Hypocritical NRA nuts obliterate the First Amendment
Two related scenarios involving principles behind the First and Second Amendments unfolded in the week of the Navy Yard massacre. While the knee-jerk mainstream media’s “both sides do it” narrative would handily treat them as mirror images of one another, they actually represent opposite sides of a long-running political drama: The attempted silencing of an NRA critic is a commonplace example of McCarthyism, while the firing of a profanity-spouting small town police chief is an all-too-rare example of an out-of-control would-be McCarthyite being called to account.
Comparing these two cases, we see the NRA side eagerly embracing a double-standard: absolute free speech protections for those on their side, but outraged condemnations—even death threats—for those who oppose them. But the actual facts support an opposite conclusion: NRA “speech” is embedded in a campaign of intimidation which is designed to make everyone else shut up, not to promote the free flowing of ideas.
Here are the basics: In Eastern Pennsylvania, Mark Kessler, a profanity-spouting “Second Amendment hero,” was suspended as police chief of Gilberton (population 700), with final termination pending his right to a public hearing, as a dozen armed supporters rallied outside. Half a continent away, on the other side of the gun debate, Kansas University journalism professor David Guth, was swiftly suspended from teaching for the hotly-debated content of a single angry tweet: “The blood is on the hands of the #NRA. Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters. Shame on you. May God damn you.”
Guth received death threats along with calls for his firing from the GOP’s Kansas state senate leader, and others, along with threats to cut state funding for the university.
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/27/hypocritical_nra_nuts_obliterate_the_first_amendment