Suicides account for the majority (about two thirds) of firearms-related deaths in America each year. So if you’re looking to “disarm hate” to prevent “gun violence,” self-hatred should be at the top of your agenda. Next up: gang-related homicides.
While gang bangers may not have a whole lot of love in their hearts, I’d say they suffer from “depraved indifference,” rather than outright hate. But you can’t fault members of the LGBTQ community for focusing on armed citizens who hate them.
As the Jewish son of a Holocaust survivor, I know hatred can lead to murder. But the idea that gun control can disarm murderous haters is dangerously preposterous. First, haters are really motivated and they live in a country with more than 300 million guns. Second, haters have rights, too. Strip them of their right to keep and bear arms without proof of criminality and everyone’s gun rights go bye-bye.
Leaving LGBTQ Americans (and the rest of us) disarmed against armed, motivated haters…how’s that working out?
But the question that The Human Rights Campaign is really asking — though they don’t realize it — is a good one. How do you stop people hating? Is that even possible? Do you know any reformed haters? And how do you deal with hate like, say, antis who consider gun owners knuckle-dragging homophobic racist insurrectionists?