The Trace | Mother Jones/A Parr/AP/Guns & Ammo/FN Herstal USA
What is happening now, in other words, is a reminder that the argument about government tyranny was always a canard. Beneath it lurked what was really at stake, which was the right to assert control through force. Over and over, conservatives and Second Amendment stalwarts have claimed that right as their own, with Minneapolis being the latest example. The story they have told for decades is a binary one — good versus evil. In that framing, they are righteous and have but one job: Vanquish the enemy. Hold power. Save America.