Maybe just maybe, politicians are responding to a genuine belief in the right to bear arms and are not just being bought off by the NRA.
In the wake of a mass shooting, the common case made by gun control groups is that most Americans support “common-sense” reform. They assert that the only thing standing in the way of “doing something” are Republicans who are either afraid of or bought off by the NRA. This belief is held so fiercely by many on the left that they portray the NRA as a bogeyman whose efforts to secure the right to bear arms almost single-handedly allows gun-related crimes to happen without response, mass shootings most of all.
In the wake of the recent rash of shootings, and with the NRA highly weakened, it has been the hope of some that this time was going to be different. These activists are now finding that 2nd amendment advocacy is far more than a pet activity engaged in by a deep-pocketed dark menace conniving against the common sentiment of the American people. It turns out Americans really do believe in their right to bear arms.
Even absent a strong and zealous NRA, the millions of law-abiding American gun owners are still not stirred by dishonest, uninformed, and half-baked ideas. Law-abiding gun owners don’t need the NRA to tell them that most of the pistols they recreate with, hunt with, and carry for self-protection hold more than ten rounds and that high-capacity magazine bans would impact most of the firearms they own. Law-abiding gun owners don’t need the NRA to tell them that the left’s image of the AR-15 as having no sporting, hunting, recreational, or self-defense purpose is divorced from reality because most of them own one and have used it for sporting, hunting, recreation, or self-defense. Law-abiding gun owners don’t need the NRA to tell them that these activists shouting “do something” have no knowledge of firearms, because gun owners are extremely knowledgeable of the firearms they own and use.
Mass shootings are terrible things. Americans should never consider them to be a price of liberty. Intellectually honest citizens should always be open to ideas that could curb the tide of these horrible atrocities. But if activists who want to see a dramatic reduction in the occurrence of these crimes really want to make an impact, they need to educate themselves on what they’re talking about. They need to bake their ideas fully and honestly present them. Above all, they need to come to grips with the reality that a significant majority of Americans really do believe their right to bear arms should not be infringed. Expecting resistance to fear-based, fever-swamp proposals to collapse because the NRA bogeyman is wounded insults millions of deeply principled Americans.