Mainstream Conservatives Move to Distance Themselves From Alex Jones, But Their Pro-Gun Views Are Strikingly Similar

Ever since the fringe conspiracy theorist Alex Jones appeared on Piers Morgan’s show this week, the conservative punditry, pro-gun groups, and other right wing figures have been doing everything they can to distance themselves from his special brand of lunacy.

But when you compare the paranoid gun rhetoric of Jones with that of the recoiling mainstream voices, the message is remarkably similar. From both sides, you’ll hear references to Stalin and Hitler, and a creeping government initiative to confiscate guns from law abiding citizens — all classic rantings from the self-published Black Helicopters Over America-type books that surfaced in the early 90s.

Piers Morgan’s cynical yet brilliant move of luring Alex Jones into a debate on his show (who, as it turns out, was behind the “Deport Piers Morgan” petition), was an obvious plot to smear the gun lobby with the voice of a lunatic. But in an ensuing debate with Breitbart.com’s Ben Shapiro (see videos below), Morgan, although up against a much more formidable opponent in Shapiro, got his guest to reiterate the Jones ideology that calls for the stockpiling of assault weapons within the common populace just in case of a future tyrannical shift in government.

Morgan began the exchange as follows:

“What I haven’t heard is one coherent reason why any civilian in America needs an AR-15, military-style assault weapon. Tell me why you need one.”

Shapiro: “They need them for the prospective possibility of resistance to tyranny, which is not a concern today, it may not be a concern tomorrow.”

Morgan: “Where do you expect the tyranny to come from?”

Shapiro: “It could come from the United States because governments have gone tyrannical before.”

In the weeks following the tragic Sandy Hook killings, there’s been a vague fog obscuring the rationale behind the NRA’s base and their unwavering position on assault weapons. But now as the fog clears, it’s more apparent that this stance is based on a paranoid delusion that even mainstream conservative media sources are now voicing more openly.

With the GOP emerging from the wreckage of Todd Akin and the 2012 Campaign failure, it seems that they’re once again finding themselves being led by extremists down the road to oblivion.

Part 1.

Part 2.

 

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