[ad_1]
The first sign that he was coming was the squeal from a middle-aged woman sitting across the aisle in skintight red, white and blue pants and “U.S.A.” earrings.
Like thousands of others who had waited hours in line for a seat at the National Rifle Assn.’s annual Leadership Forum on Friday, she was craning her neck toward the stage as the syrupy lyrics of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” blared through speakers.
Then he appeared and told them exactly what they wanted to hear.
“With me at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, no one will lay a finger on your firearms,” former President Trump blathered to rapturous applause. “They want to take away your guns while throwing open the jailhouse doors and releasing bloodthirsty criminals into your communities.”
To listen to Trump — as I forced myself to do in Indianapolis, sitting among the Venn diagram of his supporters and NRA members — is to listen to a man who seems wholly detached from reality.
Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans, particularly those of us who reserve our patriotic outfits for the Fourth of July, support some form of additional gun control. In fact, a recent poll from Gallup found that dissatisfaction with the lax status quo is the highest its been in more than 20 years — and that was before a pair of mass shootings in Tennessee and Kentucky.
So one would think supporting policies that let Americans carry any type of gun, anywhere, at anytime would be a losing proposition for any politician, much less one who wants to be president.
And yet as I listened to Trump — and the parade of equally craven Oval Office hopefuls who preceded him onstage — I began to realize that he just might be right in his political calculation. Because, far from losing, the NRA seems to be winning. In fact, it might already have won, polls be damned.
Why would I believe such a thing?
It’s not because of the nonsense I heard longtime NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre spout last week, including that the Founding Fathers created the 2nd Amendment so that, from “the day you’re born,” Americans have the “God-given right” to carry a gun for self-defense that cannot be infringed upon.
Nor is it because, as former Vice President Mike Pence told the NRA faithful, “freedom is under attack,” and Americans are determined to not let the government take their guns. I’ll spare you the stories of people I know who believe this so fervently that they’ve buried boxes of semiautomatic rifles and ammunition in their backyards.
I believe it because of what I’ve seen and heard in liberal California over the past few years — and how similar it is to what I saw and heard at the NRA convention in the conservative state of Indiana last week.
Consider that the past three years have been the most profitable in modern history for gun manufacturers, even as the country has been plagued by mass shooting after mass shooting.
A pedestrian walks under a sign advertising the NRA convention, which started Friday and ends Sunday.
(Darron Cummings / Associated Press)
In 2020, with widespread unease over the pandemic, sales to new owners hit an all-time high of 21 million, according to the trade group National Shooting Sports Foundation, which tracks applications for background checks. In 2021, the industry recorded its second-biggest year with sales of 18.5 million. Last year, sales fell to 16.4 million, but that’s still more than the 13 million sold in 2019.
California, with our progressive politics and our stringent gun laws, was not exempt from this trend. Remember that line outside the Martin B. Retting gunshop in Culver City that snaked around the block in 2020? According to researchers at UC Davis, 110,000 people in the state bought a gun in response to the pandemic that year — roughly 47,000 of whom were first-time owners.
We now have more guns than people in this country. And we’re still buying more.
Despite what the NRA insists about needing guns to fend off a tyrannical government, living in a heavily armed society isn’t safe for anyone. As multiple studies have shown and old-fashioned common sense will tell you, more guns just means more guns are likely to get stolen and more people are likely to get shot, both deliberately and accidentally.
So it’s not at all surprising that deaths from firearms, both by homicide and, more often, by suicide, reached a record high in 2021, up 23% from 2019, before the pandemic and before we had so many guns floating around.
But there’s data and then there are feelings. And feeling like the only one without a gun in a heavily armed society doesn’t exactly seem safe either.
And so, 29% of Americans have purchased a gun to protect themselves or their families from gun violence, according to a recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Another 40% of Americans have taken a gun safety course or practiced shooting.
I’m in the latter group, and I’ve met plenty of people in the former group in Los Angeles and Indianapolis.
Patrice Johnson, one of the few Black people I spotted checking out the rifles and bins of bullets in the exhibit hall of the NRA convention, told me she carries a gun for self-defense. As founder of a motorcycle club, she has seen an uptick in men in cars and on motorcycles trying to assault female riders, sometimes by attempting to run them off the road.
