E.J. Dionne: The gun supremacists’ folly

[billh58]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-the-gun-supremacists-folly/2014/04/27/6b4a1d90-cd99-11e3-a75e-463587891b57_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage

Have we gone stark raving mad?

The question is brought to mind by the gun law signed last week in Georgia by Gov. Nathan Deal. You might have thought that since the United States couldn’t possibly have more permissive firearms laws than it does now, nothing more could be done to coddle the gun lobby and tip the balance of our statutes away from law enforcement. Alas, you would be wrong.

The creativity of the National Rifle Association and other organizations devoted to establishing conditions in which every man, woman and child in our nation will have to be armed is awe-inspiring. Where imagination is concerned, the best absurdist artists and writers have nothing on the NRA. No wonder Stephen Colbert has decided to move on from the realm of satire. When parody becomes reality, the challenges facing even a comedian of his talents can become insurmountable.

- Snip -

The New York Times reported that in the 12 months after the Sandy Hook shootings, 39 laws were enacted tightening gun restrictions; 25 were passed by state governments under full Democratic control. Seventy laws were passed loosening gun restrictions, 49 of them in Republican-controlled states. The Wall Street Journal cited data showing that 21 states strengthened firearms restrictions in 2013 and 20 weakened them.

- Snip -

Once again showing that the gun lobby and the NRA are controlled by the right-wing neoconservatives in this country. To add just one more quote from the Dionne article above:

"Nowhere else in the world do the laws on firearms become the playthings of politicians and lobbyists intent on manufacturing cultural conflict. Nowhere else do elected officials turn the matter of taking a gun to church into a searing ideological question. But then, guns are not a religion in most countries."

The right-wing Second Amendment absolutists and gun fetishists have indeed made guns a form of religion in this country, and the United States is, sadly, the laughing stock of the rest of the world as a result. The world laughs as we kill 30,000 of our own, and injure over 100,000 each year due to obscene gun violence.

[DirkGently]

1. Yes. No one else thinks that guns = freedom.

That is not what the Second Amendment was about. It was not the way things were in the past. It is not the way other freedom-loving democracies think about weaponry. NO ONE thinks guns are supposed to be a hedge against government you don't like or cultural influences that frighten you. A religion has been created in our country for the express purpose of selling huge amounts of firearms. It is a fundamentalist religion, and it recognizes no moderation and brooks no dissent.

And already we are seeing what the practitioners envision for our future. You can stalk and harass a kid until he fights you, and shoot him. You can fight about cellphones in the theater, leave, get a gun, come back, and shoot the person if they shake their popcorn too "threateningly." Rap music too loud? Gun. You can get a bunch of friends together and draw down on federal law enforcement from sniper positions, and set up checkpoints, over some COWS.

We have a crazy cult of violence and death brewing here, and at some point we're going to need to do something about it.

Sooner would probably be better than later.

[billh58]

2. Like all fundamentalist religions, the underlying marketing

ploy of the extremist gun religion is instilling fear in the easily influenced. The right-wing gun lobby and the NRA excel in selling raw fear, and those who tend to vote against their own interests swallow it hook, line, and sinker.

Dionne's last paragraph in the linked article is very true:

Party on, guys. I can’t wait for you to figure out the ways in which even Georgia’s law is too restrictive. In the meantime, the nation’s unarmed majority might ponder how badly we have failed in asserting our own rights.