Since the coronavirus emerged, the most visible clashes over the stay-at-home orders meant to combat the virus’ spread have played out at state capitols, with armed men trying to rush the Michigan state house or protesters clashing with California Highway Patrol officers in Sacramento.
But last Saturday, the front lines of coronavirus culture wars began moving away from the epicenters of government and closer towards actual main street.
Last weekend, the Bad “S” Icehouse in the small Gulf Coast town of Oyster Creek, Texas, became the scene of one such confrontation after owner Shauntae Johnston was set to reopen in defiance of Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) executive order closing bars. Facing the possibility that sheriff’s deputies would shut Johnston down, gun owners from across the state headed to her establishment, several of them armed with rifles and sporting Hawaiian shirts along with their rifles—a symbol of the anti-government “Boogaloo” movement, which advocates for a second civil war.