“I carry it on my person,” she told me, tapping her hip.
A middle-aged woman named Lynne told me she keeps a double-pump shotgun with an extended clip behind her front door for home defense. She also bought one for her 92-year-old mother.
One of my Uber drivers told me that she carries a gun in her car when she drives at night. Her husband bought her pepper spray and a taser, but she didn’t feel that was enough.
Charles Harrison, a pastor at Barnes United Methodist Church, has been doing crime intervention work for almost 25 years as president of the Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition. When I lived here, I used to travel with him as he went from neighborhood to neighborhood, trying to prevent teenagers from carrying out retaliatory gang shootings.
These days, most of the 10-year-olds he encounters have guns, not just the teens. Adults are so scared that some in his congregation have started carrying guns in their purses and under their suit jackets to church on Sundays.
“They say, ‘Pastor, we know that you are for this nonviolence and that you are out there in the streets, trying to keep the peace,’” Harrison said. “‘But Pastor, I gotta protect myself.’”
I should note that Indiana’s governor, Eric Holcomb, signed a bill last year that eliminated the licensing requirement for a handgun, meaning most Hoosiers 18 and older can carry one in public without ever having received a background check. This horrifying idea, called “constitutional carry,” is now the law in about 25 states, thanks in large part to the NRA.
Not that the ability to carry a gun has resulted in less fear of being the victim of gun violence. It’s as real here as anywhere in the country, even if the data, again, don’t always justify people’s feelings.
Pence tapped into this with some old-fashioned fearmongering during the Leadership Forum: “All across the country, a crime wave is wreaking havoc in our largest Democrat-run cities. Left-wing district attorneys are refusing to prosecute criminals.”
It’s a sentence that could’ve been uttered just as easily by a resident of San Francisco after the killing of tech executive Bob Lee. Even liberals aren’t immune to this rhetoric about crime.
Of course, this was the NRA’s grand plan all along, this having America armed to the teeth. It’s a lobbying organization for gun manufacturers, after all. Under the veneer of patriotism is just naked greed.
Aside from the true believers, like the woman in the red, white and blue pants, I have to think most Americans know this by now. We were under no obligation to follow the NRA’s grand plan. LaPierre didn’t force us to buy more guns. Republicans didn’t make people start carrying sidearms to the mall like we’re sidling up to a bar in an old western.
Sure, the NRA has made it easier to do all of this. But I don’t think we can blame the gun lobby for the number of people in coastal California who, as CalMatters reported, are rushing to capitalize on last year’s Supreme Court ruling that made it easier to get a concealed carry license before state lawmakers can close the loophole.
We made these choices. And now it appears we’re stuck in a San Francisco-style “doom loop,” when the sheer number of guns owned by Americans, and the violence and death they cause, is prompting still more Americans to buy more guns, leading to more violence and death, and so on.
So as much as I applaud Gov. Gavin Newsom for taking on the NRA and its political lackeys in his so-called Campaign for Democracy, we’re going to have to fix a lot of this ourselves. Somehow we’re going to have to break our addiction to guns.
A line at the Martin B. Retting gun store in Culver City extends out the door and around the corner.
(Francine Orr / The Times)
We can’t just focus on the proliferation of “weapons of war” assault-style rifles either, though those do need to go.
Mass shootings, as horrible and as frequent as they are, still only account for a small fraction of all gun violence that occurs each year. Far more people die from handguns — exactly what Americans have been stockpiling for the last three years — and the victims are usually Black and brown, people who are increasingly getting lost in the partisan battle over firearms.
Indeed, while Trump was ranting and convention attendees were perusing booths of AR-15s downtown, at least three people were shot to death and two were injured in two predominantly Black neighborhoods of Indianapolis.
“We’re beyond trying to get guns off the street. There are too many of them out there,” Johnson told me, matter-of-factly. “All you can do is be prepared to protect yourself and be aware of your surroundings.”
God bless the U.S.A.
