I’ve posted beforeabout the levels of vitriol that have crept into gun control rhetoric, and how potentially dangerous that can be. The principle extends beyond gun control to politics in general, but by its very nature that debate is a particularly interesting cross section of obsession and reason, violent rhetoric and peaceful (with offenders on both sides of the question, though by no means evenly distributed).
And then comes the NRA convention, to emphasize the point. Consider, for instance, the bleeding zombie target that looked so much like Obama that the NRA asked the vendor to pull it from the display (but not to stop selling it):
Lest there be any confusion as to whether this is intended to be an Obama likeness:
When asked if the Obama likeness was intentional the worker said, “Let’s just say I gave my Republican father one for Christmas.”
“They are just scared some liberal reporter will come by and start bitching” another booth worker said to men gathered around the booth. “But ya know, he does look very familiar.”
And it’s
not the only one. (Also of interest from this seller is “the ex”:
…because where could there be a downfall to selling a target of “the ex”, a young woman with her shirt ripped open, for people to shoot at? It’s not like domestic violence and women being shot by former partners is a problem in this country, right?
Oh wait…)
Selling targets intended to look like the president, presumably because he dares to take an ideological stance that 90% of the country agrees with, at a convention of self-proclaimed reasonable, rational, and utterly peaceful folks. The irony is rich.