Mark McCloskey has been vilified, lampooned, mocked and threatened for protecting his home, his family, and his life by brandishing a weapon to scare off allegedly violent trespassers.
His appearance on Chris Cuomo's low-rated CNN program further polarized observers as to his right to protect himself in the face of, what he believed was, an imminent, credible threat.
"A guy stands in front of me, pulls out two loaded pistol magazines, snaps them in front of my face, and says, 'You're next.' If you were there, Chris, I think you'd feel like you had a right to defend yourself, as well," McCloskey told the less-successful brother of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Surely the image of McCloskey and his wife showing less-than-stellar gun-handling skills while facing down protesters who had reportedly just torn through a wrought iron fence to enter his private property is polarizing and somewhat of a Rorschach test for one's position on the Second Amendment and the threat posed by the "mostly peaceful" protests infiltrating American neighborhoods these days.
If you believe that an American has an inherent right to protect their lives and property from a threat and that right includes keeping and bearing arms when necessary, then you empathize with Mr. McCloskey, and you can put yourself in his shoes as he stands in front of his home.
If you think guns are awful and individuals have no right to own one (let alone brandish one in self-defense), then you are repulsed by the image and see it as yet another example of America's decline into redneck MAGAworld.
Sadly, these days one must shoot everything we see through the lens of presidential politics, so it's not really important what you think or what I think or even what Chris Cuomo thinks (assuming he is capable of thinking while at the same time reading the words presented to him on his teleprompter... he's a helluva multi-tasker that Chris Cuomo).
No, what really matters is what Joe Biden thinks about this. Since none of the hand-selected reporters at his Potemkin village press conference earlier this week asked any relevant question of the Democrats' presumptive nominee for president regarding the turmoil in the streets, we will have to go off of Biden's statements and positions over the course of the nearly fifty years we've been lucky enough to have this powerful and intellectual giant walking amongst us.
In 2013, as vice president, Biden headed a task force on "common-sense gun safety measures," which means, of course, in Democrat-speak, he was figuring out ways to get between you and your guns.
During an online forum hosted by Parents Magazine, the vice president was asked about his proposed limitations on access to AR-15s, the most popular long gun in America, and how his restrictions would affect an individual's right to self-defense.
Biden made the case that you don't need an AR-15 for self-defense.
"If you want to protect yourself, get a double-barrelled shotgun, have the shells, a 12-gauge shotgun, and I promise you, as I told my wife," Biden said, "we live in an area that's wooded and somewhat secluded — I said 'Jill if there's ever a problem just walk out on the balcony here, walk out, put that double-barrelled shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house.' I promise you, whoever's coming in is not — you don't need an AR-15. It's harder to aim, it's harder to use, and in fact, you don't need 30 rounds to protect yourself. Buy a shotgun. Buy a shotgun."
And the moment would go on to live in internet meme infamy.
"Buy a shotgun, buy a shotgun!" is a punch line for anyone looking for a short-hand explanation of Joe Biden's asinine buffoonery.
It even became a fantastic, viral YouTube song featuring Darren Criss:
Who doesn't know the brilliance of Biden's stupidity in his "Buy a shotgun" moment?
Now, I recognize that Mr. McCloskey was not brandishing a shotgun, but he was honoring the spirit of Biden's advice. He felt scared and threatened, so he grabbed his gun and brandished it to scare the intruders away.
Biden would have had McCloskey go one step further and fire his gun into the air to send the message home. Luckily, McCloskey was smart enough to not do something that reckless.
Of course, if he had fired two blasts of his double-barrelled shotgun into the air, he would have found himself standing there with an empty gun since he just stupidly fired his load into the air, but that's just one more aspect of Biden's moronic logic in this regard.
People can yell at McCloskey all they want, but ultimately the St. Louis trial attorney was merely following the sage advice of the Democrats' nominee for president. He walked out on to his balcony and brandished his long gun. It's what Biden advised his own wife to do when facing a home invasion. Who can blame him for that?