Laura Washington:

It looks like the petulant, gun-toting NRA stalwarts have won the first round.

I smell Reasoned Discourse^tm coming!

Last time, I used this space to ask where you stand on the issue of gun control. A torrent of e-mails later, it’s clear: Gun-control advocates were outgunned, four to one.

The gun lovers were legion, robust and vitriolic. Many of you told me to go places where the sun doesn’t shine and the temperature is way too hot. Yet, if you believe public opinion polls, that reaction is an anomaly. For instance, last April, ABC News polled adults nationwide, and asked: “Do you favor or oppose stricter gun control laws in this country?” Sixty-one percent favored them, 36 percent were opposed, and 3 percent were “unsure.”

CBS News asked, “In general, do you feel the laws covering the sale of handguns should be made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are now?” Two-thirds of respondents nationwide opted for “more strict.”

I don’t think you’re reading the same polls that I am. More:

What is the problem with the advocates of gun control? Why are their voices not being heard? They are consistently cowed and overmatched. Gun violence is out of control, yet the gun lovers are ascendant.

See, the gun controllers are righteous and pure. The fact their agenda is failing in the public arena must be the fault of the evil gun lobby.

Do you want to be standing in line for gas, popcorn or a gallon of milk and find yourself next to someone who’s packing heat?

Why not? When I’m in line, I am packing heat.

Still, despite the polls, it seems the gun control advocates have been outmatched. Abigail Spangler acknowledges as much. Spangler is the founder of ProtestEasyGuns.com, a Virginia-based group that has been spearheading a slew of anti-gun protests around the nation.

Gun control activists, she wrote me, “are TRYING HARD but they are seriously affected in state after state by lack of funding and contributions.” She recently met, she says, with the leader of Virginia’s only gun control group. “He says they may not even be able to afford any lobbyist at all soon in Virginia!”

And there it is. The begging. The idea doesn’t sell and they don’t know why. They just don’t understand why people aren’t passionate about restricting the law-abiding. And why people are passionate about their rights. They don’t grasp that their philosophy is a losing one that simply cannot stand to scrutiny. And since it is failing, they have to do it harder.

Posted in uncategorized on August 27th, 2007 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |