Gun zealots deserve our pity, not our anger

[SecularMotion]

With the new year comes a new attitude toward gun zealots, who are not to be confused with responsible gun owners who understand we live in a society with rules and laws.

The zealots are back in a tizzy because President Obama is using executive action to tighten background checks. Many of them hate Obama, who disagrees with the convoluted logic that solving gun violence is best done by allowing every American to purchase weapons at whim, point them at the front door and dare anyone to try coming in.

The zealots have angered me in the past and I admit it. But with 2016 comes a new response.

I don't get angry at them. I pity them. Theirs must be a tough way to live.

http://www.masslive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/01/gun_zealots_deserve_our_pity_n.html

[liberal N proud]

1. Paranoia makes life tough to live

You are always afraid someone is coming for you or your things.

[Fast Walker 52]

2. good piece-- I agree 100%

[Logical]

3. Most gun owners are normal, many are paranoid nuts! Nt

[Lee-Lee]

4. Sigh. More smug urban liberal arrogant talk about gun owners

That may not be how the author intended it, but it sure seems that way. That will not be how many here see it.

But that is how talk like this is seen in most of the country outside urban centers.

And that will just keep alienating many rural moderates who own guns as a way of life and always have in most of rural and small town America.

This kind of crap is how you fail to win back house seats and lose swing states. It won't change the mind of one person who owns guns, it won't convince them to not see gun control as a serious issue come November. It plays well to the core urban liberal audience who already have their mind made up, while damaging efforts to win voters for Democrats everywhere else.

[Paladin]

5. I wouldn't offer any criticism of people who already have their minds made up, if I were you.

It's pretty obvious that you have your opinions fixed, and they're not going to change.

However, I do agree the article's notion of pity for gun zealots is bullshit.

[mac2766]

6. Just an opinion

I am a supporter of the 2nd amendment, but as it is written - "well regulated".

I absolutely agree with the article. Fear is the new hook to get people to tune into a radio show, or news channel. It used to be celebrity gossip... I began turning off the news when all they wanted to talk about was Brittany Spears... I long for those days now - a much simpler time. I think that the surge in gun ownership is directly related to the fear that people have for their safety. The second-most reason would be have to be bravado. When I was young, we bought a cool car. Dangerous enough, but not nearly as dangerous as a loaded weapon lying on a table in a living room full of visitors. (an actual event in my recent past)

If any American wishes to own a gun, I say more power to them, but... BUT... with some regulation. While I agree that it is the right of an American to own a gun, it is also every other American's right to be protected from a person or people who might not posses the mental capacity that it takes to understand the seriousness of gun ownership.

Extending background checks does not equate to taking guns away from American citizens en-mass. It might simply be an act of common sense. Something that I'm afraid we're lacking in America today.

[Iggo]

7. Point and laugh.

[LannyDeVaney]

8. I don't pity them at all ...

I pity the dead children, whose graves have become dance floors for the gun-sucking nut jobs.