Anti-gun talking heads have had their hands full for the last week or so. After all, they’ve had to overblow the threat of supposed protests that are claimed to be in the works all over the nation.

To be clear, while I have little doubt protests will happen, even armed ones, the big problem has been claims that these protests would be violent in nature.

So far, none of that is shaping up.

Small groups of right-wing protesters — some of them carrying rifles — gathered outside heavily fortified statehouses around the country Sunday, outnumbered by National Guard troops and police brought in to prevent a repeat of the violence that erupted at the U.S. Capitol. As darkness fell, there were no reports of any clashes.

Security was stepped up in recent days after the FBI warned of the potential for armed protests in Washington and at all 50 state capitol buildings ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.

Crowds of only a dozen or two demonstrated at some boarded-up, cordoned-off statehouses, while the streets in many other capital cities remained empty. Some protesters said they were there to back President Donald Trump. Others said they had instead come to voice their support for gun rights or decry government overreach.

“I don’t trust the results of the election,” said Michigan protester Martin Szelag, a 67-year-old semi-retired window salesman from Dearborn Heights. He wore a sign around his neck that read, in part, “We will support Joe Biden as our President if you can convince us he won legally. Show us the proof! Then the healing can begin.”

As the day wore on with no bloodshed around the U.S., a sense of relief spread among officials, though they were not ready to let their guard down.

The heavy law enforcement presence may have kept turnout down. In the past few days, some extremists had warned others against falling into what they called a law enforcement trap.

Actually, a lot of us didn’t call it a law enforcement trap so much as an attempt to create a problem where one wasn’t likely to happen in the first place. Even though a lot of people take issue with the election results, none of the propaganda passed around calling for these protests passed the sniff test. It felt like a false-flag, so people stayed home.

No, it had little or nothing to do with law enforcement and everything to do with being skeptical of the plan. Especially in light of how the media has responded to what happened at the Capitol. Everyone knows they won’t get a fair shake regardless of what’s going on, so they’re going to pull back a bit and keep a wary eye out.

See, the media has been overhyping any potential threats because it fits their narrative. They want people to be afraid, particularly of people like you and me. They want folks to be terrified so they’ll support gun control, among other policy positions. Fear sells almost as well as sex, after all.

Yet the lack of any violence has to be motivating them to spin things in such a way that can’t be claimed that they overhyped the threat. So, they claim law enforcement is scaring people away, even though none of these protestors would ordinarily have anything to worry about law enforcement.

This is an artifact of the media and nothing else.