[ad_2]
Source link
Itís hard to come by well-informed people in this particular topic, but you sound like you know what youíre talking about! Thanks
Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in truth used to be a leisure account it.
Look advanced to more introduced agreeable from you!
By the way, how can we communicate?
This is really fascinating, You’re an excessively skilled blogger.
I have joined your rss feed and stay up for in quest of
more of your fantastic post. Also, I have shared your website in my social
networks
Hi there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that it’s
really informative. I’m gonna watch out for brussels. I’ll be grateful if you continue
this in future. A lot of people will be benefited from your writing.
Cheers!
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you
relied on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why throw away your
intelligence on just posting videos to your blog when you could
be giving us something enlightening to read?
I loved as much as you’ll receive carried out right here.
The sketch is attractive, your authored material stylish.
nonetheless, you command get bought an shakiness over that
you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come more formerly
again since exactly the same nearly a lot often inside
case you shield this hike.
I just like the helpful info you supply in your articles.
I’ll bookmark your blog and test again right here frequently.
I am rather sure I will be told plenty of new stuff right
right here! Best of luck for the next!
Hi there Dear, are you in fact visiting this web site on a regular basis, if so after that you will absolutely get pleasant experience.
Hi! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow
you if that would be okay. I’m definitely enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
This is a good tip particularly to those new to the blogosphere.
Brief but very precise information… Thank you for sharing this one.
A must read post!
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but
your sites really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark
your site to come back later on. Many thanks
Hi there i am kavin, its my first time to commenting
anywhere, when i read this post i thought i could also create comment
due to this good article.
Magnificent beat ! I would like to apprentice whilst you amend your
website, how can i subscribe for a weblog site? The account helped me a applicable deal.
I were a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered vivid transparent concept
Hello there! This is kind of off topic but I need some help from an established blog.
Is it tough to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal
but I can figure things out pretty quick. I’m thinking about setting up my own but I’m not sure where to
start. Do you have any tips or suggestions? With thanks
What’s up i am kavin, its my first occasion to commenting anyplace,
when i read this post i thought i could also make comment due to this
sensible paragraph.
This is really interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger.
I have joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of your excellent post.
Also, I have shared your site in my social networks!
May I simply just say what a comfort to uncover somebody that genuinely knows what they’re
discussing online. You certainly know how to bring a
problem to light and make it important. More people
have to read this and understand this side of the story.
I was surprised you’re not more popular given that you surely possess
the gift.
Keep on working, great job!
If some one wishes to be updated with most up-to-date technologies afterward he must be go to see
this website and be up to date every day.
Amazing! Its actually awesome paragraph, I have got much clear
idea about from this article.
We’re a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community.
Your site provided us with valuable info to work on. You have done an impressive job and our whole community will be thankful to you.
Somebody essentially assist to make significantly posts I’d state.
That is the first time I frequented your web page and thus far?
I surprised with the analysis you made to create this particular post extraordinary.
Wonderful job!
I have been exploring for a little for any high quality articles or
weblog posts on this kind of area . Exploring in Yahoo
I ultimately stumbled upon this site. Reading this info So i am glad to exhibit that
I’ve a very just right uncanny feeling I found out just what I needed.
I most surely will make sure to don?t omit this website and give it a glance
on a continuing basis.
Hmm it seems like your site ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it
up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog.
I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to everything.
Do you have any recommendations for inexperienced blog writers?
I’d certainly appreciate it.
It’s the best time to make a few plans for the future and it is time to be happy.
I have learn this post and if I may just I desire to recommend
you some fascinating issues or suggestions.
Maybe you can write next articles relating to
this article. I desire to learn more issues about it!
What’s up to every one, the contents present at this website are genuinely
amazing for people experience, well, keep
up the good work fellows.
Link exchange is nothing else but it is simply placing the other person’s website link on your page at appropriate place and
other person will also do similar for you.
This text is invaluable. Where can I find out more?
My programmer is trying to convince me to move to
.net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses.
But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using Movable-type
on a variety of websites for about a year and am anxious about switching to another platform.
I have heard very good things about blogengine.net.
Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content into it?
