It’s been an especially tense time for the National Rifle Association, whose name has, in recent weeks, been invoked in the shooting of a GOP congressman known for his vociferous support of gun ownership, as well as in the murder of concealed-carry license holder Philando Castile—two tragedies that begged for statements calling for reason and calm from the organization tasked with protecting responsible gun ownership. But instead we’re talking about this ad where conservative radio pundit Dana Loesch warns that America is being overrun by leftists who are out to burn everything, so you’d better get some guns.
Here is the transcript, in case footage of protest marches, shots of the Hollywood sign, and other symbols of unchecked violence get your trigger finger all itchy:
They use their media to assassinate real news. They use their schools to teach children that their president is another Hitler. They use their movie stars and singers and comedy shows and award shows to repeat their narrative over and over again. And then they use their ex-president to endorse “the resistance.”
All to make them march. Make them protest. Make them scream racism and sexism and xenophobia and homophobia. To smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize the law-abiding — until the only option left is for the police to do their jobs and stop the madness.
And when that happens, they’ll use it as an excuse for their outrage. The only way we stop this, the only way we save our country and our freedom, is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth.
I’m the National Rifle Association of America. And I’m freedom’s safest place
The video debuted in April, but recently came to more prominent light after it was featured on the NRA’s Facebook page. It was shared from there by civil rights activist DeRay McKesson, who said it was “an open call to violence to protect white supremacy. If I made a video like this, I’d be in jail.” That sentiment has been echoed across social media, with many saying its barely coded language against the vague, ominous threat of “they” is tantamount to “the white equivalent of an ISIS recruitment video,” fomenting fear and resentment of anyone with differing values, and inciting true loyalists to fight back with “the clenched fist of truth,” preferably curled around the butt of an AR-15. It’s a condemnation of the left’s shameful violence and hyperbolic propaganda, wrapped up in a paranoid gun commercial that Paul Verhoeven would deem a little blunt.
But while some NRA members have themselves denounced the ad’s “us vs. them” rhetoric as inflammatory and irresponsible, Loesch, for one, doesn’t see what the big deal is. “How much energy do you use every day being outraged about something?” Loesch says around the 7:30 mark of her breathless, nine-minute response rant. She employs both a mocking lisp and the “overly patient nanny” voice that’s become the modern conservative accent to criticize all those whining comedians, unemployed losers on Twitter, Cracked writers, and other snowflakes with hurt feelings and participation trophies for being so pathetically upset about her ad, where she suggests that other people who laugh at all these liberal weaklings better get some guns to protect against them.
Violence is “the refuge of the idiot,” Loesch confidently declares in her gun commercial. “Arm yourself with truth, not with violence.” Better yet, get some truth with detachable box magazines; it makes truth-reloading much faster.
Loesch’s railing against liberals who are, even now, simultaneously running rampant through the streets and holed up in “their Tupperware-fresh safe space” is all part of the NRA’s “Freedom’s Safest Place” campaign, in which supporters like Sheriff David Clarke and country singer Charlie Daniels reassure themselves that they have guns, and that their guns make them feel safe, and that no one can take their guns away or express dissenting opinions they don’t like, as long as they’re in here with them.