Silence is deafening from Second Amendment 'Don’t Tread on Me' crowd: Marine Corps veteran
28 January
A "God, Guns and Trump" sign placed on an old military bus in November 2020 (Florida Chuck/Shutterstock.com)
Amid the background of federal agents shooting to death two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis and President Donald Trump subsequently declaring, “you can’t have guns,” a Marine veteran who served in Iraq is asking, where are the pro-Second Amendment “Don’t Tread on Me” activists now?
In an opinion piece for The Hill, Jos Joseph explains the effect that the 1993 federal government raid in Waco, Texas, had on him as a teen, when he “watched as federal agents, dressed up like commandos, tried to storm a religious compound in Texas. A shootout and then a siege ensued in which the government used the same psyops operations on Americans as they had on Panamanian Gen. Manuel Noriega.”
He says that he was “baffled by the government’s actions and willingness to escalate things to the point of using commando-style tactics before exhausting other options,” and as a result, he “would understand why people didn’t trust the government, why they advocated for the Second Amendment, and why they warned me about the dangers that an unchecked politician could do to American citizens.”
He then blasts “self-described libertarians, Second Amendment advocates, Punisher logo wearing tough guys, and ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag wavers” who “wilt like flowers when it comes time to actually standing up for the Bill of Rights.”
He then turns to the crisis in Minnesota.
“The Department of Homeland Security immediately tried to control the messaging,” he exclaimed, “that somehow this man who was legally permitted to carry a gun was killed for carrying a gun.”
“I think about all the ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ people and wonder, why are they so silent?” Joseph asks.
Discover moreNews analysis subscriptionsHuman rights lawPolitical commentary booksLGBTQ+ pride merchandisePolitical opinion piecesPolitical debate ticketsOnline political forumsTrump merchandiseVoter registration drivesRights movement historyAnd, “why are some putting restrictions on the Second Amendment now? You can carry a gun but not magazines? You can’t carry more than one magazine? You can’t bring a gun to a protest if you are a Democrat?”
Joseph did not specifically mention President Donald Trump, who said on Tuesday that Alex Pretti, the VA ICU nurse shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis over the weekend, was carrying magazines.
“He had a gun,” Trump said, as Reuters reported. “I don’t like that. He had two fully loaded magazines. That’s a lot of bad stuff.”
Joseph writes, “Over the years, I was told by my conservative friends to be worried about Big Government,” then laments, “I guess none of that applies anymore. The killings of Alex Pretti, Renee Good and others in ICE custody should be reprehensible to any decent, patriotic American. But the silence is deafening from those who cried loudest over government tyranny.”