Richmond, VA –-(Ammoland.com)- Lobby Day in Virginia was a great success. Through the pressure of thousands of gun owners taking to the streets of Richmond, we were able to sway some Democrats to vote against the Virginia assault weapons ban (HB 961).
State Senator Chap Petersen confirmed to Fox News that Lobby Day and other second amendment activist activities directly lead to the defeat of the flawed bill. Gun owners throughout the Commonwealth flooded county board meetings and city council meetings demanding that they declare themselves second amendment sanctuaries. In the end, over 96% of the state said they would not enforce any unconstitutional gun laws.
In anti-gun media didn’t take this defeat of their Draconian bill too well. An Associated Press report in the left-leaning British paper the Independent declared, “Virginia lawmakers reject assault weapon ban after white supremacists said it would spark civil war.”
The report referenced a couple of white supremacists that the FBI arrested days before the rally. According to reports, they planned to start a civil war in Richmond. The paper headline ignored the tens of thousands of average citizens that gave up their day to come to the Capitol to lobby their Senators and Delegates about their rights. The sensationalized headline even ignored the body of the story.
When a paper like the Independent syndicate stories from the AP and other sources, they can make whatever headline they want. We live in a culture where people just read the headlines and not the body of the article. That is precisely what the editors of the Independent want from their headline. Misleading headlines can sway public opinion.
This headline harkens back to a headline that ran in the RVA Magazine right after Lobby Day. Since Lobby Day was peaceful, they couldn’t push the idea that we were a bunch of terrorists because of our activities, so they ran the headline “LOBBY DAY: A PEACEFUL EVENT FILLED WITH INFLAMMATORY IDEAS.”
These gun-grabbers will use headlines to try to bend the story to fit their narrative. It is a form of yellow journalism that has plagued our field since the beginning of time. Still, now in the clickbait era, it seems to be ramped up to demonize anyone that doesn’t fit into their idea of a liberal utopian paradise.
Fighting back is against these underhanded techniques is not easy. Gun owners have to share articles that are based on facts and not on conjecture and emotion. Big tech has been censoring our voices, but we need to use those platforms to share the post organically.
We also need to read sites like AmmoLand. Too many people just read what Facebook tells them that they should read. Taking two extra minutes to go to the actual sites makes a world of difference and breaks big tech’s stranglehold on information.
At the same time, we need to read those articles with misleading headlines. That way, when someone posts those articles to social media, you can explain to them what the articles say and not what the editor wanted to insinuate.
We can fight back against misinformation, but it takes a concerted effort from all of us.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.
So the VA government thinks it voters are ‘White Supremacist’? Just how stupid are they! REALLY, REALLY STUPID i’d say!
No. The six clowns on the debates stage in Vegas last night agree with the Brown Shirts of the Black Face Brigade. They really do think we are deplorable. They think we are not worthy of God Given Liberty. They are Progressives. Woodrow Wilson lives in the tar-black heart, that empty God shaped space that fills their souls.
And they all have the same goal for guns and gun owners. The amateurs among them say so, while the shrewd, hardened, experienced career politicians low key their gun plans. And like Tom Gresham says, it isn’t guns they hate; it’s gun owners.
No, just the ones with a RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS.
The Jaime Caetano 14-10078 v Massachusetts Cite as: 577____ (2016) (Justice Thomas and Justice Scalia both
Dick Anthony Heller v DOC(Docket nos.:07-290) 544 U.S. 570 Ruling got the SCOTUS to rule in HIS & OUR favor.
The best part was confirmed that the 2A Applies to ALL BEARABLE ARMS.
Dated March 22.2016(Dean’s post date)
New headline needed.
VA IGNORES SOCIALIST PLEAS TO RESTRICT AMERICAN FREEDOMS
You guys need to get the true definition of what these Far left rad Dems really are.They call themselves Socialists, they are NOT!,they are COMMUNISTS.
ALL OF them.
Well within that realm.
Interestingly, some of those “white supremacists” were black.
If I have to ‘splain a right is a right is a right…well, you’re beyond help. You can’t fix deliberate stupid.
Sadly, deliberate stupid is how the left wants to educate young people in the educational systems today.
If you listened to the debate last night, it was obvious. Rights, privileges, and opportunities are all words have been misapplied. Rights apply to healthcare, college, housing, cell phones, cable TV, transportation, and beer. Privileges apply to whatever Democrat politicians want for themselves and their friends and families. Opportunities are what we’ll get when our income and savings are taxed in order to pay for the new “rights.” Guns don’t fit as rights or opportunities for us, but they do apply to the armed guards provided to Democrats. Got it? Vote Republican in every election…or later wish you had. Voting… Read more »
And you still believe in voting? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Rattlerjake’s post was frightening. The Dems often win elections, and win majorities in legislatures, only because conservatives — even “semi” conservatives — stay home and don’t vote. Some people forget that even if they don’t like a particular Republican legislative candidate, they should vote for him or her over the Dem opponent — because it’s the party, not the person, that controls a legislative body and therefore the laws. I’d rather vote for a RINO than see a legislature turn Dem. Here in New Hampshire, with our 400-member state House of Representatives, there’s a state rep for every 3,000-or-so people,… Read more »
Sam: your childlike faith in the accuracy of vote counting in the US is soooo cute. Extremely naive, but cute.
