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Maybe It’s Time for Gun Owners to Step Up
If you recognize the name of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, you might be remembering that the Aryan Nation marched through its streets twenty years ago. It also has a colorful history and is named after an American Indian tribe. Most recently, though, it has gained 
attention as it takes up arms against Black Lives Matter.
When BLM decided to organize protestors in the town in June, the locals wanted to be sure that the town was protected. One resident shared the following impressions from June 2:
We just drove downtown Coeur d’Alene. It is packed with armed citizens. I’ve never seen so many AR-15s in my life. There’s at least one thousand armed citizens walking on the sidewalks and the streets are packed with cars and trucks with guys in the back with AR-15 and American flags everywhere. We saw two protesters wearing their little black clothing and black masks and sitting on a step quietly with their little poster board sign saying ‘our system sucks!’ Guess why they’re being so polite.
As many as 300 armed citizens at a time arrived to discourage looting and violence.
In spite of the small number of black people in the town, white citizens showed up to support BLM after the hoopla about George Floyd. Some activists claimed to be intimidated by the armed residents, while others were relieved to know that they would be protected if violence broke out.
* * * * *
A number of thoughts came up for me when I read this story. First, Black Lives Matter is bringing in many of its protestors from the outside to several rural towns; BLM is becoming ubiquitous. Second, there were no reports of problems with the armed citizens who were there; Idaho is an open-carry state. Third, in doing my research, I discovered a surprising number of states allow open carry, ranging from no requirements to apply for a permit or license, to states that had some restrictions. For lists of those states and requirements, you can go here and here.
As I look around at the relentless, illegal and unconstitutional actions of BLM and Antifa, and the tepid response of state and community leaders, if any response at all, a demonstration of force might be appropriate. If some of these officials see that citizens are willing to push back, maybe they would start to take action, like arresting rioters, empowering and supporting their police departments, and holding others accountable for their disruptions and violence. Gun carriers would need to be coached on the best ways to engage (or not engage) the protestors to minimize the possibility of triggering an event.
I realize that encouraging citizens to take up arms is a risky proposition. My goal would be to shame officials into acting and that after an initial demonstration of force, government officials would do their jobs. At that point, I might be satisfied in encouraging the armed citizens to stand down.
What do you think? Is it time to take up arms?
Published in Guns
I pretty much agree with you. Only the prevention of violent crime would justify the people discharging our weapons.
I hear you. But you really don’t want to have people standing guard with guns if killing someone is not an acceptable outcome. It’s just asking for trouble.
What frustrates me is that so many are still afraid to speak out. Black Lives Matter is a thug organization. America isn’t a racist country. The emperor is stark raving naked and we have to be willing to say it, politely but firmly.
Because if we’re afraid as a people to do that, to speak up against what a great many of us think is awful and unfounded, then we’ve already lost and the statues won’t matter.
Pretty cool, though.
Ricochet is broken. I can’t give this enough likes.
The only problem with being armed at these events is that if ting go south the folk with the guns will be jailed. The rioters will be ignored and encouraged. Sadly being a white conservative nowadays means you have no backing in any situation.
The guy in New Mexico who shot the protester was released pending an investigation. So last I heard he’s not in jail.
@henryracette
I tend to align with your arguments, and @thereticulator very helpfully highlights what is perhaps the most compelling phrasing of them.
What I’d be keen to know, though, is whether and how other conservatives would come to the aid of a fellow conservative living in a hellaciously blue state who decides to become more forthrightly vocal (responsibly so, as ever, but all the same stepping up the directness and determination).
A state so blue that its Attorney General, in a Zoom address to the state Chamber of Commerce, can posit “Yes, America is burning — but that’s how forests grow,” and not face a recall petition, nor even a tsk-tsk from the Governor.
Asking for a friend…
You guys already know my take: http://ricochet.com/769326/important-development/
Btw, I can’t remember for certain, but I’m pretty sure I originally just titled my post as ‘Important Development,’ and while my post certainly encompassed the armed protection of statues and monuments, my real point was about the growing need for citizen militias (and their support systems) to protect our rights in present-day and near-future America against the totalitarian and illiberal Left, period. Not just against mobs, but against formal state attempts to disarm, harass, and isolate conservatives (its better to have peaceful shows of force now than require a Thomas Jefferson solution later).
Hank,
An armed mob seized control of US territory and declared independence. There are mods engaged in destruction of parts of cities.
We are at war.
Lives are destroyed when people speak out. PSY OPS are being used. Again, we are at war.
You are blind to think we are not, or that we will be allowed to live in peace.
Only one side is fighting.
