Folks, you'll need to grab a tall glass of water and an avalanche of Advil for this video from Cosmopolitan featuring couples discussing gun ownership and Second Amendment rights. All the men in the video have firearms, all the women do not–and so we enter this rabbit hole, where the same falsehoods and stereotypes peddled by the anti-gun left are reinforced on the other side, according to Ericka Andersen of National Review (via NRO):
Within seconds, the viewer is aware that Cosmopolitan believes women think guns are scary “death machines,” men that own guns are probably domestic abusers, and the Second Amendment is worthy of nothing more than an eye roll.Women could never be proud gun owners — or at least you wouldn’t know it from this vapid, ridiculous charade of a video. (Don’t anyone tell Cosmo that female gun ownership has been the rise for years!)
Ominous music opens the first scene, followed by a perky blonde named Maggie asking her boyfriend, “The guns that you shoot, are those . . . registered?” He assures her that yes, they are, but she’s clearly unsatisfied by this answer.
All the guys in this video register slightly guilty looks on their faces while clearly backed into a defensive posture — portrayed as buffoons who just don’t understand why guns are “bad.”
[…]
Another woman downplays the importance of freedom, saying, “As a non-American, Americans are used to the culture of like, freedom of speech . . . ” She gestures as if to say, “That’s a little embarrassing, now, isn’t it?
Her boyfriend quickly quips, “Well, it’s written into the Constitution.”
To be honest, you might have to trepan yourself after this video that completely ignores that a) women are the fastest demographic of new gun owners (as indicated by Ericka) b) women are the next big thing in the gun industry and c) women are the ones who are responsible for the spike in carry permits and attendance at gun safety classes. So, this video really isn’t indicative of anything other than these boyfriends have anti-gun girlfriends, who would probably change their minds if they were brought to a gun range.
Second, any gun owner and Second Amendment supporter knows a firearm is used for hunting (yes, people in this country still need to hunt to survive), target practice, competitive shooting, and self-defense. For a woman in a life-threatening situation, a firearm is the greatest equalizer if the situation requires you to use it. In the summer of 2014, Katie wrote about how the anti-gun left released an ad that inadvertently showed why women should exercise their Second Amendment rights; the media spot featured an abusive spouse, or boyfriend, with a gun trying to get inside her house. If the besieged woman had a handgun from Glock, Sig Sauer, Smith & Wesson, or better yet an AR-15 rifle, then this attacker would and should be toast.
The silver lining is that the people featured in this video seem to be Millennials. While young Americans have political views that often don’t make sense, their views on gun rights and abortion are more in line with the general public. In fact, when Millennials are asked which is more important: protecting gun rights or reducing gun violence, protecting Second Amendment rights registers high on the priority list (via WaPo):
Two other recent surveys, from the Pew Research Center and The Post/ABC News, also asked about the relative importance of protecting gun rights versus other objectives, such as controlling gun ownership or reducing gun violence. Both found that about half of Americans young and old believe gun rights should take priority.This is a bit puzzling, given that younger Americans are less Republican in their political leanings than older people and are also less likely to own a gun — two factors that are usually strong predictors of opposition to gun restrictions. These survey data suggest, then, that younger people might be especially predisposed to oppose gun-control measures, after controlling for these variables.
So, I agree with Andersen that the video tries to rehash the discredited notion that men and women are different about gun rights; they’re not. Moreover, this whole notion about Second Amendment freedoms being detrimental is wholly outrageous. Liberals love to put the Bill of Rights on a graduated scale, which is part of their prolonged campaign to try to render our founding document irrelevant. There are some things in the Constitution that prevent a pure progressive agenda from being implemented. They need to discredit that–and denigrating our oldest civil right to own firearms for personal protection, and to guard against an ever-growing federal government that could turn tyrannical, is a top priority.
Luckily, voters have seen through the lies peddled by the anti-gun left, so this video should be relegated to nothing more than top-notch entertainment.