Is it just me or do you see a similarity in people that are fearful of guns and gun owners? I remember the rallies against I-676 (Washington State initiative to register handguns) where a few pro-676 people showed up and a couple years later attending a rally in Olympia (capital of Washington State). The anti-gun people just looked different. Here I see the same look. I want to say timid but that’s not quite it. I sense a weakness. Perhaps a lack of assertiveness. Here’s the picture:
I keep thinking “grass eaters”, “sheep”, and “prey”. Why is that? And is it something that could be changed with training? Would a few hours on the range and in the classroom convert them to “sheep dogs”? Would their appearances change such that other “sheep dogs” such as I, and the “wolves”, notice the difference?
Update: It’s fear. That’s what I see. I figured it out when I was in the shower this morning. It’s like they are in a German concentration camp and they are submitting a petition to the camp commander.
I also should have commented on the text of the article. They say Cincinnati should ban handguns like Morton Grove, IL. That ordinance was held up as constitutional. There’s just one problem. The Ohio Constitution has a provision for the right to keep and bear arms that IL doesn’t have. And of course, there is Just One Question for these fearful people.
Be sure to read the comments to this post. More enlightenment is awaiting you there.
This quote is illuminating.
“They need to hear that they are part of a community that treasures life, including them, and that we want to put our hand on their hand before they reach for a gun.”
This is the mindset that everyone is amenable to reason. People like Mr. Newman don’t believe in evil. They have no conception of the crack dealer with nothing behind his eyes; who would kill for a pair of tennis shoes.
But, since evil happens, and since he doesn’t believe in evil, it must be some external factor that is causing it. Thus, they have to blame the gun, Republicans, anything, because it can’t possibly be the evil inside of individual people. If they were to recognize this evil, then they would be forced to reassess their world view. To them, that would be the worst thing imaginable.
I sense the same collectivist spirit that wants to quash any sort of individualism, and everybody should just join hands for a few verses of Qum Bah Ya; beat on the big tom-tom; and maybe raise an organically grown red wine toast to Lenin.
It’s fear, certainly, and hatred, and a desperate desire to gain some form of control over a world in which they feel powerless and hopeless. All those feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness are someone else’s fault. Hence bitter hatred that they dare not reveal openly. Now with gun control, anti this, and anti that, they can convince themselves that they are doing good, acting out of compassion and concern for the state of the world (and what could possibly be a more noble enterprise?) when the reality is the exact opposite. Note their total silence after Wako. Not one of them march or carried a sign, or started a petition drive then.
In short, they’re disturbed, and they’re dangerous if given any political power.
The bottom line is, we’re not supposed to have ever been even slightly inconvenienced by these people. That’s why the Bill of Rights was written.