CONAN, What is Best in Life?

Brynn Tannehill: "The Grim Truth: The War on Guns is Lost"

That’s something that people who support gun control measures need to understand: The war is lost. There is no conceivable way for things to change for the better within the next 20 to 30 years, short of a national divorce. 

Erika D. Smith: "Trump and the NRA might be right about guns — and we mostly have ourselves to blame"

I began to realize that [Trump] just might be right in his political calculation. Because, far from losing, the NRA seems to be winning. In fact, it might already have won, polls be damned.

It's not the NRA, which was never (as Erika puts it) "a lobbying organization for gun manufacturers." It used to represent gun owners and enthusiasts, before it collapsed over internal corruption issues some years ago. The people moving the ball now are the Firearms Policy Coalition, Gun Owners of America, National Association for Gun Rights, and state-level organizations like the Virginia Citizen Defense League and Grass Roots North Carolina. But that's neither here nor there; she plainly doesn't know much about the issue.

She is convinced that her side has all the data, and the other side is motivated by mere emotion. Her facts aren't right, though; she claims that more guns equal more deaths, but in fact guns increased every year during America's 20+ year decline in violent crime. What caused the spike in homicides that we are currently experiencing (a factor she doesn't mention at all) was the George Floyd protests, which taught police that they were imperiled if they used deadly force in the line of duty, and subsequently taught America that the police couldn't be counted upon because they pulled back from such enforcement. 

People who never considered buying guns began buying them in great numbers, such that ammunition became scarce for several years running because so many more people needed it. Now it's not so bad, but that's not because demand has fallen: it's because new lines of production came online in response to the demand.

So you're right, Ms. Smith, in a way you don't know: you did do this. Black lives do matter, and police training and culture around guns has long needed to be re-examined. But this is on you. The NRA didn't do anything; they've been immersed in infighting for several years now. 

Her facts are regularly wrong, but that's expected; it's not 'about 25' states that have Constitutional Carry, it's a clean majority. There's a 3/4ths majority -- enough to propose and ratify a new Constitutional Amendment if necessary -- of states that recognize each others gun permits.

But I do want to quote another woman she encountered, because she's a woman after my own heart.

Patrice Johnson, one of the few Black people I spotted checking out the rifles and bins of bullets in the exhibit hall of the NRA convention, told me she carries a gun for self-defense. As founder of a motorcycle club, she has seen an uptick in men in cars and on motorcycles trying to assault women riders, sometimes attempting to run them off the road.

“I carry it on my person,” she told me, tapping her hip.

Havamal 38; Lk. 22:36. She's welcome at my table any time.