More encouraging signs:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/body-armor-tactical-gear-becoming-161633572.htmlBody armor manufacturers are seeing a spike in sales amid recent incidents of gun violence in the US, NPR reported. Increasingly, they're seeing purchases from leftists and progressives of color who "want to have that protection," a gun rights advocate said.
"It's becoming popular among leftist progressive people of color," P.B Gomez the founder of the Latino Rifle Association told NPR, adding that they "want to protect themselves at protests when they're in situations where they might be confronted by far-right agitators."
Good! (Next, stop associating leftism with progressivism.)
In the wake of racially motivated attacks like the Buffalo, New York, supermarket shooting, which targeted a predominantly Black community, groups like the Latino Rifle Association have argued that body armor is "valid protection from hate crimes."
"If you are POC or LGBTQ+, highlight the fact that body armor is valid protection from hate crimes, you don't appreciate New York's attempt to make you vulnerable," the Latino Rifle Association tweeted last month.
In reality, however, body armour is not intended to protect peaceful people going about daily activities. It is intended to protect active combatants who expect return fire. Therefore while I absolutely support purchasing body armour, I advice using it the way it was intended: put it on prior to launching attacks on rightist gatherings.
"We often heard the good guy with the gun can stop the bad guy with the gun, but in this case, the bad guy with the gun had body armor on and the retired police officer, Officer (Aaron) Salter, could not stop him," New York State Senator Sean Ryan, who is in favor of the bill, told Spectrum News 1.
We must become the good guy with the gun and the body armour so that the bad guy with the gun cannot stop us!
Justin, the owner of a co-op that designs and sells firearm accessories with left-leaning views, told Insider a rise in right-wing violence "is forcing people to make the choice to have to protect themselves."
You will not be truly protected until all rightist bloodlines have been eliminated.