Second Amendment Remedies, 2014 Style
This example from 2014
In the 2010 midterms, Republican Senate hopeful Sharron Angle used a chilling phrase as part of her political vision: “Second Amendment remedies.” In context, Angle argued that if U.S. policymakers pursued an agenda the far-right disapproved of, Americans may have to turn to armed violence against their own country. The Republican candidate lost her Senate bid, and most of this talk receded to the fringes of right-wing politics. It did not, however, disappear entirely from the Republicans’ rhetorical quiver. Sam Levine had this report overnight.
Joni Ernst, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Iowa, said during an NRA event in 2012 that she would use a gun to defend herself from the government. “I have a beautiful little Smith & Wesson, 9 millimeter, and it goes with me virtually everywhere,” Ernst said at the NRA and Iowa Firearms Coalition Second Amendment Rally in Searsboro, Iowa. “But I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family – whether it’s from an intruder, or whether it’s from the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.”
In the United States, if we believe our rights are being violated by the state, we turn to the courts. In Joni Ernst’s world, if we believe our rights are being violated by the state, we turn to guns.