In a video released by the NRA Monday, commentator Billy Johnson asked people to be more tolerant of guns and stop being scared of them. In the video, he claimed that we as a society have humanized guns too much and people have become too intimidated of them. He wants more people to realize that guns are “just bits of metal and plastic” and should be looked at in the same manner as a vacuum cleaner or other well-known appliances or tools. Johnson’s commentary regarded the public’s reaction to ‘open carry’ activists. These people have made headlines in recent months by openly carrying long assault weapons out in public.
Apparently, what set Johnson off, per Media Matters, was an incident that occurred near his hometown where an open carry enthusiast received push back from citizens for attempting to carry a gun into a public school. In Jonson’s mind, the man was just abiding by the law and wasn’t doing anything illegal. He feels that those who try to demonstrate their legal right to openly carry assault weapons wherever they go are getting a bad rap because the guns look scary. Therefore, Johnson wants people to stop being mean to those poor little guns because they are completely harmless.
Below is Johnson’s video, courtesy of NRA News:
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If Johnson seems somewhat familiar, it is because he’s the person who recommended grade school kids be forced to learn gun proficiency before moving onto the next grade level and “everyone gets a gun.” That video was rightly seen by most people as extremely nuts and was mocked relentlessly across the media spectrum. Now he’s back, pleading tolerance of the poor little guns that didn’t do anything to deserve their reputation as instruments of destruction. While he claims that too many people have humanized guns, he seems to be the one anthropomorphizing them by pleading for tolerance towards the guns.
The NRA stereotypically utilizes certain commentators on their ‘news’ site with the specific hopes that they’ll appeal to targeted demographics that tend to lean liberal and progressive. If you peruse through their commentary videos section, you’ll find three women, one black man and an Asian male. All of them appear to be younger than 40. Johnson is a white male, but also outfitted like an urban hipster, complete with the obligatory wonkish glasses. This is all a very transparent attempt by the NRA to not only try to appeal to other demographics, but shake off their public image. And that image is one that their membership is mostly made up of rural and Southern white males. (The NRA has long refused to release demo stats on their members.)
In the end, it doesn’t really matter whose delivering the message or what kind of packaging the message is wrapped up in. It is always the same. Guns are good. People kill people, guns don’t. Guns make us safer. Please buy lots of guns. And ammo.
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