Well, because people on “our” side refuse to acknowledge it is a war
I agree, Hank. But we have to figure out what to say, where to say it and how to say it. And it looks like we’re using the need to figure that out to stymie our actions rather than to encourage them. BTW, yes, people have to be able to use their guns, but we’d let them know we’d want them to do that only as a last resort.
What moves you to say the first part, @thereticulator? If nothing else, look at the incredibly thoughtful and respectful conversation we’re having!
It doesn’t let me do what I want to do. Therefore it’s broken.
What do you want to do? Break the CoC?
I swear that I’ve done systems design for you before.
Good, hope he stays out. Hope he has the money to stay free.
I think the best thing for gun owners is to protect our homes, families, and businesses – for now. Law enforcement should walk point until we’re called for help . . .
This is a relatively high end community with a lot of California transplants. I would guess that many of those carrying guns were from outside. Northern and central Idaho has a number of separatist groups and white supremists.
Susan, he’s making a joke: he wants to give my comment more “likes,” but Ricochet won’t let him.
(You can’t eat “likes”: I just want him to send me money, but he never does that.)
I understand the sentiment. I’m just unwilling to elevate what is going on right now to such a serious status.
War is hell, as they say. This is just laziness and stupidity. The thing in Seattle could have been stopped by a handful of officers in its first days. It could be stopped within hours even now, likely with little or no loss of life, by a sensible application of authority.
War is what happens when other efforts fail. We haven’t tried other efforts. We’ve just been wringing our hands (as a nation), telling these young fools that we’re on their side, that they’ve got a point, that we’re as awful as they say we are. Shoot, we’re practically inviting them to occupy our city streets.
Yeah, didn’t happen in 1765, either.
Which they will do until they are shot at.
The war has begun. They have fired the first shots. Once the shooting starts, you can only shoot back.
I wonder if people realize what a liability it is for me to be so dense. Sigh.
You are not dense, Susan. Just highly concentrated.
Let’s try to be clear about what it is we’re fighting, about whom or what we’re battling in this figurative “war.”
We have a bunch of thugs and delinquents destroying property and hurting people. It’s the job of local government to prevent that kind of thing, but local government isn’t interested in doing so. So our beef is with local government. Sure, defend yourself if it comes to that; I’m all in favor of that. But don’t become a vigilante force bent on doing the job the people we elect and pay refuse to do. That isn’t how civil society is supposed to work.
Fire the people who aren’t doing their jobs, and hire new people who will. That’s the right solution. And the best way we get to that point, where people understand that, is to let people see what happens when they don’t do their jobs. People are seeing that now. Let’s make sure everyone knows the difference between a party that wants responsible law-and-order government and a party that sides with criminal radicals.
However satisfying it would be to go all Walking Tall on these creeps, it would likely backfire. Right now, the violence is all on one side, and people can see that. Mix it up, muddy the water, and the leftist media will spin it, make it ambiguous, play up the “race war” narrative. They’ll do that even if something stupid and tragic doesn’t happen as a result; if it does, it’ll be far worse for the cause of law and justice. Don’t give them that ammunition. Let it be clear who the thugs are and who the civilized people are.
Our immediate battle is with local governments, and we fight that at the ballot box (and, perhaps, in court). Our larger battle is with our fellow citizens – not the morons who are rioting, but the ones who don’t yet understand that Black Lives Matter is a scam that exploits guilt and anger to move its radical agenda forward, and that Antifa is simply a political crime family. We fight that battle by educating them, by remaining the calm voice of reason, by politely but firmly showing them why we don’t let mobs make decisions.
However obnoxious the BLM and Antifa people are, they aren’t the real threat. They’re punks. Feckless government is a threat, if it’s allowed to stand. A clueless citizenry is a threat, if it’s allowed to remain ignorant. Those are our battlefields, because it’s only by influencing them that we get real change. BLM and Antifa are like cockroaches; there will always be more, as long as we allow conditions to exist that encourage them.
All these are good ideas, Hank. The problem is that while we plan elections to vote them out, try to educate the citizenry which at best is indifferent (if not already brainwashed by the Left and the media), what will be left?
Almost everything, Susan. They really aren’t doing that much damage.
Let me put it another way. The BLM and Antifa riots are almost certainly, I think, a net positive for the economy. They kind of drove the coffin nail into the idea of continuing the lockdowns. Who knows what new lockdown mischief our little state-level autocrats would be up to if they hadn’t allowed the mob to riot freely, and so communicated that they don’t really take the lockdown things all that seriously.
We probably needed some punctuation, something to prevent the virus response from just dribbling on indefinitely with ever more picayune constraints. Bureaucrats love that kind of thing, the endless micro-management. Now we got a shift, something new to worry about.
The thugs probably did us a favor.
Don’t be so darned rational! Seriously, let’s not forget the psychic damage, possibly more serious than anything else.