Any help would be really appreciated!
Hi everybody, here every one is sharing these know-how,
therefore it’s good to read this blog, and I used
to go to see this webpage daily.
Great blog here! Also your web site rather a lot up very fast!
What host are you the use of? Can I get your affiliate
link to your host? I desire my site loaded up as quickly as yours lol
This site was… how do I say it? Relevant!!
Finally I have found something that helped me. Many thanks!
Somebody essentially lend a hand to make seriously articles I’d
state. That is the very first time I frequented your web page and up to now?
I surprised with the analysis you made to make this actual put up amazing.
Fantastic process!
This piece of writing is really a nice one it assists new the web visitors,
who are wishing for blogging.
Hi there would you mind letting me know which webhost you’re using?
I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different internet browsers and I must say this blog
loads a lot quicker then most. Can you recommend
a good hosting provider at a reasonable price? Thanks, I appreciate it!
Beste online bron voor medicijnen zonder voorschrift
Hersil Komen-Waasten come acquistare farmaci a Gent in modo sicuro
қарақат аяулы ана минус, аяулы ана
қарақат скачать кімдердің кредиті кешіріледі 2023, кредит жабылатын адамдардың тізімі 2023 сары өзен өзені, сары
өзен күйі өнім химия, химия өнеркәсібі презентация
промышленные морозильные камеры
в алматы, холодильная камера алматы управление
образования, управление образования сайт прием металла актобе, медь цена
за кг в актобе ұлы нәубет дегеніміз не, нәубет толғауы
алтын пайдалы қазба, пайдалы қазбалар эссе форма бороды для вытянутого лица, гребенев пропедевтика читать
онлайн частные компании казахстана сауда дұғасы аудио, ақша
шақыратын дұға
жаңа өлең скачать 6 сынып әдебиет ктж, қмж әдебиет 7 сынып диапазоны лте, lte казахстан уақытты тиімді пайдалану
туралы мақал мәтелдер, өзім туралы мақал мәтелдер
развивающий центр для детей
от 1 года алматы, развивающий центр для детей
как открыть power bank i love kz, повербанк 10000 mah цена
как установить отцовство и подать на алименты, как установить отцовство если отец умер казахстан арабские
женские имена: современные, современные мусульманские имена
Wow, that’s what I was exploring for, what a material! present here at this
blog, thanks admin of this website.
азимут научных исследований: педагогика и психология,
журналы вак искусствоведение студент
атанған қаныш қандай қиындықтарға жолықты, қаныш сәтбаев қызықты мәліметтер 21 ғасырдағы қазақ қызы қандай болу керек, қазақ қыздарының ауыр тағдыры
нархоз факультеты и проходные баллы,
нархоз стипендия
Medikamente ohne Rezept in Spanien erhältlich Nihon Luruaco
Informations sur l’achat de médicaments en ligne
молитва неупиваемой чаше от пьянства видео проект по теме таро почему снятся автобусы
гадание на картах что выпало к чему снится что я ем мясо людей
криштиану роналду зодиак белгісі бүйректі тексеріп емдейтін дәрігер, бүйрек қай жүйеге жатады көміртектің
аллотропиялық түрі, аллотропиялық түр өзгерісі тән заттар дуэты смотреть онлайн, дуэты бьянка
и караулова смотреть
что значит сол на казахском, местоимения на казахском перевод әкесіз өмір қара түнек,
әкеге тақпақ туған күнге тыныс алу орталықтары, тыныс
алу орталығы қайда орналасқан
узнать участок по адресу, узнать свой избирательный участок по адресу алматы
eurasian resources group stock, eurasian resources group revenue жалпы дене шынықтыру реферат, дене шынықтыру эссе сапа менеджмент
жүйесі реферат, медициналық ұйымдардағы сапа менеджменті жүйесі даусы жоқ музыка, қазақша хит
әндер скачать mp3 бесплатно
робинзон крузо қазақша аудиокітап, робинзон крузо сұрақтар погода актобе на месяц, погода актобе на год газ 69 в казахстане, газ 69 в караганде kalifarniya –
роза скачать текст, раушан роза роза
текст