Last year’s Supreme Court decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen gave us a glimmer of hope in restoring our rights to their original meaning as written in the Bill of Rights. But the backlash to Bruen has been vicious and goes far beyond the legislative tantrums that have come out of states like New York and California. The broad outlines of these attacks indicate what anti-Second Amendment activists would do if they could — implement a Totalitarian State.

What would such a Totalitarian State look like? The answers can be gleaned and extrapolated from what gun controllers have already done in both the real world and the virtual world, through the formality of coercive laws and the informal bullying of civil society. (This article focuses on the freedoms of speech, expression, and association. Other topics such as privacy and due process will be addressed in the near future.)

Infringements on Free Speech and Expression

Publishing and communicating information on firearms designs, including 3D blueprints, is free speech. Gun controllers have tried stopping it in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Los Angeles. They tried to use the U.S. Department of State and export control regulations to do the same. They have failed for the moment.

Associating with other gun owners and promoting mutual interests is free speech. But gun controllers think they can stop it through intimidation, as we’re seeing in NRA v. Vullo, a case involving thinly veiled threats by a government apparatchik to the financial services industry to stop providing carry insurance to NRA members.

Carrying guns openly while peacefully protesting is a form of expression. regardless how unpalatable one may find it. Gun controllers have gone after that right in Washington, Michigan and elsewhere. They have also published questionable academic papers that have set the ball rolling on banning concealed carry at peaceful protests.

Advertising guns, ammunition, and accessories is free speech in the commercial realm. Gun controllers have gone after that formally through government bans such as the one in Flagstaff, AZ. They are intimidating traditional media and social media outlets into not carrying ads for guns and related items. They have gone after expressive content from Second Amendment activists on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, often aimed at demonetizing content.

Gun owners and Second Amendment advocates pay taxes towards public expo centers; yet, gun controllers have banned gun shows on public property and cut off our access for the purpose of lawful commerce in arms.

The most important part of nurturing the Constitution is by nurturing it in our children. Gun controllers are attacking that with full force. They have banned the mention of guns even in magazines catering to shooting sports for minors.

As with expo centers, gun owners and Second Amendment advocates pay taxes towards running government schools. Yet, gun controllers are treating government schools as their own personal fiefdoms to indoctrinate children in opposition to our values and beliefs, and using our property and school taxes for that “honor.”

If any industry must be grateful for free speech, it is Hollywood. They create a lot of smutty content and wave the flag of free speech when there are any calls for censorship. They make incredibly violent and gory movies, and a lot of content that uses guns. They self-police and self-regulate their content, and self-publish age ratings using the Motion Pictures Association of America. Yet, some Hollywood writers are colluding with gun controllers to shove their agenda of restrictions and bans down our throats. We are already starting to see the effect of that collusion in entertainment.

The First Amendment also protects the freedom of the press, and the ingrates in the media are using their free speech rights to lie and deceive when it comes to guns. Whether it was the utterly disgraceful CNN Town Hall after Parkland, or using slanted language from a “gun violence messaging guide,” gun controllers have been working hard at pushing their agenda.

This is a small subset of everything that the gun controllers are up to, and it only covers the culture of free speech that makes America great. I will follow this up in the near future with what gun controllers are doing in other areas to further a totalitarian state and a culture of fear to push gun control.