Ladd Everitt is the man behind the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, the most extreme of the groups seeking to degrade and destroy Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. You may remember the CSGV as the organization recommending that gun control advocates “SWAT” open carriers (call 911 and report them as potential homicidal maniacs). As you might expect from a man who’s slightly unhinged on the subject of guns, someone who appeals directly to people who share his neuroses, Ladd goes through phases. After Newtown, he was all about . . .
NRA Veep Wayne LaPierre’s “good guy with a gun” pronouncement. As in “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Any time anyone without a prior criminal record shoots someone, Ladd’s Facebook links to the story and called the killer a “good guy with a gun,” complete with scare quotes.
For anyone who isn’t paranoid – a description that doesn’t apply to Ladd or his acolytes – anyone who murders someone isn’t “a good guy with a gun.” Ipso friggin’ facto. But Ladd wants people to believe that anyone who owns a gun is a potential bad guy. That’s his justification for disarming everyone.
Lately, the CSGV jefe’s gone on a new kick: gun owners are “degenerates.” In fact, the entire gun industry is filled with degenerates! Immoral degenerates! (Redundant much a lot?)
Clearly, Ladd believes that gun ownership is immoral, as in “conflicting with generally or traditionally held moral principles.” That’s not a particularly hard case to refute. The majority of Americans support gun rights. Support for gun rights has been an American tradition since it was founded. There. Done.
Except for this: the majority of gun owners are moral, law-abiding Americans.
I know, Ladd … they’re moral until they aren’t! But here’s the thing — the only people who consider gun owners degenerates are people who don’t know gun owners. As more and more people join the firearms fold (despite the CSGV’s best efforts), as more and more gun owners open carry, more and more people will see gun ownership its a feature, not a bug. Far from degenerating, American gun culture is re-generating.
Oh, and lying is immoral. Just so you know.
[h/t Travis Pike]