By Robert B. Young, MD
Over time, we’ve seen changes in focus by the hoplophobic elements of society. Originally, it was all about banning handguns or at least “Handgun Control Inc.” The “assault weapon”, that is, the AR ban of 1994-2004 followed, with no discernible effect on crime, homicide, etc. Movement mutation continued, with groups dropping unpopular wording advocating bans and moving to claims of fighting pure “violence” and promoting gun “safety”.
Now they want to address the “root causes” of violence rather than just restricting legal gun ownership (while still advocating extending background checks while “not taking anyone’s guns”). Intervening within high-crime communities and with those at high risk of committing and becoming victims of violence is appropriate, though far more difficult than they may imagine (or let on).
Throughout, we’ve had no reason to believe that these anti-gun activists have had any real change of heart. Their “conversation” always comes around to the desirability of somehow limiting the rights of law-abiding American gun owners in some way, even if in “just” creating more hoops to jump through in order to purchase, keep or bear our arms.
However, there is a fundamental factor that will trump all their intentions, both open and disguised. That is us, the people (and voters) of democracies. As Andrew Breitbart famously said, “Politics follows culture” and culture is changing.
Much of this is due to the past two years of violence approved and applauded by “progressive” politicians who thought this would garner minority votes. Their groupthink about ethnicity blinded them to the reality that people of all ethnicities, communities and societies want crime stopped lest it hit them.
People are simultaneously realizing that they can’t count on being protected and must plan to do that for themselves. Thus the huge rise in gun purchases by more diverse buyers than ever, including women, minorities (especially African-American women) and self-described liberals. It’s been speculated that this increase in valuing self-protection with firearms may transfer to an increase in valuing Second Amendment rights—and now, that’s no longer speculation.
The Trafalgar Group, a non-partisan polling operation, just released a poll in which over 84% of respondents believed that “strict gun laws” either make no difference in or worsen the current surge in retail thefts. Less than 16% believed such laws can make this better.
In November, Quinnipiac found that 48% of those surveyed opposed stricter gun laws versus 47% who support them—following a trend beginning in 2015, now over the tipping point to plurality opposition. Gallup’s polling in November correlates, with a new low of only 52% of Americans caring that “laws covering the sale of firearms” should be stricter (down from a high of 64% in 2019, falling through 57% in 2020).
Meanwhile, ABC/Ipsos found that 66% of Americans disapprove of how President Biden is addressing gun violence (which could imply wanting more or less strict laws). Republicans’ opposition to more gun laws has strengthened, Democrats’ preference for more strict gun laws is lessening, predictably. But the most important political demographic—independents—have shifted dramatically in favor of, shall we say, individual independence on this issue.
In the latest National Firearms Survey published in July 2021, nearly one-third of respondents acknowledged owning guns, more than half of those carry them and almost one-third of them reported having to use them defensively in one or more of the estimated nearly 1.7 million episodes of self-defense. In 82% of these DGUs, it wasn’t necessary to fire. Almost 80% of these incidents occurred in the defender’s home or on their property, with the rest mostly occurring in public or at work, still a very substantial number.
NSSF also found that 49% more Hispanic Americans (no, none use “Latinx”) purchased firearms in 2020 than in 2019. With 40% of all gun purchases during the past 2 years coming from new gun owners, it’s no surprise that Hispanics (as well as African-Americans) are increasingly voting more for individual rights than for government “protection”. In Berkeley, California, of all places, the Latino Rifle Association has grown by hundreds of members since 2020. Its “leftists . . . socialists, progressives” members realize that “The police and the government aren’t taking care of me, so I have to do things on my own.”
Funny thing, that’s what conservatives have recognized for generations. And a much bigger organization, the National African-American Gun Association, has added tens of thousands of new members since 2016, accelerating (along with many local gun clubs oriented toward minorities) during the past 2 years.
Even our less demonstrative Anglophone cousins, Canadians and Kiwis, aren’t cooperating any more with government orders to turn in their newly banned guns than Americans have. Neither are turning in their formerly legal, acceptable firearms—only 160 of an estimated 100,000 affected firearms have been surrendered in Canada in a year and a half. In New Zealand, the 2019 ban of most repeating arms “has had no impact on a rise in gun crime and violence”, except for a steadily increasing rate of the offense of still possessing such firearms.
