Guns, Fear and Loathing

 

On this second anniversary of Trump's violent coup, it’s time again to take a fun-filled dive into the fetid dark pool of the American radical Right belief system, based on the twin pillars of fear and loathing stoked by lies.

After years of observing political and social discourse I’ve learned educated and intellectually curious liberals and progressives generally understand opinions should be based on facts. They know logic only functions when based on evidence and reason.

On the Right, fear motivates and sells. Facts and reasoning are boring, and are rejected out of hand as useless for their agenda.

We understand our fellow Americans on the Right tend to gravitate directly to emotionally reactive beliefs, instilled by propagandists skilled at forming and manipulating those emotional responses. This is especially true with emotionally charged wedge issues like God, guns, abortion, LGBTQ issues, race, etc.

In their realm fear is cultivated, not compassion. To be conservative is to be guided by manufactured emotional response. When fear and anger converge hate is the product. It is intentional, of course. Hysteria is the leverage for persuasion, not logic.

This reactionary hysteria is vividly conveyed by our old blogger buddy Darrell at his post “Gun Logic for Beginners”.

As my opinions and information are banned by Darrell, I’ll take the liberty to respond here with some facts, logic and sane questions for rational people. I have no doubt the more authoritarian personalities will be annoyed and dismissive. It is their way.

I’ll briefly discuss each of his nine points of “gun logic”.

1 - Eleven teens die each day because of texting while driving. Maybe it's time to raise the age of Smart Phone ownership to 21. 

(I may be a little dense, but I see no logic, or relevance to guns, in his first point of “gun logic”. Or is he suggesting we raise the age for firearm purchases to 21? I agree texting while driving is a problem. It’s is as dangerous as drunk driving. But not for children. The CDC publishes data on the leading causes of death among different demographic groups, providing the most reliable data. In 2020, the leading cause of death among children ages one through 18 involved a firearm. There were 3,219 such deaths in 2020, followed by motor vehicle traffic deaths, of which there were 2,882.)

2 - If gun control laws actually worked, Chicago would be Mayberry, USA.

(Um, OK. Meanwhile far from Chicago, a family of three adults and five children were found shot to death Wednesday inside a home in rural southwest Utah. How likely was this done by a “legal gun owner”, until he wasn’t? 

Now for some logical fact-based points:

We know most guns connected to crimes in Chicago come from Indiana, next door. Many countries with sane gun control have significantly lower murder rates. The average firearm suicide rate in Australia in the seven years after the National Firearms Agreement declined by 57 percent compared with the seven years prior. The average firearm homicide rate went down by about 42 percent. In much of the US “All lives matter” but guns matter more.

From the Violence Policy Center:

“States with Weak Gun Laws and Higher Gun Ownership Lead Nation in Gun Deaths. More than 45,000 Americans Killed by Gunfire in 2020, the Highest Gun Death Toll on Record.

Mississippi, Wyoming, Louisiana, Alaska, Missouri, and Alabama Have Highest Gun Death Rates in the Nation; Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and New York Have Lowest Gun Death Rates in the Nation.”

In the US, more guns in a society means more people die from them. If firearms everywhere made us safer, we would be the safest place in the world.

Paradoxically the most heavily armed among us FEEL less safe. The reason is someone stands to gain politically and economically from their fears. Therefore those who profit from guns are the only voices they will hear.)

3 - The Second Amendment makes more women equal than the entire feminist movement.

(So women need to be armed to get equal treatment? Sadly, no. It’s like saying “Driving while Black” and housing discrimination won’t happen if Black drivers and home purchasers are armed. How many women get equal pay and employment opportunities, reproductive freedom, and safety from domestic abuse by brandishing a firearm?)

4 - Legal gun owners have 300 million guns and probably a trillion rounds of ammo. Seriously, folks, if we were the problem, you'd know it.

(Legal gun owners stormed the Capitol, terrorized Congress and beat cops. Legal guns can quickly become lethal weapons when the legal owner becomes sufficiently enraged or frightened.)

