All opinion articles are the opinion of the author and not necessarily of American Military News. If you are interested in submitting an op-ed please email [email protected]
[starbox]
A biased-media can backfire. We saw that with Donald Trump’s Presidential win. From the beginning, the media touted Hillary Clinton and tried to convince Trump supporters to just give up. This caused Clinton supporters to gain a false-sense of confidence as they ridiculed Trump every step of the way. Amidst the consistent flow of anti-Trump rhetoric, his crowds grew bigger.
As it turned out, the “hopeless” narrative had no effect on Trump supporters, but effectively influenced Clinton supporters. Democrat voters stayed home because they believed they could not lose, to a man they were told, didn’t have a chance? The result was similar to a hypnotist who accidentally hypnotizes himself while trying to hypnotize his subject.
The need for Clinton supporters to “feel good” in the moment is ultimately what left them in hopeless despair on the day after the election. Their need for the media’s reassurance resulted in a big win for Donald Trump. The fact that New Trump supporters showed up in great numbers as a result of being fed-up with the current state of politics should not be ignored, but the point here is to examine the roll of the media and it’s effects.
Surely the media was aware of Clinton’s baggage and Trump’s attributes, yet they focused only on what would serve their agenda of propping her up as the “winning candidate.” It would appear that the media’s main intent was to suppress the Republican vote. It ultimately backfired and resulted in 6,000,000 less Democrat voters than Barack Obama’s turnout in 2012.
How is the same thing being done with the gun narrative? We should take a lesson from the 2016 election. One thing we know is that Anti-Gunners believe the anti-gun narrative, just like Hillary supporters believed the Clinton narrative. When the media shows them how safe they will be in their Gun Free Zones, they actually feel better. When they see the support of other Anti-Gunners, they think they are among the majority. This creates a false sense of safety and unity. This is similar to the Clinton facade. They are also taught they are righteous, because the false narrative that gun-restrictions save lives, is a theme that is consistently perpetuated. They believe they are the “Good Guys,” and that they are fighting to uphold the most noble of virtues. They are convinced that guns are the problem, and deny anything that tells them otherwise.
Anti-Gunners embrace the notion that guns and gun-owners are dangerous and unpredictable, just like they believed the Trump narrative. Gun-owners are often portrayed as a horrible derelict portion of society. This belief emboldens the Anti-Gunner’s sense of righteous-indignation as they bash, condemn and ridicule anyone who supports gun-ownership. Just like they did with Trump.
If we take notes from the Clinton/Trump media debacle, we can see the media wants to shame gun-owners while encouraging Anti-Gunners to feel righteous in their fight for more regulations. The problem is, their tactics have the opposite effect on gun-owners. This is why gun ownership is consistently on the rise in America. Gun-owners just don’t buy the hype. Anti-Gunners, however continue to believe what they are told despite the actual data.
Anti-Gunners want to believe these things because it feels good to them. It feels safe. Fear is the best tool to reinforce anti-gun support. The narrative is based primarily on emotion. Just like people felt they were righteous in supporting Clinton, the media also helps them feel like the “Good Guys” in the gun debate. We know the truth.
Stick to your guns,
Dan Wos is an American entrepreneur, author, musician and NRA member. He is the author of ‘Good Gun Bad Guy – Behind the Lies of the Anti-Gun Radical’ The book reveals the corruption and deceit that comes from the anti-gun lobby as it attempts to vilify law-abiding, gun-owning Americans.
