Kari Lake Entertains “Strapping on a Glock” As Answer to USA’s Problems
Picture by Marta Branco
Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake urged her supporters to “strap on a Glock,” a popular handgun, to prepare themselves for an “intense” election period ahead.
“The next six months is going to be intense,” Lake said during a rally Sunday in Mohave County. “We’re going to strap on our seatbelt. We’re going to put on our helmet — or your Kari Lake ball cap. We are going to put on the armor of God. And maybe strap on a Glock on the side of us just in case.”
The Republican candidate for the U. S. Senate, having previously lost an election for governor, sounds like a modern-day Wyatt Earp standing on Main St. in Dodge City calling out the bad guys. Is Lake only speaking in hyperbole or does she want her own Arizona version of Tombstone?
Lake has made similar remarks in the past. Nothing has ever come of her remarks. Last year, she told her supporters that if anyone wants to get to Trump, they have to get to her and 75 million Americans like her. “And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the N.R.A. (National Rifle Association),” she said. She did only say “card-carrying” but that does imply those 75 million are also packing “heat.” After all, Americans own more than 393 million guns. In 2024, according to www.americangunfacts.com, the number of firearms in America is likely over 466 million due to record breaking sales during the pandemic.
The likelihood Lake really is coming after liberals with an army of Glock-toting MAGA soldiers is probably an exaggeration. This should not take away the seriousness of her “loose” tongue. Dangerous words do often lead to dangerous actions as we learned on January 6. As the Epistle of James warns, “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell.”
Lake’s fiery words may push some fellow conservatives over the edge. The movie “Old Henry” suggests the unfolding theme of conservatives tired of being pushed around by liberals. “Old Henry” appears to be an ordinary farmer sweating out a living on an isolated farm. But there’s more to “Old Henry” than meets the eye. As the chief antagonist of the film says early one, “He doesn’t handle that pistol like a farmer.”
Al, Old Henry’s brother-in-law tries to warn the gang: “You have no idea the hell storm you’re about to let loose.”
Like William Munny in Clint Eastwood’s classic “Unforgiven,” Henry hasn’t outrun his past so much as sent it off stage. It’s not entirely departed from his life, but rather stands ready in the wings. The fictional story finally reveals “Old Henry” is actually Billy the Kid.
The problem with Lake and her fellow NRA members: They are paper warriors. There’s no Billy the Kid in their background. They are all hot air and bluff. They think playing with metaphors is a parlor game. Lake resembles Abraham Lincoln’s description of his political opponent as a rooster on dress parade “not worth a damn in a real fight.”
The movie successfully pulls of, as movie reviewer, Glen Kinney says, “Henry’s transformation from hangdog to deadeye with palpable conviction and credibility.”
Picture by isaac berrocal bravo
I’m calling Ms. Lake’s bluff. If she really thinks “strapping on a Glock” answers the bell to fix our political shitstorm, then I think she’s been listening to an excess of Toby Keith’s songs:
Grand pappy told my pappy “Back in my day son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he’d done”
Take all the rope in Texas find a tall oak tree
Round up all of them bad boys, hang them high in the street
For all the people to see
That justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys, you got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles, we’ll sing a victory tune
And we’ll all meet back at the local saloon
We’ll raise up our glasses against Evil forces singing
Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses
We got too many gangsters doing dirty deeds
Too much corruption and crime in the streets
It’s time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground
Send ’em all to their maker, and he’ll settle ’em down
You can bet He’ll set ’em down.
Ms. Lake will not be meeting her “boys” at the Victory Saloon. If she foments an insurrection, if she becomes a traitor to the USA, she will not be going to the U.S. Senate; she will be entering U. S. Federal Prison for the rest of her life.
The eventuality Lake prophesies hopefully makes her a false prophet. Her threatening rhetoric of “Glock-packing” citizens mowing down enemies in the street is not a scenario any sane American entertains. And even if her false prophecy came to pass, air and smoke cleared, she and her cronies will not have solved America’s political malaise. That’s not how democracy works.
Ms. Lake, “Put down your Glock and step away from the politics of destruction.”