What is it about the super-rich that predisposes so many of them to oppose the right to keep and bear arms? We all know about the mostly ineffectual efforts of the former mayor of New York City to convince Americans that guns are bad and the Second Amendment is outdated. Now it’s former Microsoft CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer along with a smattering of other tech titans stepping up to shovel money at supporters of Washington state’s effort to pass a universal background check law. Gates kicked in a perfunctory $50,000, but Ballmer’s ante’d up close to $600,000. As we saw this week in Milwaukee, billionaire big bucks don’t always translate into victory at the polls. Americans have a deep-seated independent streak and value their natural, civil, Constitutional right to armed self defense. May Gates and Ballmer be as successful in this effort as they were with Windows Vista.