The Seattle Times tried to paint a picture of Seahawks fans wrestling with their American flags because of Trump, but the photos they ran told the real story—stadiums packed with Old Glory waving proudly from every corner. That disconnect isn’t just sloppy journalism; it’s a deliberate attempt to manufacture division where none exists, and the 2A community has seen this script before. When legacy outlets claim “mixed feelings” about patriotism, they’re usually signaling that the cultural ground is shifting against the values that keep the Second Amendment alive—individual responsibility, national pride, and the willingness to defend both.

For gun owners, this matters because the right to keep and bear arms has always been tied to unapologetic American identity. Every time a media outlet suggests that displaying the flag is now politically risky, they’re softening the ground for the next round of restrictions on everything from magazine capacity to the very idea that citizens should be armed and ready. The Seahawks photos prove the opposite: regular Americans still see the flag as a symbol worth celebrating, not a liability. That grassroots affirmation undercuts the narrative that patriotism is somehow controversial and reminds the 2A world that cultural pushback starts with refusing to let coastal papers define what it means to be proudly American.