Paper short abstract:

From images of police handing self-proclaimed militia men bottled water to frame-by-frame analysis of bloody video, social media transformed a scared kid into a gun rights martyr. Beyond gun policy, the discourse about the Kenosha protest shootings imagines a new vernacular American identity.

Paper long abstract:

Late in August of 2020 as the world was gripped by the COVID19 pandemic, months of protests against police brutality and racism in the United States had drawn thousands out from quarantine. After a black man was shot in the back by police in a small industrial town deep in the US heartland, a Facebook group was set up to encourage individuals supportive of the police to come to Kenosha, Wisconsin and "help protect" private property. A 17-year old boy was among a small contingent of gun-rights advocates who arrived in the small town. Later that night, that boy would kill two individuals and seriously wound a third. None of those facts were ever in question because a huge amount of amateur video poured onto social media as soon as the events unfolded. From images of Kenosha police handing out bottled water to these self-proclaimed militia men to frame by frame analysis of grainy video of the moments before the first shooting, gun rights activists on social media immediately began transforming that boy from a untrained scared kid illegally possessing a firearm in public, to a cold blooded killer, to a gun rights martyr. Far more than just a discussion of firearm policy in the US, a close analysis of this social media discourse will demonstrate how the meaning, affect, and attitudes displayed in this discourse are as much about imagining an American national identity.