Chilling NRA video is disgraceful

You can tell the National Rifle Association has gone too far when even gun owners are critical of its tactics.

That’s what’s happened since the NRA came out with a recruitment video that calls for its members to save America by fighting liberals “with a clenched fist” — a rather scary message to send a group of gun owners.

The Facebook video, which has generated more than 3.3 million views, features conservative television host Dana Loesch — along with a good supply of videos and photos that show windows being smashed and cars being burned.

“They use their media to assassinate real news,” Loesch begins. The “they” she references are people unhappy with President Donald Trump.

“They use their schools to teach children that their president is another Hitler,” she continues. For the record, reporters have yet to find a single school district teaching students that President Trump is another Hitler.

She goes on to talk of demonstrators who “smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize the law-abiding.” Then comes the money quote. “The only way we stop this, the only way we save our country and our freedom, is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth. I’m the National Rifle Association of America, and I’m freedom’s safest place.”

A call to fists is hardly what our nation needs at a time when political discourse is as harsh and nasty as any time in memory. And let’s remember that less than a month ago, a man angry with Republicans shot at several GOP congressmen as they practiced for the annual charity baseball game against a team of Democrats. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, remains in serious condition and returned to a Washington hospital’s intensive care unit on Thursday.

In the middle of this tension comes the NRA’s aggressive, in-your-face recruiting spiel.

The ad may not be a direct call for violence, but pro- and anti-gun forces understand its subtext. “Fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth” is hardly an olive branch for reaching compromise or finding common ground.

The ad has been criticized from many corners, including some gun owners who find their organization’s us-versusthem message distressing.

“I’m an old white guy and life member, but this BS is disgusting,” Facebook user Eric Eugene Rush commented, according to the Washington Post. “When you spew (garbage) like this, you don’t speak for me anymore . . . I’ll be thinking of canceling my membership.”

Conservative columnist Anne Applebaum also criticized the ad for calling on Americans “to arm themselves to fight liberals.”

The issue here is not whether you favor or oppose changes in our nation’s gun laws. The issue is the National Rifle Association toeing the line toward inciting violence. It doesn’t explicitly advocate violence against anti-Trump demonstrators, but — wink, wink — you get the idea.

After Rep. Scalise was severely injured at the ballfield last month, both Republicans and Democrats called for unity. It was time, they said, to dial down the rhetoric tearing our country apart.

The truce didn’t last long. If the NRA got the message, this ad shows it wasn’t listening. The NRA should be ashamed.

The ad may not be a direct call for violence, but pro- and anti-gun forces understand its subtext.