Normally, I don’t address most of the letters to the editor I come across. After all, most of them are idiotic at best and few do anything except rehash tired talking points. However, from time to time, one will spark something that I feel like I have to address.

That’s what happened this time.

The letter is, again, nothing new. It’s reiterating something I’ve heard on social media plenty, but I figured it needed to be addressed. The letter starts with framing the gun rights argument that we oppose gun control because guns are useful in opposing a tyrannical government. It then continues:

President Trump has now threatened to use military force against American citizens protesting the murder of George Floyd.

Has the gun rights advocates’ worst nightmare come true? Will they and their lobbyists now challenge Trump’s threats and consider who they support in November’s presidential election?

Of course, this is nothing more than an attempt to guilt people into a preferred action, and a clumsy one.

However, as it’s been brought up in a number of places, I figured I’d go ahead and answer it point by point.

To repeat:

President Trump has now threatened to use military force against American citizens protesting the murder of George Floyd.

This is a lie.

What President Trump was addressing was not peaceful protestors but rioters who were burning, looting, and even killing. Further, he warned governors to take action, or else he would step in and use the Insurrection Act to call up federal troops and put an end to the rioting.

He said nothing about peaceful protests, none of which require anything except for a law enforcement presence to not just help keep them peaceful but also to prevent others from attacking the protestors.

However, the letter writer does something the left is notorious for doing and that’s equating two very different things as if they’re the same. They use the term “protestor” when that is equating peaceful marchers and rioters as one and the same. That’s a misnomer and an attempt to manipulate language to misinform people into thinking Trump is going to send the 101st Airborne after people marching peacefully in Bismark.

Now, for the money paragraph, sentence by sentence:

Has the gun rights advocates’ worst nightmare come true?

Not really. At least, not in the way the writer is trying to imply. Our “worst nightmare” isn’t a president stepping in to put down a situation that can be considered as insurrection.

In fact, that’s a legitimate function of the government. People are being hurt and even killed by these riots, so stepping in when governors and mayors won’t could easily be seen as a reasonable response, so no, it’s not our worst nightmare come true.

But come for our guns, and things change. That’s usually the tripwire we talk about and for good reason.

Will they and their lobbyists now challenge Trump’s threats and consider who they support in November’s presidential election?

Why? Because Orange Man Bad?

Look, many of us may not necessarily agree that using the Insurrection Act is a good thing, but Trump is still a far better choice when it comes to our gun rights than Joe Biden. While Libertarian Jo Jorgensen may well also be pro-gun, she’s also going to be fortunate to get more than two percent of the vote. Many would argue that’s throwing a vote away.

Further, it’s amusing how the moment they figure they need gun owners–who else could possibly stand up to the military deploying to quash riots in our cities–they can just demand us to turn our backs on everything, including the vilification we’ve received by these very same people year after year. Now, they want gun owners and we’re supposed to just forget all they’ve said.

Joe Biden wants to deeply infringe on our Second Amendment rights, so deeply that I’d vote for a pet rock over him, and because Trump does something they think we won’t like, we’re supposed to just jump ship and join hands with them so we can sing Kumbayah? Oh, hell no.

Especially when the entire exercise just illustrates how little they’ve bothered to listen to us over all these years.