According to many an old western film, there are recurring archetypes in the long twisted history of the wild west: the Good, the Bad, and Ugly.
There are many ways to interpret these over-arching character attributes, but one of the more interesting interpretations is, the way each type deals with the emotion of Fear. Fear is a powerful emotion, once it takes root in your soul, and the voice of rationality gets relegated to being just a bit player.
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To see these wild-west dynamics at work, on a much larger stage, one need only look at the unfounded Fear Tactics commonly employed by the NRA, and their rising star competitor, the GOA (Gun Owners Of America). When the simple facts won't support your cause, it's time to raise the emotional heat. Hello, Pavlov's-bell.
It's all a matter of knowing which buttons to push. As the good Mark Kelley has calmly pointed out, these Fear Tactics have nefarious forces of greed behind them -- yet too many Congresspersons have already let these professional "fear-mongers" in to their personal space -- lock, stock and barrel:
Energized by Senate votes, pro-gun groups pledge "extensive war" on gun control
by Lucy Madison, CBS News -- May 3, 2013
[...]
Mark Kelly, the husband of former congresswoman and gun violence victim Gabrielle Giffords, echoed that sentiment in an op-ed Thursday in the Houston Chronicle.
"Guns fly off the shelves after tragedies because LaPierre and the gun manufacturers he represents exploit people's fears. In return, gun manufacturers gave LaPierre and the NRA tens of millions of dollars last year alone -- and he spent almost $1 million of it on his own salary," Kelly wrote. "Everyone in the gun lobby gets rich when the gun manufacturers sell the most guns. And that's why LaPierre and the rest of the leadership of the NRA and other gun organizations are spending so much of their time wild-eyed, preaching possible government confiscations."
[...]
So far, Gun Owners of America likes its odds.
"The fact that gun control was stopped in the Senate we feel that, at least so far, that our efforts have been very successful," Erich Pratt, the communications director of Gun Owners Of America, told CBSNews.com. "We certainly don't want to pop the cork before the Congress adjourns but we actually felt confident all along -- cautiously optimistic -- and I think, after the defeat in the Senate a couple weeks ago, even more so now."
That spokesman for the GOA sounds rational enough, well-measured, even cautious about his cause, right?
Well someone's got to put a "kind face" on the junk-yard dog that Erich Pratt is speaking for ... otherwise they might be exposed for the "arch-charlatans" that they actually are.
There's another side to the GOA however, one that gets scant media coverage, but one shrill voice that knows how to work the emotions of the rightwing-refs all the same.
Meet the CEO of this shadowy fear-promoting organization: Larry Pratt. Pit bulls have nothing over this guy. This guy has got his guns.
And this ranty guy know who his "real enemies" are too ... those damn Voters. And their ever-shifting demographics. And Pratt wants to put a stop to it -- the rising tide of Democratic Party Voters:
Gun lobbyist Larry Pratt: They will take our guns if they pass immigration reform
by Eric W. Dolan, rawstory.com -- May 21, 2013
Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania, [Gun Owners of America's executive director Larry] Pratt explained that gun rights advocates needed to defeat comprehensive immigration reform.
“Why do we care about an immigration bill?” he said. “Well, frankly, it’s a matter of numbers. If you bring in a whole bunch of Democrats into the country, most of them are going to vote to take away our guns. And in a few years, that’s exactly what would happen.”
[...]
And this guy Larry Pratt knows something about pushing those emotional "buttons of fear" -- as he can
knit-wits with the
best the worst of them:
Pratt: Obama is 'Full-Bore Marxist' Who 'Had to Steal the Last Election'
by Miranda Blue on Monday, 5/20/2013
Gun Owners of America director Larry Pratt is upset that just because President Obama “got 50-plus percent of the vote,” he thinks can now carry out his policy agenda. [...]
