I’m so frustrated and I’m sad. You can do everything right you can turn out as many voters possible, you can bring the NRA to the weakest position in decades and still these politicians do not give a fuck.
it’s absolutely heartbreaking.
— David Hogg ???? (@davidhogg111) March 25, 2022
A recent tweet by David Hogg reveals the angst many gun control activists are feeling right now.
In another article, I covered the big losses Everytown and Moms Demand Action have taken in recent years. They brag on their “wins,” only to have most of it unravel like a sweater that gets a loose string stuck in the side of the dryer.
But I don’t want to be mean and poke more fun at them while celebrating their losses. Instead, let’s take a look at why they’re losing and some constructive things they can do with their time.
Gun Control Is Dead
As Hogg’s tweet makes clear, proponents of gun control have made the mistake of thinking that the NRA was the center of the gun rights movement, and that Wayne LaPierre was holding the whole thing up singlehandedly. With that false premise in mind, they set out to strike what they thought was the Death Star’s main reactor.
But, when the NRA was significantly weakened with various investigations swirling around the association and LaPierre, they found — to their dawning horror — that the gun rights movement didn’t blow up. That’s because the power of the opposition to limits on Second Amendment rights has never been with the NRA. It lies in the hands of tens of millions of law-abiding Americans who own and (increasingly) carry firearms.
Worse for them, it civilian gun ownership and opposition to gun control have only accelerated over the past two-plus years.
What the empire of civilian disarmament failed to realize is that, despite being generously funded by billionaires and cash-flush left wing foundations, the gun control movement — restricting the average citizen’s right to keep and bear arms — is on the ropes when it comes to public opinion.
This website has chronicled the shift in Americans’ attitudes . . .
- “Hispanics Turning Their Backs on Gun Control“
- “More Americans Trust the GOP on Gun Policy“
- “Polling Shows Gun Control Near the Bottom of Voters’ Wish List of Biden Priorities“
- “Gallup Poll: Support for Gun Control Laws Dropping in 2020“
Gun control advocates hoped that maybe someday, when the young people who support them get into government and more of us older gun-toting troglodytes die off, they’d finally get what they want and make the United States more like Europe. Or maybe even Australia. Alas, none of that has come to pass. And support for their anti-gun positions is plummeting…even among young people.
So while they would never admit it publicly, gun gun-grabbing community is gradually coming to realize that gun control has no real future. That’s gotta be depressing for them. On top of that, their ability to keep people from accessing firearms is disappearing faster than a display of affordably-priced ammo at your local retailer.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of 3D-printed guns, or as the gun-grabbers like to call them, “ghost guns.” At first, 3D-printed guns were fairly flimsy single-shot things that were potentially dangerous to fire. But the state of the art has progressed since then. A lot. Designers like Jstark (who died under suspicious circumstances) have come up with plans and files for guns that can be built without even needing parts that are regulated in places like Europe.
That leaves the very concept of gun control completely unworkable. Sure, police can theoretically catch a person with a homebuilt gun here and there and prosecute them after the fact. But they can no longer do anything to prevent people from obtaining firearms if they want them. Even in repressive societies like Burma, the military junta that runs the country can’t stop the signal.
Of course, we can’t expect all gun control advocates to come to this realization immediately. After all, the first stage of grief is denial. Some are moving through anger and bargaining, and our friend David, above, seems to be all the way to stage four. But there’s still a long way to go before a significant number of the gun control industry finally reaches acceptance.
There Are Alternatives To Gun Control
So to all of you civilian disarmament advocates out there…I feel your pain. Really I do.
Still, why should you listen to me? Well, I’m most of the way done with master’s degree in Emergency Management and Homeland Security and I’ve been through a police academy. So I understand public safety issues better than the average person.
I’m also not a Republican and on most issues, I’m not even what anyone would consider right wing. I’m a lesbian who writes for a popular electric car and clean energy website when I’m not writing here. So I’m not going to offer simplistic solutions and tell you something like “everyone just needs more Jesus in their lives” (although, I don’t think sincere worship is a bad thing at all).
Look, I understand that most of you red-shirted moms sincerely care about your communities and public safety. While I think you’re misguided and that some of the leaders of the gun control movement have authoritarian ulterior motives, the fundamental drive most of you feel to make the world a better place makes you a fundamentally good person. Don’t give that good part of you up or slide into depression just because you’ve lost the argument on gun control.
With getting gun control enacted becoming increasingly difficult, if not downright impossible, especially in the United States, it’s time to take that energy of yourse and direct it in more productive and less futile directions.
Community safety simply can’t hinge on passing more gun control laws. It’s just a fig leaf covering (but not actually addressing) the real problem: non-defensive violence. Banning guns while not addressing the root causes of violence is like putting a band-aid on a sucking chest wound and hoping the patient will get better.
You probably agree with me that poverty, racism, bigotry, employment discrimination, drug addiction, homelessness, untreated mental illness, a broken education system, the school-to-prison pipeline, prisons that warehouse people instead of rehabilitating them, the War on Drugs™, political divisiveness, rigged and gerrymandered elections, and many other unfair aspects of society and politics drive a significant portion of violence through desperation.
Instead of focusing your efforts on gun control, maybe it’s time to do what Putin should be doing right now and look for an offramp out of a losing conflict. Focus your efforts on doing things to address the real problems that drive people to commit non-defensive violence in your community. There’s so much work to be done on those issues and there is no shortage of organizations you can get involved with to work on them.
Or, do what I did and become a certified firearms instructor and teach people how to properly store, handle, and use guns so there are fewer accidents and they can safely defend themselves and their families
Don’t wait for the government to enact another gun control law. Even if it happens, it’s worse than useless. Instead, keep being a good person and help us work toward making the world a better place. For real.
