Kerby Anderson

Meredith Dake-O’Connor wrote about 6 Reasons Your Right-Wing Friend Isn’t Coming to Your Side on Gun Control. I hope others will use this sort of format to express why people aren’t convinced by many of the arguments put forward by progressives. Writing this may have been good therapy for Meredith, but it also served to explain to gun control proponents why so many do not accept their rhetoric. The strident activist won't be convinced, but perhaps others will see why many of the charges and criticisms don’t have any impact on Americans who support the Second Amendment. One of her reasons is the fact that “we rarely get to come to the conversation in good faith.” Name-calling isn’t exactly the best strategy to get someone to come to your point of view. I would love to ask some of the pundits and commentators if their goal is to convince someone or merely shame them and attack their character. Remember the Facebook comment by a CBS employee who was later fired? She wrote, “If they wouldn’t do anything when children were murdered (in Newtown) I have no hope that Repugs will ever do the right thing.” Another one of her reasons is the simple fact that “the loudest voices are often the most ignorant.” Whether you are arguing for gun control or any other governmental policy, you aren’t going to get very far if you get most of the details wrong. Also talking about gun laws in other countries is irrelevant to her. Often the studies cited are inconclusive. But there is a more important reason. The U.S. has the Second Amendment, and these countries do not consider possession of a firearm a constitutional right. Most gun owners believe that owning a firearm is a right. They are not going to be convinced otherwise by critics who call them heartless and uncaring. And they aren’t going to be persuaded by critics who don’t seem to know what they are talking about.