The "Gun" Issue Before Americans Which We Are Still Avoiding, Even Today-- My Comment on Professor HCR's Letter This Morning




The "Gun" Issue Before Americans Which We Are Still Avoiding, Even Today--

My Comment on Professor HCR's Letter This Morning

I cancelled my NRA membership when they endorsed Trump. I no longer own a handgun either. I never liked their politics and only had a membership so I could avail myself of their gun safety course and trainers.  In some states a course certificate is required for a concealed carry permit which carries with it reciprocity in most states, but coming SCOTUS decisions will make concealed carry legal everywhere, and it will be the Wild West.

Americans have ramped up their gun purchases in the two years since the Pandemic to over 20 million per year. There are currently 140 guns per 100 Americans, which means that many are stockpiling. That is mostly legal purchases, not counting those through the black market.

Col. Larry Wilkerson in an interview with Bill Maher before the 2020 election was spelling out scenarios for what Trump might do if he lost and refused to leave office, and struck this ominous note--   "what will happen if Trump calls his base to the streets with their guns,” who he said “owns something like 60 to 70 percent of the 300-400 million guns in America.”

Trump supporters outgun the small arms of the US Military. And they call this the last line of defense of "liberty," or their twisted version of it. 

This is not to divert from the heartbreaking tragedy of this atrocity in Texas, which is justifiably blamed on the gun lobby.  Rather to highlight two strategic historical issues. One is the titanic hypocrisy of the so-called "pro-life" religious conservatives, who could not care less about people after they are born, and hold the perverse view that the Commandment against killing can be waived if they judge the victim as deserving of it. Second is that the heavily armed threat represented by Trump's base is the actual real reason there will never be a Federal criminal  indictment of Donald Trump. 

This factor is virtually never stated in any discussion about what Merrick Garland might or might not do. Pundits will say the DOJ is reticent to be seen as "politicized". That is basically sanitized double-talk. The mostly unspoken truth is that they are afraid of provoking an armed rebellion. That's why 2022 might be our last chance to democratically remedy our nation's ills through elections. 

Mass shootings are the marker for a failing political culture which has allowed the growth of a mass movement for fascism. It is in our hands how and whether this is reversed within our lifetimes. Now is not a time for memes and prayer emojis. It's time to campaign.

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