The Ugly Truth About The Gun Lobby-



A poster commented on my comment on Professor HCR's Letter, posted below, and I replied because I thought his response merited it. 

The Gun Lobby is an enemy force, a threat to the General Welfare, a destroyer of innocent life, and a mob style criminal conspiracy. 

But I'm not satisfied to simply outline a chronology of events which led us here. When tragedies happen, some self-reflection becomes appropriate.

So, here is his comment and my reply--. 

Lance Rosen 32% of Americans say they personally own a firearm according to the 2021 National Firearms Survey. This means that more than 81.4 million Americans own guns.  Less than 1 third of Americans own 393 million guns----- WHY WHY WHY. 

_______ because a good many of them are Christian fundamentalists who believe in a prophecied End Times conflict along lines of race, religion, and class. They are arming themselves for it. They believe their property is "God given" and are prepared to kill in order to defend it. 

Others are conditioned to violence by the devolution of our culture into Roman Empire style bloodsports and video entertainment, popular music and day to day life in the many pockets of inner city poverty. The racist right wing has stoked the violent fantasies of the Testosterone fueled super soldier and cowboy mythology to create a market for these weapons. 

They have, in a subtle way since the inauguration of Reagan, played upon the fears of the white male population with the themes of "Great Replacement Theory" before it even had that name. 

And lastly, we have had four wars since the collapse of the Soviet Union over a period of 31 years, in which the macho cult of weaponry has been institutionalized by this psyche destroying cycle of war violence. This glorification was begun during the Reagan era, and was flanked by the Hollywood "Rambo" series and "Red Dawn" types of hero/vigilante themes, designed to fuel adoloscent male sexual fantasies of heroism in combat and triumphalism.

There are multiple reasons, and obviously the gun lobby-engineered ease of access to these weapons has exacerbated it greatly. But our most intractable problem is not them, or cowardice by our elected officials. It is that we don't want to look into the mirror and take ownership of how we have accepted the degradation of our culture, like the proverbial frog boiling in the gradually heating pot of water. 

We have gotten used to this, and only react when it either hits us personally, or is so atrocious we can't hit the ignore button or swipe left. As for myself, I'll never, ever use the expression, "it is what it is".

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