How about intolerable sanctimoniousness? Consider some of the anti-gun organizations whose crap we have to deal with on a daily basis:
The Coalition To Stop Gun Violence
Stop Handgun Violence
Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence
Americans for Gun Safety
Now, anyone who keeps up with gun politics knows that every one of these organizations -- indeed, just about any organization with any variant of the term "gun violence" in its name -- is vehemently anti-gun. Yet here they are, with these laudable-sounding names, as if they're the only ones who want to see violence perpetrated with guns decrease. What kind of self-righteous horseshit is this? Do they really believe that the NRA, Gun Owners of America, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, etc., don't want to put an end to violence perpetrated with guns? Well, yes, of course, that's exactly what they believe, even if they don't say as much -- they show it every day in their demonization of guns and pro-gun organizations (and, by extension, the gun owners that belong to those organizations). Still, though, I find it infuriating that they can get away with such. If there's a better example of jumping on the moral high horse and riding it till it falls over from sheer exhaustion, then I have yet to see it. I have no doubt whatsoever that every single gun owner who's ever walked, would love to see gun-related violence decrease, and even end. It gets damned tiring to be implicitly blamed for all the evil in the world that's perpetrated with guns...and when you think about it, I wouldn't be surprised if the gun-grabbers out there would be content with pinning even more shit on us, simply because of the attitudes we hold not just in relation to guns but in relation to life in general. And "Americans for Gun Safety"??? Like your average gun owner isn't in favor of following the Four Cardinal Rules to the letter? I daresay if anyone has a vested interest in gun safety, it's people who actually handle loaded weapons all the time as opposed to the morons who cower in fear when the word "gun" is mentioned. I own guns. I shoot them every week without fail. I wish people didn't do bad things with them, but they do, and I'd like it if they didn't, but that's just how life is. People are going to do bad things with guns and everything else they can get their hands on. And damn these people for thinking that people like me having less access to firearms is going to make this world a less violent place. It's nooot, m'kay? Once again, Mr. Whittle:
The history of civilization shows time and time again how decent, sophisticated city dwellers amass wealth through cooperation and the division of labor -- only to be victimized by ruthless gangs of raping, looting cutthroats who couldn't make a fruit basket, sweeping down on them, murdering them and carting away the loot, to return a few years later, forever, ad infinitum. Vikings, Mongols, desperadoes of every stripe -- they are a cancer on humanity, but there they are and there they have always been.
Last clause of that last sentence, one more time: "There they are and there they have always been." And no amount of self-righteous moral preening, exploitation of personal tragedy (Sarah Brady, are you listening?) is going to change that.
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