On Being Anti-Gun in Gun-Loving America
On Monday, I wrote an article for Rolling Stone advocating for the repeal of the Second Amendment. From my vantage point as a constitutional law professor, I argued that the amendment’s cost-benefit analysis is outdated, it’s a threat to liberty and it’s a suicide pact. I stand by all of that.
As a result of that piece, my inbox and Twitter mentions will probably never be the same. Thanks to the Drudge Report, Breitbart, Erick Erickson, 4chan and other far-right websites picking up the story and often focusing on me personally, those who vehemently disagreed with me discovered my (easily found) professional email address, Twitter handle and phone number, and took the opportunity to express that disagreement in violent, anti-Semitic (and poorly spelled) ways.
I was told my “ilk” should be “shipped to re-education camps.” Someone tweeted me images of train tracks leading to the concentration camps in Europe, while someone else suggested I be tarred and feathered (what a hip, retro form of hate!). They wished me and my loved ones all sorts of deaths, as well as rape. “May cancer befall your family and you die a slow miserable death,” wrote one charming gentleman. “Luckily we know you’re the low hanging fruit Islam will slaughter first,” wrote another. One commenter, horrifically and very specifically, accused me of raping a child and then killing her family and burning down their house to cover up the crime, in 1988. Yet another man sent my editor and me a gif of someone shooting himself in the head, with an invitation for us to do the same.
I’m not naive. I knew poking the hornet’s nest that is the Second Amendment would get a heated response — a response that, it is absolutely critical to note, was no doubt child’s play compared to the ongoing harassment that many women and people of color who do this on a regular basis face when discussing this issue and others. I also know there are reasonable people who could disagree with me on this subject. But the scale and tenor of the reaction the article inspired did surprise me in some ways. Last year I co-wrote a book about abortion clinic violence — a topic that inspires over-the-top rhetoric, if there ever was one — and never experienced anything close to this level of vitriol, even though the book was widely covered in the media and was specifically about the most extreme elements of the anti-abortion movement.
The reaction to my suggestion that America repeal the Second Amendment says a lot about where our country is in terms of its dialogue on guns — and it’s a pretty toxic place. The reaction is also deeply embarrassing for those who support gun rights, and not at all in line with my quite modest proposal. Simply put, most of the people responding don’t understand what repealing the Second Amendment would actually mean.
On Being Anti-Gun in Gun-Loving America, Page 1 of 2