This is precisely the cultural change that precedes and triggers political change. Most Americans already knew that protecting individual rights is the uncompromisable basis of the success of American society and polity. Many others know that now and more are learning. While Donald Trump improved the Republican share of the Black and Hispanic votes (especially among men), this wasn’t about him or the party. It is about the importance of each person’s rights as an American.
Most expect that the Supreme Court will affirm the Second Amendment with a ruling in Bruen voiding New York City’s may- (= non-) issue handgun carry permitting, along with the eight other states that persist in that tyranny. The “progressive” left will keep caterwauling if they don’t get their way. But should the decision go otherwise, their wailing would be nothing compared to the anger of the majority who are now convinced that individual rights are more important than political correctness. And that would assuredly lead to even greater political change in favor of ensuring those rights.
To paraphrase St. George Tucker, “the true palladium of liberty” isn’t just “the right of self-defense.” The right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense and opposing tyranny is necessary to a free people in a free state. But it is a means to the goal, along with representative democracy lustily embraced, which is “to keep our republic” (h/t B. Franklin). The ultimate mark of liberty is individual autonomy, where the rights of the individual are placed above government’s privileges, which are only bestowed by us individuals.
DRGO Editor Robert B. Young, MD is a psychiatrist practicing in Pittsford, NY, an associate clinical professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
This article originally appeared at drgo.us and is reprinted here with permission.
Roots of violence is a religious/spiritual issue. No matter your background, you can choose for against an evil act.
Government’s responsibility is to punish or incarcerate those who are rooted in committing evil against their neighbors. Not to fix the reason they commit those acts.
This is where the religion of gun violence victim church of unholiness kicks, AKA totalitarian government. It’s a fraud.
FROMM MY COLD DEAD HAND!
Governments will be more than happy to oblige you on that.
Come and get it!
The political attempts to tackle the “root cause” will run right up to the commie wealth redistribution and manufactured “equity” line and end in a nonstop chorus of begging for handouts and blaming whitey.
Any real, substantive attempt to tackle the “root cause” will run straight into the woke wall and be shut down by the same gun control orgs.
None of them care about anything more than wealth and control. Like teachers unions.
I can tell it’s a losing position when in 2020 at the height of the shutdown/flatten the curve I went to a local gun shop to pick up a revolver I had ordered and there were 6 people in the shop asking how to get a license, how long does it take (a long long time in this blue state), can I put down a deposit on a handgun or rifle and come back later, etc. They were so desperate for a gun they would settle for just about anything. It was really something to see. This was in Massachusetts, you know the deep blue state where no one wants to buy a gun right? They were told that it’s easier to buy toothpaste than a gun and then they tried to buy a gun and learned a hard lesson. They waited until they felt they needed a weapon and the government apparatus was set up to put as many obstacles to ownership. Needless to say I picked up my revolver and smiled as I walked out the door with something in my hands rather than leaving empty handed.
exactly.
choose a caliber and bam! you’re done.
with toothpaste, you have to research the manufacturers for political leaning (colgate -> crest), look into abrasiveness levels (gels tend to be less so than pastes), decide if you want flouride (number seven in conspiracies after climate change and epstein), whether or not it’s american dental association approved (ipana is not, baking soda was but it’s status has changed), and the dispensing method (pump or tube, flippy cap or threaded).
it’s complicated- even the gels are different colors and to complicate matters even more there is a sparkle variant. and i’m not even touching on whitening levels.
guns are far easier, and you can always brush with hoppe’s #9.
but it is a lot harder to get a copy of michelle’s book than a ghost gun.
tsbhoa.p.jr:
“…and you can always brush with (H)oppe’s #9.”
Man oh man, the smell is bad enough; the taste must be bloody offal. (Snicker)
AR, I have a cousin that lives in Sharon, MA. He says it’s not so hard to navigate MA gun laws. I asked, “Compaired to where?” He recently bought a vacation home in NH and is moving his residence there. While keeping MA. Guess why? Taxes and firearms laws. I asked him to reconcile that thing about MA firearms laws. He said, “Well, it easier in NH.”
Than MA?
It’s easier on Gilligan’s Island.
The constitution is about individual rights, not group rights. If it violates the rights of one then it is illegal.
We need Nuremberg style trials for the fascist left because of their constant war on human and civil rights.
I’m hoping for a revival of the great public festivals of St. Tepes of the Pointy Stakes, but I’d settle for trials.
