How the Left Should View America’s Gun Culture

An all-too common belief amongst gun-stroking conservatives is that Barack Obama would ram down their front doors moments after his inauguration and pry their firearms from their cold, dead fingers. What a crock of shit cooked to perfection by a deftly tuned far-right echo chamber. To be clear I’m not in the tank for Barack Obama. I couldn’t in good conscience endorse either major party. In saying that, consider the strength and size of the gun culture in America. No politician in their right (or left) mind would attempt anything resembling an anti-firearms stance. The backlash would be colossal.

Assuming Obama’s singular desire was to strip this nation’s gun owners of their most prized possessions he’d never try it, the amount of resistance he’d encounter wouldn’t be worth it. I truly feel a revolution would erupt.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. I mean it. Many leftists hang their heads ashamed their fellow countrymen indulge this passion. They see it as a weakness, citizens succumbing to a ghoulish amusement. I find it empowering.

We need to view this gun control issue in a different way. Every piece of legislation that hints at regulating or restricting the ownership or use of a firearm is met with criticism at every level. Now, imagine if that happened with healthcare. I don’t see why it couldn’t. The maintenance of quality, accessible medical attention effects everyone much more than gun control. This energy could also be extended to poverty. With less people living on subsistence wages crime would plummet. How about globalization and free trade? Of course it could. Laborers - that is to say most of us - could wrench back their outsourced jobs and prevent others from leaving the country simply by tightening Corporate loopholes and eliminating tax breaks. The point is to terrify politicians into compliance.

Nothing demoralizes the left more than the assumption that Americans have lost their fight. It’s obvious to me that’s just plain false. You need to know where to look and figure out a way to broaden that old-fashioned fervor enough to encompass other issues. Who knows maybe all these guns could even prove to be quite persuasive in the end .