by Brian Schultz
The major intersection of the gun rights and immigration reform debates is, unsurprisingly, that of security: current immigration policies put you at risk, so you had better own a gun to offset it. From the broader threat of unmonitored domestic terrorists to the isolated violence of street gangs, conservative groups like the NRA claim that illegal immigrants are fomenting crises in your backyard, and the only preparation is armament. But it hasn’t always had such a morose agenda; the NRA was first and foremost a conservative lobby with a fairly diverse ideological makeup—one that generally focused on the right to own a gun over the need to. So why all the doom and gloom as of late?
Recent events have begun to polarize the U.S. population on the issue of immigration reform, and it seems appropriate that one of the largest conservative lobbies would stake its place. But this is a more pervasive phenomenon than appraisals of S.B. 1070 and the Tea Partiers. In 2008, then NRA vice-president Wayne Lapierre issued a statement and survey accusing immigrants of violent crime, and argued the need to repatriate undocumented immigrants and the necessity of firearms to defend oneself against them.
And it doesn’t stop there. Two years prior, the NRA released a disturbing (albeit hilarious) pamphlet entitled Freedom in Peril. Complete with dramatic illustrations reminiscent of agrarian-revolutionary artwork, it represents an apocalyptic future for the ‘ordinary’ citizen standing against an onslaught of extremists and officious government toadies. One particularly haunting image presents a man brandishing a shotgun from a second story window, resolutely defending his frightened family; in the distance, ominous silhouettes stalk the charred remains of a suburban neighborhood, holding what could be torches and lanterns, or clubs and Molotov cocktails-it’s unclear. But apparently, our gun-wielding friend won’t actually have time to find out, because if nothing else is conveyed clearly, it is the culture of animosity the NRA propagates. Destroy or be destroyed. And aside from the media, “The Illegal Alien Gangs” are given the most comprehensive assessment in this pamphlet.
For the NRA, there is no debate: all undocumented immigrants are “criminal aliens” that take away your personal liberties. Under this interpretation, ‘gun control’ has the two-pronged effect of both acquiescing to an invasive people, as well as giving ‘proper’ citizens the brunt of their violent, “criminal” behavior. It’s difficult to imagine how a typical centrist-conservative mainstay could have gone from upholding the Second Amendment to lobbying that undocumented immigrants “are the worst of the worst,” but it is now a common angle for gun rights arguments.
The recent junctures in immigration reform debate and the gun rights interest groups have merely resurfaced as the same apocalyptic lament for personal security. With the recent outcry surrounding the murder of rancher Robert Krentz and the passing of S.B. 1070, it’s no surprise that the NRA’s platform more and more resembles that of its extremist allies-one conveying immigrants as an outright threat.
And this has become a unified effort amongst Second Amendment lobbyists, using opportunistic scapegoat tactics to convince their adherents that they are always at the brink of unmitigated warfare with dangerous “criminal aliens.” Guns and Patriots editor Mike Piccione (of Human Events) has stated, “In a country where a bomb in Time Square happens…when illegals march to show their force over our government being able to defend yourself…is not such a bad idea.” Likewise, a recent piece published in Soldier of Fortune derided immigrants as a liability: “We are also confronted with the very probable takeover of U.S. towns…near the Mexican border by ruthless drug cartels and murderers.”
And these arguments tend to be placed in close proximity—or adjacent—to advertisements and reviews for assault rifles, telescopic sights and tactical knives. It seems, then, that many in the Second Amendment lobby are banking on a world of panic they have created, easily targeting immigrants as a threat to be confronted from within a culture of animosity.