Morning Briefing: Research Reveals Acceptance of 'Political Violence' Among Gun Owners
A new study found a significant numbers of gun owners are 'willing to engage in political violence, even to the extent of shooting a perceived opponent.'
Morning Briefing: Americans who own guns, recently bought guns, or regularly carry loaded guns are “willing to engage in political violence, even to the extent of shooting a perceived opponent,” according to a new study published by the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.
The study found that 42% of owners of assault-type rifles, 44% of recent gun purchasers, and 56% of those who carry loaded guns support the statement that “political violence could be justified.”
Last year, a survey found that “support for political violence has increased over the last two years,” and that 23% of Americans agree with the statement that “American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save the country,” according to a survey published by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).
The number of antisemitic incidents including “assault, vandalism and harassment in the U.S. hit a record high in 2023,” according to a new report published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
The American public identifies “Black Americans as a threat more than any other racial group,” and “anti-Black senses of threat are key drivers in support for violence across Americans,” according to a new study conducted by George Washington University and published in Perspectives in Politics.
Court documents related to the murder of two women in Oklahoma have “revealed the bizarre circumstances surrounding the tragedy,” as the alleged killers were reportedly members of the anti-government group “God’s Misfits.”
Radical Reports Monthly Hangout on Zoom ― With Special Guest: Dr. Jennifer Mercieca
This month, Radical Reports will host the monthly hangout on Zoom ― exclusively for all paid subscribers Radial Reports ― and will include a special guest: Dr. Jennifer Mercieca. The discussion will focus the far right’s fascist rhetoric, the language of politic violence, and how former president Donald Trump uses the demagogue’s playbook. Become a paid subscriber, and register to join the discussion on Wednesday, April 24th at 1:00pm EDT.
Must Reads
Hannah Gais writes that “the idea that ‘wokeness’ is the animating force behind modern American institutions seems perplexing given that a Republican president with a proclivity for hiring white nationalists encouraged an armed coup against the U.S. government just three years ago. Though the term ‘woke’ has a long history in Black racial justice circles, the right’s obsession with it began in 2020. Since then, conservatives’ use of the term has spun out to refer to a litany of grievances with the left. Today, the words ‘woke’ and ‘wokeness’ in conservative cultural and political commentary represent a form of rot threatening the integrity of American institutions. ‘Anti-woke’ rhetoric is now de rigueur for any Republican with national ambitions. Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville blamed teachers’ unions for spreading a ‘woke socialism agenda’ during this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington, D.C. Presidential primary candidate Nikki Haley said during the same event a year prior that ‘wokeness’ is ‘a virus more dangerous than any pandemic, hands down.’” [The Forum]
Shane Burley writes that “The National Justice Party (NJP) is toast… The NJP positioned itself to offer what few far right organizations were currently doing: be both politically militant and upfront, building interest around contemporary issues and using elections as a place either to potentially run candidates or push wedge issues often manipulated by white nationalists. The NJP came together under the control of several different people who came to prominence from the alt-right, such as hosts from the Right Stuff and Greg Conte, former collaborator with Richard Spencer’s National Policy Institute. They would create NJP chapters around the country, find issues that appealed to working-class white voters and show that they were willing to take positions the Republicans and Democrats were unwilling to, thus positioning themselves as a political vanguard fighting for white workers. But despite becoming one of the largest ‘post-alt-right’ white nationalist groups in the country after its 2020 launch, their recent collapse reveals that internal fractures are continuing to keep the modern white nationalist movement in disarray.” [TruthOut]
Peter Dreier writes that “being a white evangelical is as much a political identity as a religious one, noted Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University. Sixty percent of white evangelicals today believe that the Republican Party is friendly toward religion, but only 8 percent think that the Democratic Party is on the side of religion. This transformation has evolved since the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan embraced the evangelical movement and they embraced him, led by religious and political entrepreneurs like the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the Rev. Pat Robertson. According to Burge, white evangelicals are not ‘reluctant Republicans’ who need to be actively recruited to vote and to cast their ballots for GOP candidates. They are “thoroughly Republican.” This trend has intensified since Trump first ran for president in 2015, as white evangelicals increasingly identify with the MAGA movement and its apocalyptic views and racial resentments. This is borne out by numerous social science studies and survey data.” [The Nation]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.
Whew! It's tough to read this, but I'm grateful for your dedication to bringing this information to us.
What’s scary to me about this is that will these loose cannons just start randomly shooting people who they think might be Democrats. Is that where we’re headed?