Harold's Left:

For most Americans the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President signified the dawn of a new day in America... but for millions of others it was a call to arms. Despite the fledgling economy, in November of last year sales for handguns increased 46% and rifle sales increased an astounding 300%. What's driving this explosion in gun sales? Obama. More specifically the right-wing misinformation campaign against Obama propagated by the NRA and other sister organizations.
When the NRA needs to drum up conspiracy theories about a progressive president's stance on firearms they do what the right-wing so often does. They lie. Here is Factcheck.org's assessment of the NRA's Obama slander:

A National Rifle Association advertising campaign distorts Obama's position on gun control beyond recognition.

Much of what the NRA passes off as Obama's "10 Point Plan to 'Change' the Second Amendment" is actually contrary to what he has said throughout his campaign: that he "respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms" and "will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns."

The NRA, however, simply dismisses Obama's stated position as "rhetoric" and substitutes its own interpretation of his record as a secret "plan." Said an NRA spokesman: "We believe our facts."

Perhaps so, but believing something doesn't make it so. And we find the NRA has cherry-picked, twisted and misrepresented Obama's record to come up with a bogus "plan."

It's obvious that the NRA is not interested in silly things like facts, they are hell bent on giving their unanimously conservative base fuel to not only buy more guns, but to violently oppose a president who indeed supports the 2nd Amendment. Their campaign of misinformation against Obama is only indicative of a larger wave of right-wing extremism.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) which tracks right-wing extremist groups is reporting a sharp rise in militia groups and hate groups, both of which are armed to the teeth. Both of which are touting the modo "When the first amendment fails, refer to the second amendment". The implication being that Obama is trampling on the first amendment (not sure how, their logic is generally so convoluted I try not to acknowledge it as even half valid) and therefore deserves the fate of the second amendment. The important distinction between the militias in the 1990's and today is that the 90's militias were generally much more interested in anti-government, anti-tax rhetoric and much less interested in racial angst. Today, however, there seems to be more of a melding of the two movements. As the SPLC decribes it:

"A key difference this time is that the federal government — the entity that almost the entire radical right views as its primary enemy — is headed by a black man. That, coupled with high levels of non-white immigration and a decline in the percentage of whites overall in America, has helped to racialize the Patriot movement, which in the past was not primarily motivated by race hate"

The funny thing is that whenever you attempt to call these groups out for their treasonous hate speech, they hide behind the veil of the 2nd Amendment. They claim that they are merely expressing their birthright to carry a weapon. What this movement truly is, is the second awakening of the Nativist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I read a wonderful book a few years back called "America for the Americans" by Dale Knobel, and in it he details the history of xenophobic movements like the Know-Nothings and the Klu Klux Klan that were fostered in a time when people were attempting to define what it meant to be "truly" American. During that time in America, many of the purists thought America to be under assault by foreigners. The large influx of Catholics, Irish, and Japanese immigrants, along with the newfound freedom of black slaves, made a dangerous mix of extremism that lead to tons of violence in the early 20th century. Some of those aspects are analogous to today.

The evidence is everywhere. When a protester open carries a pistol to a presidential event and brings a sign that reads "the tree of liberty needs to be refreshed", he is there to innocently protest for the 2nd Amendment. Right? Wrong. He, and others like him, are making the statement that Obama is so tyrannical, so left-wing, so anti-American, that violence may be justified against him and anyone who supports him. There is seriously a contingent of people who believe that Obama has a secret plot to intrinsically change the American system and these people believe it is their patriotic duty to stop him. So while the rest of us are talking about actual real policy, they are talking about Kenyan birth certificates, Nazi brownshirts, and death panels. Problem is, the Republican Party has not denounced this behavior, they have even encouraged it.

The only way to truly curb this pandemic of extremism is for the Republican Party to totally denounce it. Those Republicans who we may disagree with but still respect as genuine statesmen and women (like... okay I can't actually think of any right now, get back to me after health care). If the Republican Party wants to be seen as a legitimate national party and not some fringe group that capitulates to the extreme right, then it must denounce these notions. Not only that, these extremists who hide behind the 2nd Amendment are dangerous to America. They are advocating the overthrow of a government that has taken over 225 years to create. This is the time for all of us to band together, Republicans and Democrats to say no to extremism. Unfortunately, given that the Republicans have gotten hijacked by neo-conservatives and hate-spewers like Glenn beck, and they have a base that seems to embrace large scale ignorance, it seems unlikely they will denounce extremism in the least.