We can rest easy when 90% of the population rejects gun control as a religion. Short of that, we are losing the culture war regarding individually owned firearms.
“Short of that, we are losing the culture war regarding individually owned firearms.”
Really?
We have the greatest pro-gun propaganda machine working for us, with maybe a smidgen of anti-gun propaganda messaging, Hollywood.
That’s right, an industry beloved by the Leftist Scum. Where nearly all working in it are true believers that rarely, if ever, vote Conservative.
Now, why would they do that, you might ask?
Naked greed.
The movies with the highest box-office sales are action-adventure movies like John Wick and James Bond. Every time a young adult sees a gun being used to right a wrong, dispense actual justice, (not the ‘social justice’ variety,) and gets the girl in bed, is pure right-wing messaging they gobble up.
The same with the video game industry. Hugely popular first-person shooter games give them a taste for the real thing.
Oh, and it’s natural for kids to want to be the opposite of their parents. Those games exploit that. “Man, as soon as I’m 21, I’m buying me a gat”.
The kids are all right. And it’s happening right under their Marxist noses.
Every time gun control stands a serious chance of passing, they stampede to the gun counter and get it before it’s gone.
Gotta love it… 😉
“We have the greatest pro-gun propaganda machine working for us, with maybe a smidgen of anti-gun propaganda messaging, Hollywood.”
So long as there is political discussion over the meaning and validity of the Second Amendment, we are not winning.
“We have the greatest pro-gun propaganda machine working for us, with maybe a smidgen of anti-gun propaganda messaging, Hollywood.”
Poe’s Law.
“The movies with the highest box-office sales are action-adventure movies like John Wick and James Bond.”
Only a goof thinks this is “pro-gun propaganda”. Gun control advocates are NOT anti-gun. The are anti-YOU having a gun. It’s alright for them and the people of their choosing to have guns.
The reason why we have different gun rights groups, broken down by demographic in this country. Is because the National Rifle Association failed spectacularly in its primary mission.
And if it takes the Pink Pistols, the JPFO, or the Black Gun Owners Association, or whatever group, to get the word out. I’m happy with that. No one should be waiting for the NRA to get the word out.
Spot on, Chris T.
And very Libertarian of you too, btw.
ISWYDT.
Good shot, Peter!
“Is because the National Rifle Association failed spectacularly in its primary mission.”
The NRA is the driving force behind every single legal success fighting gun control for decades.
“The NRA is the driving force behind every single legal success fighting gun control for decades.”
So, all those law suits launched and won by other 2A defense organizations are led, funded and sustained by NRA?
The primary mission of NRA was marksmanship and safety training.
Sam, the gun rights case of MOST importance were won by the NRA.
“Attorney Alan Gura, in a 2003 filing, used the term “sham litigation” to describe the NRA’s attempts to have Parker (aka Heller) consolidated with its own case challenging the D.C. law. Gura also stated that “the NRA was adamant about not wanting the Supreme Court to hear the case”.[55] These concerns were based on NRA lawyers’ assessment that the justices at the time the case was filed might reach an unfavorable decision.[56] Cato Institute senior fellow Robert Levy, co-counsel to the Parker plaintiffs, has stated that the Parker plaintiffs “faced repeated attempts by the NRA to derail the litigation.”[57] He also stated that “The N.R.A.’s interference in this process set us back and almost killed the case. It was a very acrimonious relationship.”[6]” From Wikipedia.
The leadership of the NRA plays the game of special interest politics. They are much more likely to pursue what they think is a sure thing than to fight just because it is the right thing to do.
Claiming that the gungrabbers are losing the culture war is meaningless. Losing is a process, and it can be reversed.
Canada is currently in the process of tearing itself apart over masks. Masks! What do you think the US will do to itself over guns?
The war over guns won’t be over until one side or the other is completely destroyed.
“The war over guns won’t be over until one side or the other is completely destroyed.”
We are so blessed to live in a country that can host a civil war, and not be concerned that during that war other nations will take advantage, or the entire economic system of the world will collapse. Yes siree. We are blessed.
Let’s not even consider that the winner of said civil war will have to deal with re-building from the damage. After a few shots are fired, and the enemy vanquished, we can all go back to catching up on social media and streaming video.
I don’t believe there has ever been a serious anti-war movement in the United States. Right now the warmongering Democrat Party is sending soldiers to the former Eastern Bloc of Europe. As a threat to try to stop the Russians from invading the Ukraine???
