What the library will do instead is close, because the library director quit and the library lost its insurance coverage. Now there’ll be no books of any kind for anyone to read, no reading programs for kids … no nothing. Watch video below.
The gunmen may have ties to the Redoubt Movement (see details here) , a far-right survivalist ideology that claims to be anti-racism but appears to embrace Christian Nationalist views (see details here).
Some may also be followers of QAnon, a bizarre conspiracy theory that claims “a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic sexual abusers of children operating a global child sex trafficking ring conspired against former U.S. President Donald Trump during his term in office” (see details here).
This is serious stuff, however silly the beliefs or conspiracy theories may be. People who believe they’re protecting children are likely predisposed to violence. And book banning has become a vehicle of hate against LGBQT people, who these potentially violent people (if they’re not violent, why do they take guns to library board meetings?) have been indoctrinated to believe are pedophiles — a threat to children.
America is often considered history’s greatest social experiment. It replaced autocracy with democracy, and iron-fisted rule with freedom. Today, conservatives argue the Founding Fathers included the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms as a safeguard against tyrannical government. Whatever the case may be, this much seems certain: They didn’t intend for armed citizens to dictate what others can read, or drive libraries out of communities altogether.