The United States is no stranger to armed conflict, and we've historically been pretty good at it. Our nation was born out of armed revolution. We fought another war against Britain in 1812, then against Mexico - and then, in 1861-1865, Americans fought a bloody, horrific war against each other. Two world wars and countless smaller ones later, we look back and note one thing these conflicts had in common: They were, by and large, fought between nations, with uniformed military forces contending with each other. There were irregular forces, there were partisans and guerrillas, but by and large, until the War on Terror, we fought the military forces of other nations.
The War on Terror changed a lot of that. We had to learn to fight non-uniformed irregulars, terrorists, and it's a very different thing when your enemy can just drop their weapons and melt away into the general population. But even then, we fought mostly on foreign ground.
All this is changing now. The radical left, the kind of nuts that put on black bloc and throw rocks at cops, are increasingly making noises about turning to firearms. What's worse, the far left is also the segment of the populace with the highest incidence of psychological disorders. I mean, just look at any of their protests, and you'll see "Nuts on Parade." And now, they may start showing up at riots with rifles. The American Spectator's John Mac Ghlionn has some information and insights that are worth considering.
Unless you live under a rock — or teach gender studies — you won’t be surprised to find that people with strong left-leaning political attitudes score far higher on traits like neuroticism and psychopathy than many of their conservative counterparts. These psychological signatures — emotional volatility, heightened threat sensitivity, and explosive aggression — are more pronounced the further left you go. Add to that the recent murder of Charlie Kirk, the attempts on Donald Trump’s life, and a surge in gun purchases by self-styled progressive activists, and the picture turns even darker.
These are the people who are showing up on our streets, increasingly willing to engage cops and federal officers - physically, with rocks, bottles of urine, and they seem to be escalating. What's more, some of the local governments in our major cities are encouraging them. We've seen the coverage, right here at RedState:
Read More: Unbelievable: Chicago Cops Told Not to Respond When Federal Agents Were Surrounded
Here's the worrisome part: They are starting to buy guns, and more concerning, they are practicing. A long-standing advantage the right has in any major societal meltdown has always been an overwhelming advantage in gun ownership and proficiency. That may be fading - or is it?
The same movement that once mocked the Second Amendment is now shopping for suppressors. From trans shooters to queer collectives and “rainbow rifle clubs,” the left’s new hobby isn’t mindfulness and manifesting — it’s marksmanship. Conservatives tend to buy guns to defend their families; leftists now seem to buy them to prove they can. The mood has shifted, from preachy to predatory.
Increasingly, the left demonizes the right as fascists, as Nazis, as people who talk in the theater. That un-persons us; it makes harming or even killing us not only tolerable but laudable to the extreme left, and if you don't believe me, just as Erika Kirk.
Read More: 'Direct Threat': Wild Video of Coast Guard Base Security Firing on U-Haul at Site of Protest
New Polls: Dems Leaderless, Strong Minority Says Political Violence 'Justified'
It's unsettling to think that Antifa may start showing up with AR-15s.
We've had unrest before. We've had attempted insurrections before, and one of those leftist "rifle clubs" has taken the name of one who led an unsuccessful rebellion: The John Brown Gun Club. But John Brown, ill-advised as his attempt to seize a federal armory was, was fighting to abolish slavery. What is today's left fighting for? Open borders? Gender-affirming care for minors without parental consent? Socialism, even communism?
The internet has turbo-boosted the left's rhetoric. We now live in a nation where, among the far left, mental illness isn't something one struggles with and seeks to overcome, but is something to be celebrated. Every small incident, every cop tazing an illegal alien, every career crook roughed up while being arrested, becomes an outrage. Spittle-fleck, angry nutcases start confronting cops, and behind the nuts is a cadre, a growing cadre, that may well be willing to start showing up with rifles.
So far, this seems to be only a fringe movement. If I had to wager a guess at the number of these people, I would guess at a nationwide total of a few thousand. Not a great number, in the grand scheme of things. But it sure seems to be a growing trend.
This may fizzle out. There have to be a few members of even the most extreme left who have enough self-awareness to look a the right, at decades of Second Amendment advocacy, and the prevalence of military veterans, and counsel against a mass demonstration of arms. We do, after all, still have a lot more guns and a lot more experience than they do. It's as I've said for many years, if I had to get in a fight, and my choice of opponents was an overweight left-wing bum with an AK-pattern rifle he's fired twice, and a 70-year-old man with a Winchester .30-30 he has been shooting and hunting with for sixty years, I'll take on the kid every time.
But not all that long ago, I remember one nut on what was then Twitter, talking about going out into the countryside and the small towns, to attack the right where they live. Now, that wouldn't have worked out at all like he was thinking. But just the fact that people are talking like this, that the far left could look at someone as good-natured and inoffensive as Charlie Kirk and screech "Nazi," well, that tells us a lot about the mental stability of the far-left right now - and what it tells us isn't good.
We live in interesting times, folks. My advice? Look to your own defensive capacities. And wherever you are, identify all the high-speed avenues of approach.
