I know this for a fact.

  12. Nancy_Naive Avatar
    Nancy_Naive

    Just a spitball…

    Guns have always been okay, Jim. And, the rabid defense of gun ownership is perfectly understandable — by either the left or right. And, contrary to your rightist opinion, plenty on the left do indeed defend the 2nd Amendment, albeit not as unconditionally as those on the right.

    I don’t think I’m wrong about this, (perhaps someone knows of something else) but there are only three tangible items guaranteed ownership to you by the Constitution; a gun, a printing press, and a slave**. Everything else in the Constitution is an intangible and subject to constant changes in definition and restrictions by the legislature and courts.

    I mean, the constitution doesn’t guarantee you the right to, oh say, a single family detached house. It only guarantees compensation and due process before depriving you of it, and what could that mean it the face of eminent domain? Suppose in 2121, in the face of mass starvation and to increase arable land, the State decides that all housing is to be high rise condos of no fewer than 10 stories? Zoning much?

    So yeah, even lefties like their guns.

    **maybe the act of depriving us of this constitutional guaranteed item is the reason the South just cannot stop complaining.

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