Nationwide Protests: The Backlash Against Gun-Grabbing Has Begun

Thanks to considerable help from Democrats, left-wing donors, and the mainstream media, the “student-led” school walkouts last month saw tens of thousands of people marching for stricter gun control laws. But while the media did its part to make this all seem like a grassroots effort to support gun control after the Parkland tragedy, no one is confused about the true origins of this movement. The Democrat Party and its leftist backers were waiting patiently for the next school shooting; this was all planned months and months in advance.

And to their credit, they carried it out beautifully.

The only problem – it might have worked a little too well. Because while they have managed to pressure stores into changing their gun policies and while they have managed to get new gun control laws passed in a handful of states, they have also awakened the beast. Reports say that both NRA membership rolls as well as background check requests hit record numbers in the month since the Florida shooting. National polls suggest that while the left may have the media attention and the enthusiasm on their side, they haven’t moved the needle as far as support for new gun control laws is concerned.

Perhaps worst of all for those who want to ban semiautomatic “assault rifles” and pass new laws, the wave of protests has now inspired gun-rights activists to take a page out of their Marxist handbook.

Thus, we saw the first signs of counter-protest this weekend as Second Amendment supports in 45 cities rallied to their state capitols on Saturday to let the world know that not everyone is quite ready to hand their firearms over to the government.

“Gun owners have been portrayed in a negative way and it is our hope that this peaceable rally will show that we are safe, law-abiding individuals that happen to take our constitutional rights very seriously,” said Dave Gulya, an organizer for the Maine protest, an event that brought around 800 people to Augusta.

Atlanta, Georgia; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Montpelier, Vermont; Albany, NY; Boston; Indianapolis; these were but a few of the state capitals where supports of the Constitution came to protest a wave of planned and considered new gun control laws. Organized by the National Constitutional Coalition of Patriotic Americans, the protests were developed to show lawmakers and the public that gun owners would no longer be silent about those who would limit the power of the Second Amendment.

“What stood out about Saturday’s rally was the relative newness of grass-roots advocacy — both from the organizers and the crowd,” reported the Indianapolis Star. “One speaker asked how many people had not been to a Second Amendment rally before — and most cheered.”

For every action, there is an equal opposite reaction. Isaac Newton wrote that about physics, but it is just as true when it comes to societal change. Liberals have once again overplayed their hand, and the backlash is just getting started.