OK, It's Been 8 Days Since Newtown: Now Can We Talk About Gun Control?

The Newtown Connecticutt massacre is awful, obviously.  It's hard to think about what it means for the families involved, so I tend to turn off the human interest stories and coverage of funerals for six year olds- too tough to handle.

But this event seems to have struck a nerve and revived talk of gun control.  As my regular readers know, I believe the NRA has already achieved utter and total victory in the battle for gun control legislation.  I thought it was strange to see them in such utter hysterical overload over a possible Obama victory, as the president had given absolutely no indication that he was even thinking about introducing legislation to outlaw guns.  In my discussions with people I always mocked the paranoia of an organization that was so incredibly successful in implementing its agenda but still saw secret cabals around every corner plotting to take their guns.

But now I have to re-evaluate my mockery.  I still believe that Democrats had no secret plans to initiate gun laws, but it now looks possible that they may try to do so in light of Newtown.  I guess the NRA will claim that they were just waiting for their opportunity, but I don't think that's true.  Nevertheless, could there ever be a better argument for banning assault weapons than we just had eight days ago?

See this photo from Ta-Nehisi Coates:

Wow. The article accomanying it makes  a comparison between the NRA and pro-slavery organizations before the Civil War (quite a juxtaposition with my own comparison of the NRA to AIPAC!), saying that both had managed to succeed in their main goal, but then overreached leading to their disempowerment.  In America in the 1850s, those in power were not interested in taking on the slaveowners, and northerners were content to leave southerners alone.  But southerners kept insisting on slavery in the west, in new states, rights to have their slaves when traveling in the north, etc.  Then they opposed Douglas in the 1860 presidential elections because he wasn't pro-slavery enough for them, which swung the election to Lincoln.

Maybe the NRA has indeed overreached.  After all, most gun owners see no need for semi-automatic assault weapons, which have no hunting function.  Most sensible people understand that there's nothing wrong with background checks to limit guns getting into the hands of the mentally ill and criminals.  But the NRA is really tone-deaf around these issues.  And then to hear them come out with this yesterday:

We need to have every single school in America immediately deploy a protection program proven to work -- and by that I mean armed security
 

Methinks Wayne LaPierre has been watching too many Hollywood action movies.  I like those movies too, but I don't think they have lessons for us in real life. 

I've always been in favor of more gun control, but sanguine about ever getting them passed in the US in the near future.  Maybe that's going to change.  And don't worry, you right wing gun-nuts: there's still nobody coming to take your hunting rifles- that's never going to happen.