It’s really amazing how the Democrats don’t believe in the National borders of the United States. They support open borders. And frankly so do the Libertarians. But the Democrats will risk a war with a nuclear armed Nation to protect the Ukraine?
And at the same time that Democrats will start a Civil War in this country. These folks are really power-mad.
Chris T
Ain’t that some crazy crap. They want our borders open, inviting invasion, even paying the invaders. Yet they send our sons and daughters to “protect” the borders of another country. I not even sure what to call that but I do know the cure for it and I’m afraid that it’s coming.
” I don’t believe there has ever been a serious anti-war movement in the United States ”
Well there was one a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But that was back in the 60s and 70s, and it vanished when the gubmint stopped drafting middle-class teenagers to feed the Vietnam war machine. Nothing has happened since.
And the very same Boomers doing their damnedest right now to get us into a stupid war on Russia’s border and gaslight Americans into fighting each other ALL protested the Vietnam war. They were never anti-war; they were only anti-America and pro-themselves.
“Let’s not even consider that the winner of said civil war will have to deal with re-building from the damage.”
Yeah, but the price of good real estate will suddenly be a lot more affordable… 😉
Has apparently gone WAY beyond “masks” into general philosophy of government. The normal people are in the streets and the progs are barricading their ivory towers
“This is precisely the cultural change that precedes and triggers political change.”
Umm, I am not totally convinced. Progressives are the primary driving force for civilian disarmament and they have little if any internal restraints on allowable tactics. (Progressives largely embrace the, “win by any means necessary,” philosophy.)
I have no doubt that Progressives will do everything they can to achieve civilian disarmament by any means necessary, including election fraud, blackmailing politicians, threatening politicians, and even orchestrating false-flag events to gin-up public support for civilian disarmament. And yet our side is intent on playing nice.
I have said it before: whoever is most committed and most ruthless will usually carry the day. We need more than a slim majority of the public opposing civilian disarmament to carry the day. As commenter Sam_I_Am stated above, we need a massive majority to ensure that we carry the day (and put a permanent end to civilian disarmament). And I don’t see that happening any time soon.
Yeah, we have a lot undecided yet, both in outstanding court cases, pending ATF regs changes, midterms, next presidential election, state and local governments, etc. It’s a good sign perhaps that people are deciding they want to defend themselves, but does it stop with sticking a revolver in the sock drawer with one box of ammo, or one shotgun in a closet? Will these people hold the politicians accountable who want to deny their freedom to have those very guns?
Even if they do, are they still ok with some “reasonable” gun control, like back ground checks, AWB? Are they lobbying their reps to remove silencers from the NFA restrictions, or supporting this like constitutional carry or campus carry? Do they even know they can legally own a silencer? Etc etc. Even around here it’s hard to get agreement on things like open carry or bump stocks.
In Florida we have a republican super majority and can’t even get pro-gun bills to a vote, though the republicans were happy to ban bump stocks, raise legal age, add red flags, etc, and they sure don’t seem to even want to undue any of that. The states are pretty split between those attacking gun rights and strengthening them.
So no real guarantees at this point, now is not the time to give up or think we have successfully turned the tide. There is still a lot to do, and time will tell if we will soon see the changes we desire.
“And yet our side is intent on playing nice.”
As Strych9 not long back adroitly noted, the hard left is skilled at modulating their political violence, dialing it up or down on a unified manner.
Our side tends to be all-or-nothing in that department… 🙁
You’re not on ‘our side’, you cowardly, limp wristed, fully vaccinated and boosted fool!
Hey, nameless, brainless troll!!
You haven’t been relevant since you were born. I bet your parents are proud – assuming they were ever introduced (other than that one time).
Go micturate up the cable. You are too stupid to insult.
“Our side tends to be all-or-nothing in that department…”
If “our side” includes the Republicrat elites and leadership, then the choice will be “nothing”.
The current generation of young leftists do not share their parents’ fear of firearms. Just the opposite. They embrace guns, even glorify them. While this is good for 2A rights, it is bad for society in general. Their reason for gun posession is not the same as ours.
Remember: that is the generation known for killing all their classmates if they can’t get a date or the cool kids don’t like them. A generation known for demanding everything they want, RIGHT NOW! A generation that has no conscience or shame (hence the smash & grab flash mobs, and shootouts in broad daylight).
