The other day a friend posted something on Facebook about school shootings and general gun crime in America and how we have to find a solution. Nothing was said about taking away peoples guns or anything, this was a pretty open ended “we must do something” post. The first reply was an instant hard-right “oh just take away law abiding citizens guns and take them from the police as well and see what happens!”. He was totally off the handle even though the post didn’t mention taking guns away from average responsible folks.
At this point I jumped in and suggested that let’s have a conversation about this and not talk gun control specifically but “what ideas do you have to make schools safer and prevent mass shootings”?
I expected the usual “arm teachers”, “arm everyone”, or “it’s a mental health issue” boilerplate responses. I would be ok with that, it’s at least getting a dialog going. One of the biggest issues in all this is the NRA crowd won’t even talk and immediately go to the extreme.
So I waited for a response, and waited… Nothing at all. I posted this question to a few other acquaintances who are pro-NRA/anti-guncontrol and all I got was crickets.
Initially I thought they didn’t have any ideas they wanted to put out there or they thought I’d attack their ideas. I wouldn’t, I just wanted to chat about it because both sides on this issue never talk.
I really stewed about the lack of response, frustrated, and pinged them again. Nothing. This was the point it really hit, and something I had been suspicious of was looking likely true. Hard-right gun folks do not care about school shootings or safety. It’s not even that they think there isn’t a solution, it’s that they think living in a world where kids get shot in their desks is perfectly acceptable as long as nobody interferes with their gunslinger fantasy.
Their point of view is that their guns are more important than a kid’s life and they won’t even consider opening a dialog about it. School shootings is the so-called “cost of business” in America.
Cameron Kasky was 100% right when he basically said that these folks are more concerned with gay wedding cakes than the lives of children.
Those few of you here who know me know I was on the other side of this issue in my youth. I was very libertarian and *very* much against gun control but I have have come around and broken free from the “gun cult”. From my experiences I really don’t think it’s possible to change many of these folks minds, even the slightest bit. Its a culture of fanaticism and fear.
