The left's Alinsky tactics in the gun debate

Neil Snyder

In a blog for today's American Thinker, Joseph Smith says that National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre is getting the "Alinsky Treatment" from leftists in the media and elsewhere. He's correct because as he said, they are attempting to freeze him as a/the target, personalize the gun issue, and demonize him for defending our right to bear arms--a right that's guaranteed by our Constitution.

CNN's Piers Morgan tried to do the same thing to Gun Owners of America Executive Director Larry Pratt. On his show, Morgan said that Pratt was "unbelievably stupid" and "dangerous." He even said, "You shame your country." If you haven't seen the interview, you should watch it because Morgan looked and sounded like a crazed lunatic and Pratt was the voice of sanity and reason.

I have appeared as a guest on Pratt's radio show, "Gun Owners News Hour," several times. A few weeks ago, I was a guest on his show to talk about a book that I wrote titled Falsely Accused. In the book, I present the facts of a case suggesting that our constitutional rights are under attack even from law enforcement officials who would deny vehemently that they are opposed to gun ownership by private citizens, but their actions give them away. Larry has never failed to be a gentleman and a well-informed host. That's more than I can say for Piers Morgan.

As an aside, with shows like Morgan's, it's no wonder that CNN is taking a drubbing from Fox News. CNN can't even keep up with MSNBC. That fact speaks volumes about how far CNN has fallen in the eyes of the American public and in the all-important ratings game.

In an article at PJ Media, Jack Dunphy, an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, made an admission that every responsible citizen in the U.S. should consider carefully:

There are limits on what the law and government agencies can do to protect the public. Though I've been a cop for 30 years, nearly every day of which has been spent on the streets of Los Angeles, I can recall only a handful of times when I was able to interrupt a violent crime in progress, either by responding quickly to a radio call or by coming across it randomly while on patrol. You've heard the expression: when seconds count, the police are minutes away. It's trite but no less true.

That statement is telling especially since it comes from an experienced law enforcement officer. Dunphy admits that there is just so much that our government can do to protect us. Stated another way, if we are smart, we will take the time to learn to protect ourselves and our families because law enforcement officers can't protect all of us all the time.

Thankfully, our right to bear arms is enshrined in our Constitution, and it will remain there as long as we are vigilant. By the same token, if we ever take it for granted and lose our resolve, it can be snatched away from us by legislation, by executive order, by a blundering Supreme Court ruling, or by another amendment to the Constitution. If you think that it can't happen, you need to think again. As the introduction to "Gun Owners News Hour" says, "The issue isn't about gun control: it's about control."

Make no mistake: the Second Amendment to the Constitution is the real target of leftist fanatics in this country--not LaPierre and Pratt. They are merely the faces of the issue, and that's why they are under attack.

Gun control advocates (i.e., private gun ownership abolitionists) in politics and the media will use every tragedy they can in their never-ending quest to do away with our right to bear arms. They won't let up, and they will use every dirty trick in the book to try and sway public opinion. To date, they have been unsuccessful as Kurt Schlichter explains in his op-ed piece titled "Liberals Panic As They Lose the Gun Narrative":

When you argue for a living, you can tell how an argument is going for you. The evidence and my gut both tell me that the liberals have lost control of the gun control narrative.
Not for lack of trying - it was almost as if they were poised to leap into action across the political, media and cultural spectrum the second the next semi-human creep shot up another "gun free zone." This was their big opening to shift the debate and now it's closing. They've lost, and they are going nuts.

Winston Churchill said, "Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, give up. Never give up. Never give up. Never give up." He was correct in 1941 when he made those remarks, and his message is just as relevant and important today as it was then. England was embroiled in World War II at the time, and truth be told, we are in a war right now the outcome of which may well determine our right to defend ourselves and our families.

Neil Snyder is the Ralph A. Beeton Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia. His blog, SnyderTalk.com, is posted daily.