Why is CSGV doing this?

Some of you have to be asking yourself, why is CSGV doing what they are doing? Sure, many of you are content with the explanation that CSGV opposes guns, so that motivates their animus towards us. What is more interesting than their attacks is their underlying motivations.

On the recommendation of Kurt Hoffman, I picked up a copy of what amounts to the CSGV manifesto, Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea. Don’t worry, though. Also at the recommendation of Kurt, I used interlibrary loan. That way none of my money ends up in the hands of CSGV. It was a tough read, mostly because it was incoherent. What leaps out right up front is this quote

Recognize Insurrectionism as a threat to the entire progressive movement.  Too many political progressives assume that the gun rights movement can be co-opted or simply ignored.  Progressives fail to understand that the Insurrectionist idea is part and parcel of a broader reactionary worldview.  Unless progressives recognize that the Insurrectionist premise of the modern gun rights movement is fundamentally hostile to the progressive project and its values, the "conservative" movement will use gun rights as a building block for organizing and propagandizing.

CSGV rather loosely defines “insurrectionism” as the belief that anyone should be allowed to have any gun anywhere. (Here’s video of a historian slapping Josh Horowitz around for his silly definition) What they really mean is that most of us believe

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

In their quote above, CSGV gives away their game. CSGV isn’t interested in guns and gun ownership per se, they are concerned with the idea that people like us might tell people like them to leave us alone, and we might use our guns to enforce that demand. CSGV’s leadership wants to remake the US into a Communist Socialist Democrat Progressive country. They fear that we may not be interested in their Communist Socialist Democrat Progressive message, and we might even shoot at them when they come and demand that we get onboard. We’ve all been told by wild eyed gun rights fanatics that gun control is just one of the steps in imposing Communism. We all laughed and ignored that warning. Now read that CSGV quote again. Not so silly anymore, is it?

Be sure to read Kurt Hoffman’s original book review in three parts

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Know your enemy. Learn what motivates these guys, or you’ll be fighting the wrong battle. We’re focusing on the guns. They’re focusing on advancing Communism Socialism Democrat Progressivism. They have a plan. It’s up to us to thwart that plan.