The gun lobby from another planet

It must be frustrating to be publicly known as a member of the National Rifle Association. You're likely to be vilified as a bloodthirsty reactionary even before you're pressured to answer for the comments of your president, Wayne LaPierre. On the defensive since last week's amoklauf in Florida, LaPierre is railing against an allegedly totalitarian "elite" whose goal is "to eliminate the Second Amendment and our firearms freedoms so they can eradicate all individual freedoms." With a psychopathic idiot like that as your spokesman, people probably feel justified in claiming that the NRA is stockpiling weapons for a mass slaughter of liberals and progressives, when you, ordinary Joe Cardcarrier, just want to be able to defend yourself. When people rail against guns or the idea of arming teachers or hiring school guards, you probably wonder: do they really want to be helpless? The answer is that they don't see themselves as helpless without guns because they think all power comes, contra Chairman Mao, not from  the barrel of a gun but from the will of the people. They believe that they can enact the evils of the world out of existence, because isn't that what democracy means? Moreover, they absolutely do not want to kill, don't want to imagine a circumstance in which they'd have to kill -- you, on the other hand, imagine that too easily -- and most likely would deny that anyone ever deserves death for anything, especially not at the hair-trigger hands of a private citizens. Deny their premises by appealing to reality, as you see it, and you're guilty of perpetuating an eternal cycle of violence, revenge, hatred and fear. You can't say, if that's how you think, that that's how the world is without them telling you that the world is that way only because you want it so. You probably feel justified in thinking that the kingdom of these naive fanatics is not of this world -- and you'd probably be right so long as they say another world is possible without ever willing the means -- so long as the one thing they don't understand is force. The funny thing about this, though you might not laugh, is that you probably call yourself a Christian, and you probably think they're not. But that's not what it looks like from here. Of course, I'm not a Christian, so what do I know -- and if you're not a Christian, either, pat yourself on the back. Whatever else you are, you're not a hypocrite.

Update: We've only learned today that there was an armed police officer detailed to the school and on the premises as the amoklauf began. He did nothing, waiting outside the building as the shooting went on for four crucial minutes, even though he was, presumably, trained to deal with such a situation. So much for a good guy with a gun, one might think, but no doubt the NRA will say this only proves that we need better guys with guns. They have to be out there somewhere, don't they?...