Here’s the fundamental disconnect in the gun debate: People like me respond to the possibility of threats (mass shootings, assault, rape, home invasion) by arming themselves with the most effective tools at our disposal. Meanwhile, others respond by calling for gun control.
Gun control advocates think there’s this pernicious “gun culture” powered by the NRA and that it is the only thing keeping them from enacting “common sense” gun control. But the reality is, gun owners who think differently than they do are responding in a way that they have no interest in understanding.
This is why gun control arguments fail to sway most law-abiding gun owners. All their reasons for disarming Americans, or adding serious impediments to the ownership of certain firearms, are the same reasons why many Americans arm themselves.
When you have someone, like myself, who prepares for every possibility, including violence perpetrated against my family, telling me that I’m “up in the night” while at the same time arguing that my legal ownership of a gun makes society more dangerous doesn’t make any sense.
So, when calls for “common sense” gun control are opposed, don’t blame the NRA. Gun control advocates should blame their own unwillingness to engage with fellow Americans in good faith.