Heat

On a recent Real Time with Bill Maher (the one that concluded with the New Rules segment in which Maher mocked the immaturity of our culture's current obsession with superheroes and comic books), the conversation turned to a recurring topic: Maher's own very grown up and mature pastime of dope smoking.  In particular, he was getting exercised about where presidential contenders stand on the issue of decriminalization.  Moreover he was proposing a contrasting litmus test for Democratic candidates on the legality of pot with the long established sacrosanct Republican candidates' required stand on gun control:  to be for decriminalization Maher proposed should be as reflexively Democratic as being against gun control is Republican.  Maher was drawing a line between what the progressive left electorate is willing to defend and protect ownership of and the counterpart obsession of the right.  On the right, it's an as yet still legal implement that makes loud noises and big holes.  On the left, it's a not fully commercially legal consciousness-expanding vegetable.

It does not have to be this way.

Guns don't vote for republicans, people vote for republicans.  I modestly propose that the left stop doing to gun owners whenever there is a mass shooting what bigots do to muslims whenever there is an act of terrorism.  Don't force gun owners to choose sides.  There's nothing particularly right wing about gun ownership.  It's a passion.  It's a thrill.  It is and should be a right.  It is not unreasonable to believe guns to be the first thing a tyrant will try to take away from his subjects.  Gun ownership is an American prerogative to a greater extent than in most countries in the world.  Most gun owners practice it exceedingly responsibly.  You don't like comic books, pot or guns?  (I'm not particularly excited by any of them.)  Okay, don't purchase them. But learn to live and let live with our brothers and sisters who do.  Don't take it from me, take it from Michael Render, aka Bernie Sanders supporter Killer Mike.

If you dig deep enough you will find agreement among many gun owners that society should find ways to keep guns out of the hands of those who intend to do harm with them.   But too often the conversation is diverted by misplaced disrespect of what for many is merely an enthusiastically pursued hobby that is honestly come by and for others a way of life-- in essence shutting out expert voices from the conversation toward a real solution.  The results of this polarization speak for themselves.

I am not naive about the focus of many gun aficionados on over-zealous self-defense and undue antagonism toward perceived enemies, of whom many are among the natural allies of the most uncompromising gun control advocates on the left.  But I'd think we'd want fewer armed opponents, not more.  If anything we don't need to antagonize those who are beyond the pale.  Ideally, we should be finding common cause with those whose gun ownership is not tethered to regressive ideology.

This is not just a contrary stance.  I'm beginning to think it's a matter of survival.  There are forces that love to divide the people from each other.  These forces which comprise less than one tenth of one percent of humanity have vast resources and materials at their disposal.  Their wealth far surpasses that of the bottom half of humanity.  But what they do not have is number.  In order to secure their own place at the top of the heap, they have put a tremendous amount of treasure in the service of keeping the other 99.9% divided.  The conversation around certain issues is designed to drive wedges between us, but few issues are more heated in the United States than gun control.  In my view this is low hanging fruit in the effort to remove barriers between us.   It just needs to stop.  The elites long ago learned that it's better for them to have an army on their side.  (Pot smokers, not so much.)  When will the left wake up to this and stop doing the work of the masters for them by chasing the armed into the enemy's court?

Global warming, the product of a surprisingly small number of the 1%,  will make the planet unlivable for pot smokers, gun owners, comic book collectors and the rest of us.  It's time we band together to try to forestall the inevitable, hopefully indefinitely, until we can figure out how to reverse the effects of carbon monoxide and methane emissions.   In this battle, the best weapon is unity.