Montini: Is NRA video recruiting … for civil war? EJ Montini: So much for a more civil dialogue.

EJ Montini | The Republic | azcentral.com

Show Caption Hide Caption Protesters criticize gun policy as Trump speaks to NRA Hundreds of demonstrators blasted America's gun policy as President Donald Trump spoke to the NRA in Atlanta.

It’s one thing for the National Rifle Association to put out a recruitment video asking like-minded individuals to join them in the association's ongoing efforts to preserve and protect their Second Amendment rights.

It’s another thing to produce a video portraying anyone who disagrees with them (or with President Trump) as potentially violent enemies of the state from which they must be prepared to defend themselves. Not fellow citizens with whom they disagree. Enemies.

The inflammatory NRA video features conservative media personality and NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch.

Loesch does not urge violence, but the language she uses and imagery shown are clearly incendiary, just the opposite of a more civil dialogue that politicians in both parties were calling for after the shooting that wounded Rep. Steve Scalise.

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut tweeted:

I think the @NRA is telling people to shoot us.



Now might be the right time to cancel your membership. pic.twitter.com/PWhHAvRcI3 — Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) June 29, 2017

Aren't we better than this?

In the video, Loesch says, “They use their media to assassinate real news. They use their schools to teach children that their president is another Hitler. They use their movie stars and singers and award shows to repeat their narrative over and over again. And then they use their ex-president to endorse the resistance.

"All to make them march, make them protest, make them scream racism and sexism and xenophobia and homophobia and smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize the law abiding — until the only option left is for police to do their jobs and stop the madness. And when that happens, they'll use it as an excuse for their outrage. The only way we stop this, the only way we save our country and our freedom, is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth.”

The video is drawing criticism from all sides, though Loesch and others don’t seem to have any problem with it.

What it boils down to, however, is fairly simple.

We should be better than this.

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