Leave it to the anti-gun bigots. They’re the people who will use any rhetoric to gin up hatred of gun owners any chance they get, but will blast Dana Loesch for not speaking very nicely. And they’ll use the most hateful language to do it, mind you.

Perhaps the dumbest effort to date comes from people like Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy who recently tried to label the National Rifle Association a terrorist organization.

This is the @MerriamWebster definition of 'terrorism'

noun | ter·ror·ism

the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion
https://t.co/J9qKLnLxOH

— Governor Dan Malloy (Archived) (@GovMalloyOffice) March 7, 2018

(Click on the tweet and read the whole tread of nonsense).

Malloy has a pronounced anti-gun history, so his efforts to libel the NRA aren’t surprising.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat with a long history of being in favor of gun control, this week equated the nation’s largest gun rights member organization with terrorism.

While the state is gripped in a serious winter storm that saw the activation of the National Guard, Malloy found time to fire off more than a dozen posts from his official Twitter account blasting the National Rifle Association. Expanding on the commentary, Malloy told reporters Tuesday, “They act, quite frankly, in some cases as a terrorist organization.”

Malloy is pushing to remove the NRA’s instruction arm as a source of state-endorsed firearms training, needed to obtain a pistol permit in Connecticut.

Since taking office, Malloy expanded the state’s “assault weapon ban” and stood by it all the way to the Supreme Court, has sought to hike permit fees and tried to bar gun sales in the state to those on terror watch lists. He recently joined with several other governors to form a regional information-sharing gun control bloc of states with an aim to further the breadth of background checks for firearm applicants and backed legislation to outlaw bump stock devices.

Malloy, however, has failed to address one overriding question: “If the NRA is a terrorist organization, can you name the attacks organized and supported by the NRA?”

The answer, of course, is no, you can’t. NRA members don’t attack people, as a general rule. If one does, the NRA has never shown any support for such attacks.

While I get a lot of people don’t like the NRA, calling them a terrorist organization is ridiculous. They have absolutely no links to any attack perpetrated anywhere. They simply don’t.

Instead, people like Malloy are trying to stigmatize the NRA and NRA members using language that they think would push their own side away, in this case, “terrorist.” They want gun owners to step away from the NRA because they think the NRA is pulling gun owners’ strings.

The NRA is a real grass-roots organization that represents millions of members…and millions of people who aren’t members, but they’re not pulling anyone’s strings. In fact, the NRA gets routinely criticized for being too willing to compromise on some of our civil rights in the name of political expediency. That wouldn’t happen if they were calling the shots.

That’s why this plan of stigmatizing the group won’t work.

First, we don’t actually care what Dan Malloy thinks of us. I, personally, think of him as a pathetic excuse for a pseudo-male. As such, I see no reason to give his thoughts and opinions any more attention than required to mock the sheer stupidity it took to make them someplace where people could “enjoy” them.

Second, I could easily make the same case Malloy does that any number of groups are terrorist groups including most feminist groups and the DNC. You see, most groups these days use some pretty extreme rhetoric when talking about the opposition. If “terrorism” simply meant “you try to make people afraid,” then almost everyone political is a terrorist to some extent or another.

Which is why we’re fortunate the legal definitions of terrorism are different. “[T]he term ‘terrorism’ means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.”

Unless you’re arguing the NRA meets that definition, Gov. Malloy, you might want to consider keeping quiet. You’re not doing your side any favors.