We can wish away the gun violence all we want.

But that’s not going to make it disappear. Quite the opposite.

Former gun industry executive Ryan Busse published a damning essay on the alarming rise of gun culture and nationalism. Ryan noted how crowds at a Turning Point USA event in Idaho started cheering when a man screamed out, ‘When can we use the guns? How many elections are they gonna steal before we kill these people?’

These people? These people are us. The baying crowd was out for blood. Ryan had met men like this before. They’re waiting, hoping for a signal.

Extremely well-armed

It’s tempting to wish these men away. But there are thousands of them like that man in the Idaho crowd. They’ve been groomed by Trump acolytes such as Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. They’ve also been developed as advocate customers by the gun industry so they’re extremely well-armed.

These vile and angry men are not your average gun-owning Americans. They’ve fallen into a cult where it’s normal to organize their existence around weapons of war. Camouflage flak jackets, high-velocity assault weapons, armor-piercing bullets.

Don’t take them lightly. Don’t laugh them away as radicalized suburban dads with a weekend gun fetish. They’re armed and they’re incredibly dangerous.

As we saw on January 6, Trump’s followers and members of the neofascist right are ready and willing to kill, and perhaps to die, for their leader.

Double down

We’re in a fight for our lives and the future of America. Perhaps the most tragic aspect of America’s democracy crisis is that the vast majority of us don’t even understand we’re in the middle of an existential struggle.

Most are exhausted and simply hoping to wait out the crisis. Instead we must double down and battle against a reactionary-revolutionary movement that’s fighting hard to overturn our present and our future.

Democracy is running out of time.

Reference

“Prepare for the shock troops’ The Bulwark (2022)