Pratt [to Alex Jones]: He [Obama] is a full-bore Marxist. And this guy is after and grabbing ahold of every bit of power and centralizing in his hands. And as he said even before the election -- we should have been listening -- ‘If the Congress won’t go along with me, than I’m just going to have to take action myself.’ Well, hello, Mr. Dictator. I guess you will.
[...]
Meet this instigator Larry Pratt (the chilling voice behind GOA's more mild-mannered one, Erich Pratt from the intro.) Larry Pratt is not above hanging out with the pinnacle of fear-mongers either. It seems the executive director of the
Gun Owners of America will lend his "credibility" to the
most ugly of conspiracies, as long as it furthers his cause.
It's all about raising the heat on "Fear Meter" afterall. In that domain of constant dread, one "Government-hating conspiracy" is just as pliable as the next. Someone just needs to stir the emotionally pot:
Radio Host Frequented By Gun Activists Calls For Shooting of Bush Family & Obama, Sexual Violence Against Hillary Clinton
by Miranda Blue on Friday, 5/17/2013
Pete Santilli is the kind of person we normally wouldn’t cover here [Right Wing Watch] -- an unhinged Internet ranter who exists somewhere to the crazier side of Alex Jones. [...]
But in the past couple of months, Santilli has attracted two major gun activists to his show: National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent, who used the opportunity to call President Obama a Nazi, and Gun Owners of America director Larry Pratt, who worked with Santilli to flesh out his theory that President Obama is raising a private army to overpower the U.S. military. Pratt, in particular, is taken remarkably seriously among the GOP -- he has been partially credited with taking down a background checks measure in the Senate last month.
[...]
That some seriously twisted fear-ginning (I hope the FBI is paying attention). Whatever fuels your cause eh, Mr Pratt? Long as you can
goad your fearful listeners to run out and buy more guns, your job is done.
Nothing stochastically terrifying about those words you're endorsing at all, eh Mr Director?
Let the Facts, be damned.
So what is the relationship linking fear-monger-in-chief Larry Pratt, to the GOA's more-tolerant reasonable public Pratt, Erich?
Well that was kind of hard to track down but here you go ... the Birchers may have finally found someone to follow in their hateful footsteps ...
Larry Pratt, Exec. Director, Gun Owners of America (GOA)
Larry Pratt has been Executive Director of Gun Owners of America for 27 years. GOA is a national membership organization of 300,000 Americans dedicated to promoting their second amendment freedom to keep and bear arms.
GOA lobbies for the pro-gun position in Washington and is involved in firearm issues in the states. GOA's work includes providing legal assistance to those involved in lawsuits with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the federal firearms law enforcement agency.
[...]
Assisting Larry Pratt in the operations of GOA is his son Erich Pratt, who is communications director of GOA. Both Larry and Erich are available to conduct interviews on the topics of 2nd Amendment Rights, self defense and the Biblical position on firearm ownership.
Meet father and son, clever promoters of Fear and Hate; who seem dead set on giving the NRA a run for their money.
If you are not paying attention to Larry Pratt, executive director Gun Owners of America -- you should be. Because unlike Wayne LaPierre's kinder-gentler Agenda of Fear and Hysteria, Larry Pratt's version of it actually has teeth. Bared and snarling, with the hateful venom to back it.
The NRA's Watch-guard dog Wayne LaPierre, may have just met his insidious rhetorical match -- in the form of the junk-yard pit-bull Larry Pratt. In a realm where "seeing the good in people" has absolutely noting to do with it.
... long as most everyone walks away "quaking in their boots" ...
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None these Absolutist guys much cares what the actual facts are, you see. Because if you step one foot on their multi-million-dollar turf -- 'you're gonna be dog food.' Or worse.
You're gonna become the vortex for all their irrational fears, for all that is wrong in the world; you'll be delegated the bad guy in their Wild-West version of America -- where everyone had better get their guns. Or else suffer their fearsome consequences.
Somewhere in their fictional land where those with the biggest Guns made, and still make apparently, the rules.