Tim from the Military Arms Channel and I have been friends for about seven years now. Tim gave me my first opportunity to write about guns on a gun platform, a blog that he used to run call The Bang Switch. Prior to that, I had been writing at a political blog, where gun content sometimes came up, but The Bang Switch is where I found my true passion in writing. Tim gave me my first real opportunity to write about guns and everything related to them, and for that I will always be grateful.
With that history in mind, it pained me to see what happened Saturday night. Not specifically with Tim, because his only comment that night was rather benign, but by some of the other social media gun folks, and one in particular who stepped WAY over the line.
However, what was even more concerning is not what those social media gun folks said in particular, but how some of the people who follow them reacted. The comments that followed spiraled rapidly out of control and went completely unchecked. With that in mind, I called out those social media gun celebs in the piece I wrote the Sunday about the incident, and one of the images I used was Tim’s Instagram post from the night before.
So, when my phone rang yesterday and the caller ID showed that it was Tim, I was a tad reluctant to answer, fearing I might be about to get chewed out. But answer it I did, and I am glad I did. We spoke on the phone for about 40 minutes about that whole mess that blew up that night, about what went wrong, about what went right, and about the fact that we all need to have a conversation about how we can all better handle something like that in the future.
First, after catching up and exchanging the normal pleasantries, we spoke about the whole mess. We both agreed about nearly every aspect we discussed, which does not have surprise me because I have always found Tim to be an intelligent, well reasoned man. During the few times when Tim and I have disagreed, we have been able to discuss the disagreement in a calm, rational manner.
- We both agree that just about everything that could go wrong, just shy of shots being fired, did go wrong.
- We both were extremely thankful that no one got hurt.
- We both agree that there is zero evidence that this ever had anything to do with a red flag law.
- We both agree that these unconstitutional red flag laws, which are being passed by politicians, are not only putting cops in the middle of a situation they do not control, but are rightfully making all second amendment supporters, including both Tim and I, very concerned about dangerous government overreach.
What happened in Tim’s case is that he was at home, sick, when his phone started blowing up. He looked at it, spent a few minutes trying to figure out what was going on, saw that one of his IG followers was claiming that the cops were there to enforce a red flag order, and so Tim, without putting too much thought into it, asked for people in the area that were able to, to respond and help. After sending that out, he hit the rack for the night because he was under the weather and needed sleep.
Tim clarified to me that what he meant by help was to stand by and observe to make sure nothing crazy was going on. He did not remotely mean show up and attack the cops. Tim admitted that in hindsight, the message he sent should have been worded more clearly.
The conversation moved on to the takeaways from this whole fiasco. While our conversation did not group these things together, for the sake of this article I have compiled them into three categories so that it is easier to track while reading.
The Good
Tim said it, and I concur, that it is good to see just how many people wanted to do something to help, or at least said they did. It was encouraging to see just how much “help” can be rallied in such a short time. That is one of the upsides to social media, when used properly. Sadly, that is about the only good that came from this incident.
The Bad
It became painfully obvious to all but the most stubborn, tin foil hat wearing, window licking conspiracy theorists, that one guy with a mediocre following on social media, who was drunk, lied to everyone and set a whirlwind of really bad things in motion.
Many Americans, rightfully so, are very on edge at this point in history because politicians are constantly attacking our constitutionally protected rights. That constant attack has made many people very susceptible to being played by someone with dishonest intent.
Social media is an incredibly valuable tool and excellent way to get information to people in a rapid fashion. BUT with that, it is also very easy to spread lies just as quickly. Additionally, as conservatives and pro-gun people are well aware, it is very susceptible to censorship by the liberal organizations that control nearly all the social media outlets.
The Ugly
Many of the things said by gun rights supporters and advocates that night look really, really bad, and do not help the cause of freedom, at all.
A surprising number of people, at least based on the comments they made online, appear far too willing to start shooting cops over the slightest perceived “justification.”
While the majority of people who are gun rights supporters are reasonable, everyday, law abiding Americans, there are always a few in every group who make the rest look really bad. The left does not have a monopoly on crazies. The crazies on our side of the gun rights battle appear to be chomping at the bit to start “the boogaloo.”
The way the local law enforcement agencies handled their social media messaging that night was beyond horrific! Posting information, deleting it, posting something else and then deleting that just fuels the crazies. Conspiracy theory nuts thrive on stuff like that, because “the cops are clearly hiding things or lying.” Sadly the local cop shops repeatedly screwed up their social media information sharing, not only throughout this incident but they continued messing it up the following couple days.
How Do We Prevent This From Happening Again?
Tim and I both agree that we, gun rights advocates and supporters, need to take a long look at what happened here. We cannot just be quiet and pretend it did not happen. We need have an honest conversation about what went wrong, and more importantly, how we can better handle this the next time, because unfortunately the politicians pushing gun control are not letting up, so there will be a next time.
We need to have a planned response, and that response must include what “help” means.
We need to support the law enforcement agencies that speak up about their unwillingness to enforce unconstitutional laws. Far too often, especially for guys like Tim, anytime they say anything remotely positive about law enforcement, they are called “boot lickers” or any of the other derogatory terms people who hate cops love to throw around.
Tim talked about how he sometimes forgets just how much influence he and the other social media gun guys actually have. His reach alone on social media is more than 3 million people per month. That is a huge sphere of influence. And there are guys with far bigger audiences than his. I’m a teeny tiny guy in comparison to those guys, but even as small as I am, and even though this website is a little more than a month old, the first piece I wrote about this incident was read by more than 20,000 people in the first 24 hours it was live.
With that in mind, we both agreed that all of us, from the smallest outlet to the biggest gun celebrities, need to be very cognizant about the message that we deliver to our followers, especially when you realize that a very small percentage of those followers are not firing on all cylinders.
I neglected to broach this while we were on the phone because it slipped my mind, but I also think it is just as important for the social media influencers to monitor the comments in response to their social media posts like this in the future. Because while most of the social media gun folks did not say anything extreme, sadly some of their followers did and those comments were what rapidly sent things out of control. So, not only being careful with the message sent, but also tracking how it was received, and correcting the misunderstandings quickly, can help avert potential incidents in the future.
And finally, law enforcement agencies, no matter their size or budget, need to make better use of social media so that their message gets out clearly, and does not unduly fuel the anti-government conspiracy theorists.
Obviously, this list of suggestions is just a start. If you have some constructive ideas, please share them in the comments below. If instead you just want to curse law enforcement, take your comments elsewhere.
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