Guns: Urban vs Rural Voters – the Battleground

It’s hard to believe that after a constant domination of headlines of shootings and trials about shootings, as more Americans find a deadly end from rogue gunfire, guns can remotely be seen as a solution. Or you can look at the problem of gangs – who delight that assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and multiple-shot semi-automatic pistols can be found just about everywhere (a horn of plenty filled with weapons) – and self-righteous and self-appointed vigilantes and militia who believe that it is their mandate to correct our political system in whatever manner they, individually, believe it should be fixed… to stop the growth of a nation with a “majority of minorities.” They rail at Private Bradley Manning’s and Edward Snowden’s individual decisions to release state secrets against their government, but they seem to support individual decisions to keep arms to be used against their government.  Hypocrisy? Stop the change. Stop the erosion of rural values. Use guns if necessary.

It’s not about hunters, where proper licenses are obtained, or keeping weapons out of the hands of convicted felons and mentally-ill (where everyone agrees limitations are necessary), it is the notion that you need military-grade weapon systems in case you want to take down a political system with which you disagree. It is about misinterpreting the Second Amendment – avoiding dealing with the words “well regulated militias, being necessary for the security of a free state” entirely… and it is about a national organization that should be a gathering of gun hobbyists and legitimate hunters… into a rogue non-profit that actually supports the right of Americans to keep sophisticated weapons in case they want to overthrow the government.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin addressed several questions earlier this year to National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre. Durbin stated and asked: “Mr. LaPierre, I run into some of your members in Illinois and here's what they tell me, ‘Senator, you don't get the Second Amendment.’  Your NRA members say, ‘You just don't get it. It's not just about hunting. It's not just about sports. It's not just about shooting targets. It's not just about defending ourselves from criminals, as [gun-advocate – in the name of keeping women safe – Ms. Gayle] Trotter testified. ‘We need the firepower and the ability to protect ourselves from our government--from our government, from the police--if they knock on our doors and we need to fight back.’ Do you agree with that point of view?”  

LaPierre’s answer should send shivers down the backs of Americans who abhor violence and respect minority rights: “Senator, I think without any doubt, if you look at why our founding fathers put it there, they had lived under the tyranny of King George and they wanted to make sure that these free people in this new country would never be subjugated again and have to live under tyranny.” So if you don’t like the political direction of your country, pull out your assault weapons and start shooting. You have the approval from the highest levels of the NRA, and they seem to state that if you feel somewhat personally tyrannized, you have a constitutional right to try and overthrow your government. Wow!

As the political scene shifts from rural to urban values, elected officials in states where this transition is most pronounced – particularly states wracked with mass killings – are finding a steady reversal in the opinion of their constituents… from let anybody have any weapons they want to… “are we out of our minds?” And with such clear sentiments, the NRA killing machine is equally focused on ending the careers of any politicians’ suggesting gun control is necessary through recall elections.

Even with current the trial of the Aurora shooter (above; James Holmes is formally charged with 24 counts of first degree murder and 116 counts of attempted murder), the NRA and their minions have swung into action: “Now, after months of gathering signatures and skirmishing in court, gun activists in Colorado, with the support of the National Rifle Association, have forced [John Morse, a former police chief and president of the State Senate]  and a fellow Democrat, Senator Angela Giron, into recall elections. The recall effort is seen nationally as a test of whether politicians, largely Democrats, outside big cities and deep-blue coastal states can survive the political fallout of supporting stricter gun laws  

“‘Legislators should be scared,’ said Becky Mizel, chairwoman of the Republican Party in the old steel and railroad town of Pueblo, Ms. Giron’s home district. ‘We have a battle here.’” New York Times, July 28^th.  How many more innocents must die before these “legally exempt” indigenous terrorists feel the shame, accept the blame and wake up?

I’m Peter Dekom, and as most of the rest of the world suggests, in the United States rampant and effectively unregulated gun ownership is most certainly a very big problem.