During a June 30 appearance on HBO’s Real Time, social provocateur Dan Savage said that those who lean right in politics are only talking about the violence of the left because they need a way to re-energize gun sales.
Host Bill Maher positioned Savage to make these comments by talking about “the right-wing spin machine.” Maher said, “According to the right-wing spin machine, the greatest threat to America now is that liberals are violent.”
These comments come after a Bernie Sanders supporter opened fire on Congressional Republicans in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 14, wounding five. Even the FBI’s post-Alexandria report–issued June 21, 2017–shows that the attacker sought confirmation that the Congressmen were Republican before carrying out his attack. The FBI reported, “[On] the morning of the shooting, a witness reported [the attacker] asking them, ‘Is this the Republican or Democrat baseball team?’ When the witness responded that it was a Republican event, [the attacker] reportedly remained at the baseball field.”
Nevertheless, Dan Savage responded to Maher’s “right-wing” commentary by suggesting the right made claims of the left’s ties to violence in hopes of boosting gun sales “because the scary black president wasn’t coming for your guns anymore, not that he ever did, and the shrill lady wasn’t going to come for your guns, and gun sales went off the cliff after Trump won the election.”
Missing from Savage’s commentary is the fact that while gun sales dipped in December 2016–the month after Trump’s election–that December was still the third highest December ever for background checks for gun sales. Moreover, Breitbart News reported that May 2017 broke every record for background checks for gun sales set under Barack Obama.
Reality–background checks slowed a bit during the first few months of Trump’s presidency but had regained momentum by April and were breaking records by May. The Bernie Sanders supporter attacked GOP Congressman in June; a point in time in which gun sales were already on an upward trajectory.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.