Would They Really Care?

So the other day, Robb over at Sharp As A Marble made a case that teh esteemed Perfesser *hawk* *spit* Alexander Tristan Riley was the person behind one "Guns Makes Us Free" blog, whose postings seemed to be a parody of what antis think gun owners are really like. Illiterate, vile racist rhetoric, I guess you could call it. David had a few words to say as well, as did 45superman , Thirdpower and Yuri Orlov. So, in short it would seem that, yet again, another anti has been revealed to be exactly what he accuses pro-liberty people of being; 45superman wrote a letter to CeasefirePA, of which teh esteemed Perfesser recently became a board member:

...This correspondence is instead intended to bring some civility and honor to a debate that would seem to be in danger of losing both.

It has come to my attention that Professor Alexander Tristan Riley has recently joined your board of directors

While no one would deny that Professor Riley is an outspoken, dedicated advocate of restrictive gun laws, I cannot help but question the wisdom of appointing such a divisive, hyper-partisan individual to such a position. As pointed out here, his "debating" technique would seem to consist largely of screaming insults at whomever has the temerity to disagree with him. He, in fact, recently had a blog, titled, charmingly enough, "Mike S. Adams is Vermin" (from which all the previous text has recently been removed, but the cached version of which can--for now, anyway--still be seen here) devoted almost exclusively to calling Dr. Mike Adams, and anyone who dares support him, stupid (and in rather over-the-top fashion), and referring to them as "vermin."

Still, perhaps you believe his combative style is what you need, and that, of course, is your decision to make.

I would now like to bring your attention to a particularly disgusting individual, who calls himself "NRAFOUREVER." As cataloged here, the comments he posted on YouTube are truly reprehensible. Similarly, particularly vile comments posted by someone calling himself "NRAFOUREVER" have been left on certain gun rights advocacy blogs (here, here, and here, for example). The IP address from which those comments were posted was also the source of other vile comments left anonymously on various other gun rights advocacy blogs--the "Anonymous" commenter here, for example.

Finally, "NRAFOUREVER" briefly administered what was apparently intended to be a parody of gun rights blogs, called "Guns Makes Us Free." That blog, after being up for only a brief time in early to mid-December, is now gone, although a screen capture of one page from it can be seen here.

The reason I mention "NRAFOUREVER" is that the IP address from which he posted traces back to Lewisburg, PA, home of Bucknell University, where Professor Riley teaches--in fact, my fellow bloggers and I received several visits from Bucknell University, following the same visitor pathways favored by "NRAFOUREVER."

Finally, both the "Guns Makes Us Free" blog and the "Mike S. Adams is Vermin" blog were taken down on the same day (which happened to be around the time it was becoming clear that there was a great deal of suspicion of a link between the two).

I realize that any claim that "NRAFOUREVER" is actually a pseudonym for Professor Riley would be based on nothing more than circumstantial evidence. Still, it seems apparent that if Professor Riley is not responsible for the disgusting vitriol posted by "NRAFOUREVER," then someone has gone to some trouble to make it appear that he is.

Either way, someone is engaging in egregious, loathsome conduct, that serves only to make truly toxic the already rancorous debate about gun legislation. Such behavior is harmful not only to Ceasefire PA, which I admit would not particularly bother me, but to everyone earnestly engaged in the debate.

Kurt, I'm sure you're reading and I find the restraint in your letter admirable, but I must ask -- would they really care that much when it's all said and done? It's long been established that these people have no shame and no honor, that they will resort to damned near anything to advance their agenda, from statistics twisting to out-and-out lies. Really, I can't help but think Alex Riley's personal opinions are of that much concern to them, considering the American gun owner is at the top of both of their respective lists of, shall we say, 'undesirables.' Hell, the entire gun control movement finds its roots in the very type of bigotry Alex Riley spews; only back then they wanted to keep a certain demographic down. Now it's the weaker of the entire species no matter what color they are. I guess that's the modern leftist's definition of egalitarianism.
(You know what's just ironic as hell?! As I type this, Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder and Lead" is playing here. "...his fist is big, but my gun's bigger...he'll find out when I pull the trigger..." And yes, they'd disarm the song's protagonist too, I'm sure...for teh childrenses, you know...)
But I digress. All of the above, of course, is assuming that Riley's bigotry is exposed in the media, and considering what I've seen the anti-liberty slant of the major Pennsylvania media, I'm betting they're not going to do a damned thing with any of these revelations, because ultimately the media and groups share the same goal. I guess we'll see what happens, but I won't be holding my breath.