Will Terrorism Destroy the Conservative Movement?

By Jeff Knox

Buckeye, AZ -(AmmoLand.com)- The string of high profile shootings and terrorist attacks around the country over the past several months has put people on edge, and understandably so.

The Obama Administration provides no comfort with their refusal to call terrorism what it is or admit that it is in any way connected to the Islamic religion. When Obama’s concern for tainting the “religion of peace” with the blood of terrorism is compared to his zeal in broadly chastising police for indifference to black lives, or his willingness to conflate the acts of one drug and alcohol addled young man to everyone who has ever whistled “Dixie,” it naturally raises questions about just how worried he really is about “cultural sensitivity.”

Instead of acknowledging the real and obvious threats posed by religious radicals of the Muslim persuasion, Mr. Obama would rather focus on the “easy availability of firearms,” as though terrorists who are willing to die to kill innocents would be impeded by paperwork. His latest ploy is to stretch the definition of the Gun Control Act’s “prohibited person” to include those on the government’s secret Terrorist Watchlist, and so prohibit them from being able to buy guns from a licensed dealer. Who is on the list? That’s a secret. How does someone get on the list? That’s secret too. Could anyone be on the list by mistake? Ask Ted Kennedy. Would it keep guns away from terrorists? Of course not. They don’t sell AK’s in Paris do they? Fuzzy feelings trump real effects in Obama’s world.

But the terrorism threat needs some perspective. Even though we seem to have seen more lunatics and terrorists randomly attacking innocent people in public places over the past few years, the odds of you or me actually being involved in one of those attacks are still incredibly low. Estimates place the odds of being killed in a terrorist attack at about one in 20 million. Compare that to the odds of being struck by lightning at about 1 in 5 million. Add in all of the “mass shootings” in recent years, and you’re still about 3 times more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by a mass shooter or bomber.

Then why are we so worried?

The wall-to-wall coverage of every bloody tragedy – and subsequent political jockeying to use the tragedy to advance an agenda – is a big part of the phenomenon. Not only does that heavy media coverage and politicization make these tragedies seem more common, they actually promote more such events. Lost, lonely people living on the edge of madness see the reports on TV and hear the hype of the politicians, and they decide they want to be famous like that. The relationship is all too clear.

Politicians using tragedy as a vehicle to push for new laws expanding government power, diminishing privacy, and restricting the availability of firearms also erode the public’s feelings of security. Every time the politician and the media renew their calls for these restrictions, it feeds people’s anxieties and also makes them worry about having the means to protect their families. Record gun sales are the result.

There are also concerns about the broader world political situation. Terrorist acts are intended to create fear, and the heavy coverage from the media – and the political grandstanding – help to feed that fear. Images of swarms of Middle Eastern men flowing across borders in Europe, reports of increased violent crime, poverty, rape epidemics, and terrorist attacks apparently carried out by some of these same migrants, pile on more concerns.

Obama’s indignant dismissal of these concerns, while denying the very existence of Islamist terrorism, does not provide reassurance, but instead bolster claims that our own president is ignoring the real threats while treating Americans like criminals.

The greatest threat from the fear mongering doesn’t come from the left though. There are plenty on the right who are using the public’s anxiety to drum up political support and undermine the “progressive” movement. And all of this combines to facilitate broad-brush animosity toward immigrants – legal or not – and Muslims. This is creating a very volatile and dangerous situation; one that could erupt and backfire in dramatic fashion on the political right.

Wholesale immigration, particularly of poorly educated and poverty-stricken people from vastly different cultures, is a bad idea. Any suggestion that all, or even most of these immigrants and refugees are violent criminals or terrorist operatives is ridiculous. On the other hand, some will be, and many more will have a difficult time assimilating, finding jobs, or achieving the life they are hoping for. That could leave them ripe for recruitment into terrorist plots.

These are valid concerns and they need to be addressed. But advocates on the right need to pay attention to their rhetoric. There is a real danger that the fiery rhetoric could incite some on the fringe to go over the edge and harm innocents – be they Muslims, immigrants, refugees, or their supporters. The backlash could be catastrophic to the conservative cause.

Remember how the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was blamed on conservative rhetoric and the militia movement? The result was the almost complete dissolution of the militia movement and a near collapse of the political right. Reelection of Bill Clinton followed even though conservatives had swept the previous mid-term elections. Don’t think it couldn’t happen again, and don’t doubt that some on the left are hoping for – and perhaps orchestrating – just that.

Conservatives and gun owners must be anchored to the rocks of the moral high ground. We must be prepared and stand ready to defend ourselves, our families, and the Constitution, but we must also be the voices of reason and restraint.

In our determination to stop the terrorists we must be careful that our followers do not become the terrorists or that our words become anyone’s call to jihad.

About the Firearms Coalition:

The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition is a project of Neal Knox Associates, Manassas, VA.

For more information, visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.org.