5 - When JFK was killed, nobody blamed the rifle. 

(But the rifle was used to kill JFK. Trump blamed Ted Cruz’s father, but many of our delicate and anxious firearm lovers voted for him anyway.)

6 - The NRA (National Rifle Association) murders 0 people and receives ($$$$ 0) nothing in government funds. Planned Parenthood kills 350,000 babies every year and receives $500,000,000 in tax dollars annually.

Logical fact and point 1: (The NRA is a pro-Trump Russian asset. It reported receiving $2,512.85 in contributions and membership dues “from people associated with Russian addresses” or known Russian nationals living in the United States from 2015 to the present. Nobody who believes background checks to be important would logically support the NRA. They do it out of fear, of course.)

Logical fact and point 2: (An embryo can be frozen and revived. Real babies cannot be frozen and revived. Therefore logically, an embryo is NOT a baby.)

7 - I have no problem with vigorous background checks when it comes to firearms. While we're at it, let's do the same when it comes to immigration, Voter I.D., and candidates running for office.

(Having background checks is the reasonable position of most Americans, as well as permits, age restrictions, and training requirements. The vast majority would like to prohibit the manufacturers from selling AR-15 style weapons to the public. The majority does not want universal confiscation, just reasonable restrictions. If you support the NRA, then your money is going to those who will never allow those measures. They have a conditioned response that programs them to ignore what most Americans say, and see only “Democrat/Socialist gun-grabbers”. 

And why would background checks on politicians matter with the radical Right? Trump voters were OK with his admission of criminal sexual conduct and numerous allegations of assault and rape. They were OK with his paying off a porn star. They were OK with his racist birtherism. They are STILL OK with his violent coup and other criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election. So what’s their reason for wanting background checks anyway?)

8 - Folks keep talking about another Civil War. One side knows how to shoot and probably has a trillion rounds. The other side has crying closets and is confused about which bathroom to use. How do you think that would work out?

(Only one side is waving Confederate flags and threatening civil war. Only one side is setting the stage for armed violence against fellow Americans. The demeaning tone of  this “logic” is thinly cloaked in demonizing hate and stereotyping bigotry. It would be mass murder by radical white nationalist extremists. All of this disturbingly echoes the hate rhetoric of Hitler's Nazis. 

I’m among many Democratic voters who has firearms, and not “crying in closet”s and knowing “what bathroom to use”. The “folks” talking about Civil War are the MTG’s, Boebert and her “Today is 1776!” and radical Right NRA militia nuts...and Darrell. They fantasize excuses to shoot people they hate; Democrats and people who vote for Democrats, and people who disagree with them.

In their radical indoctrination they are programmed to believe every lie about those who disagree with them. They will believe the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. Americans who don’t believe the lie are either RINO’s or “commie/socialists who hate America”. Another indication of their indoctrinated paranoia is the contrast we see between their “logic” based on fear and resentment, and that of the firearm owners who don’t share their paranoia. I know of no Democratic voter/gun owner who fears jack-booted police crashing into their home to confiscate their firearms. I know of no Democratic voter/gun owner calling for Civil War, and posturing about how mighty and dominant they are over others. None. I can recall only the “baseball shooter” as an exception to mass shootings by enraged racists, bigots, militia nuts, or otherwise Republican sympathizers.)

9   A man who left 300,000 guns for the Taliban is lecturing us on gun control and lives in the White house.

(Trump was the man who surrendered to the Taliban and set the date for withdrawal, only to leave it for another person to deal with. AND he agreed on the release of 5,000 Taliban before withdrawal. They thank HIM, not Biden.)

Clearly Darrell’s “logic” is almost entirely based on radical Right indoctrinated hysteria and lies. He shares the same radicalization as millions of other duped and deceived Americans. Most of the civilized world will acknowledge the wisdom and logic of basic gun regulation. 

Those who are indoctrinated with gun hysteria and paranoia over election lies, or without compassion will never accept this logic. They have no incentive to understand it, as their fear and loathing are being stoked to the point of the civil war they are being groomed to crave.