We seem to be aligning ourselves with the devil in pursuit of greater numbers. Not sure that is something to cheer about.
not sure what you mean about this being a generational thing. average age of mass shooters is 35, with 30 percent of them over the age of 35. 98 percent are male. 61 percent are white.
I never used the term “mass shooter”. I did mention schools, so are you claiming the majority of student shooters are 35?
Your statistics are disingenuous. Those are numbers used by the anti-gun crowd. The people who count every urban drive-by as a “mass shooting” to pump up those figures, then dismiss the same incident when they want to assign race. I don’t need googled stats to tell me what I actually see and experience. We did not have daily shootouts in the streets for the previous 300 years, nor did we need to keep the family rifle locked in a safe. Yes, our current level of violence is a “generational thing”.
“Remember: that is the generation known for killing all their classmates if they can’t get a date or the cool kids don’t like them.”
Mass shootings have started as soon as they became possible. Degenerates exist in all generations. There’s nothing special about the younger generations. And let’s not forget the older generations educated the younger generations.
“A generation known for demanding everything they want, RIGHT NOW!”
That generation is called the boomer generation
“We seem to be aligning ourselves with the devil in pursuit of greater numbers. ”
In this country, even the devil has the right to keep and bear arms.
Sometimes the Devil is the lesser of two evils.
“Sometimes the Devil is the lesser of two evils.”
There ya’ go. Nicely done.
For far too long Gun Control zealots have run around selling their Gun Control agenda…an agenda that history confirms is rooted in racism and genocide. They have been sucessful simply because those supposedly fighting for Gun Rights failed to define Gun Control by its history of rot. Their failure allowed Gun Control zealots to organize and march around blaming the NRA and law abiding citizens following tragedies attributed to people who were known to be mentally deranged.
To take advantage of such tragedies and go after gun rights Gun Control zealots used the same slander and libel tactics nazis used to go after Jews or the military wing of the democRat Party known as the KKK used to build hate towards Black Americans.
The table is turning on pompous Gun Control zealots who looked down on law abiding Americans exercising a Constitutional Right. And telling the Truth About Gun Control has a whole lot to do with it.
“people of all ethnicities, communities and societies want crime stopped lest it hit them”
(shakes head) sure, they want crime against them stopped. crime against others, well, that’s just what they has to do.
the ghetto is already heavily armed. people don’t grow up just because they get armed.
The rights of individuals are placed above government privileges.
Hooo boy that’s rich, where did he come up with that?
Let’s not confuse real progress with “Big Sort”. Did any blue areas proactively expand carry rights or abolish rifle restriction by their own will?
Blue states will still have to be dragged kicking and screaming by the feds/scotus into respecting 2A.
Maine passed permitless carry and mostly voted for Biden. It’s rare but does happen. It can happen anywhere that gun control is a loser politically. Politicians are all about self-preservation. So the rise of the Berkeley Latino Gun Rights Association in CA is a good thing if it means those liberal gun owners vote against gun control policies. It has happened in the past (JFK was a member of the NRA; the Blank Panthers were armed and liberal) and no reason it can’t happen again. There’s no reason D’s have to keep gun control as a party platform. D’s could easily drop it.
And abandon their dreams of eventual totalitarian control of the population?
Dream on, brother.
“However, there is a fundamental factor that will trump all their intentions, both open and disguised. That is us, the people (and voters) of democracies”
America is not a “Democracy” America is a *Representative Constitutional Republic*
I am so damn tired of people saying it is a “Democracy”. Australia is a “democracy under UK rule. Think about it.
Rant Over.
” America is a *Representative Constitutional Republic ”
In theory only. Sad fact is, the Republic died quite some time ago. We are now an odd mix of oligarchy and kakistocracy.
I am so damn tired of people saying “Republic” every time someone says “Democracy”.
For those of us who didn’t know (including yours truly), this is from Wikipedia:
A kakistocracy (/kækɪˈstɒkrəsi/, /kækɪsˈtɒkrəsi/) is a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakistocracy
P.S. I urge the reader to read the Wikipedia article. It’s a short read, but very interesting.
UpInArms, The US is NOT a “democracy”. In a democracy, the people directly make the laws. The US is a Constitutional Republic. whether you like it or not.
“And a much bigger organization, the National African-American Gun Association…”
Did they give more than 10 seconds thought to the name of their new group?
I wonder what their jacket patches say?
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