Sam, voting RINO is not even close to voting for a Republican, it is the same as voting for a Democrat, since that is what a RINO is.
@Bowserb – Don’t forget to vote in primaries, otherwise you get stuck with bad and unacceptably-bad instead of OK and unacceptably-bad.
Fake news in the headline. This is Alinsky 101 and it is not even good work. The Progressive New Left and communists know they cannot win on the facts and reason is not their friend. So they must first resort to hyperbole and then outright false constructs. Peaceful protests and organization do not necessarily lead to civil war. At least they do not when the protesters are appealing to a Higher Power as their source of rights and the offense against those God Given rights is by much, much lower powers in both moral and political terms. The low lifes… Read more »
It’s really a shame 20th century communism isn’t taught in high school American History, as it was when I was in school. We have at least two generations now who don’t recognize the pattern and tactics. Otherwise the left would have no chance. As it is, all that the ignorant hear is the “sales pitch” side of socialism and communism, with an extra boost with promises to forgive college student loans for those who have them and give free college for the rest.
White SUPREMACISTS my arse!, American Constitutional Patriots where the ones that showed up.NOT FAR right extremists.Dumb ass Brits, worry about your own country as it’s taken over ALREADY by ISLAM.Stupid stupid stupid.YOU should remark and GIVE US advice?.
The problem that also exists is that the Harold Hutchinson playbook for retaining our gun rights has gotten us where? The thought of any legislator pissing themselves with fear over the possibility of a swarm of HANSOBS coming over the fences makes me smile like an alligator.
They resort to lies about us. Who didn’t know that?
Simply reading the comments (with the “Independent” article) is enough to make me weep.
It is difficult to believe these brainwashed UK sheep are from the same nation that produced the fighting Tommys of WW1, WW2, and the Falklands. What pitiful excuses for adult humans they are.
The question regarding gun control that makes everything so difficult is criminals do not obey laws. And democrats for some reason do not understand that! As it stands right now it is not the background check that is the problem it is getting the “correct and proper information correctly into the background check documents” that is important. However there is a question about even if the information was all there it would not make a dent in gun crimes. Mostly because many if not most or all criminals (at least those with a record) do not buy from a legit… Read more »
Democrats UNDERSTAND that very well, for them what they SAY is not what they believe, it’s all about CONTROL, because the majority are Murdering COMMUNISTS.
63 Million Americans murdered since ’73.ALL on their heads.300k + more each year.
How correct your are. These criminals are the ones who steal guns from the homes of unsuspecting gun abusing owners, who leave their guns in some form of really nice wooden cabinet, instead of a steel safes, mounted in the concrete floor as mine are. You might spend days trying to figure out, under what floor covering my safe is mounted in. Actually it’s attached on the sides with concrete anchor bolts to the slab floor and the I welded 3/4″ plate steel on the door. Oh, the water and air tight locker buried out in the back 40, which… Read more »
The left-leaning British paper the Independent shouldn’t write lies.
That’s all they ever do, besides GIVE Muslims a pass and arrest their OWN Native Born Brits for uttering a word against the Sand People.
The entire Parliament needs to be HUNG.
Doszap wrote: “The entire Parliament needs to be HUNG.” No offense, but pictures and doors are hung; men are HANGED. (Well, some men are hung, but that’s different…)
Oh, so you expect fairness from the media? Silly people.
Oh I see, a British newspaper, thinks it has the right to publish twisted untruths, about Americans, why, because their ass, got kicked by, you know who. Because they, are no longer allowed to own guns, for protection, as we are. Any gun owner who fears, their guns may be taken away, has let the word “FEAR”, work it’s magic on their mindset. Once a person willingly, has decided to give up their life, before becoming a slave to controlling tyrants, they will become peaceful in body and soul. You British need to be more concerned about those butcher knife… Read more »
96% of the state said they would not enforce any unconstitutional gun laws but, Northam gets elected as governor? Where were all these folks during the election?
I don’t think an honest answer to your question can be printed here… would break a few “blue laws,” or something.
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! “Democrat Socialists Fear What They Tried To Do With President Obama But Failed: ‘King Trump On Way To sixth Straight Term Because Their Party Has No Clue! Is Democracy Now Dead In America?” Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
I fear no man, only some animals and my wife.
Gee, I wonder what they wrote when Antifa was burning cars, destroying private property, assaulting innocent victims ? I saw none of that in Va. I was completely disarmed hoping to get on Capitol grounds. If you were not a citizen of Va it was forbid. I used to be a Va resident. I was considering it again till they started their attack on a Constitutional right. Richmond looked like China with all the Cameras (facial recognition). Not that, that would even be considered as a place of residence. But I’m willing to bet the rest of the state is… Read more »