How All Events Do Conspire Against Us

I have a friend.  He is intelligent, friendly, and, when it comes to politics, conservative but reasonable and level-headed.  As often happens when preceded by a drink or two, the conversation turns to politics, society and other highfalutin’ topics.  With the recent Supreme Court decision in McDonald vs. City of Chicago effectively establishing the personal right to own a gun as a Constitutional right and an important civil liberty, the most recent conversations turned to guns.  Not the first time this has happened; much discussion ensued after President Obama’s election and the purported 1000% increase in the sales of assault weapons and other long guns in between his election and inauguration.  People get weird when it comes to guns.  I haven’t been able to explain it.  I’ve looked at both sides of the issue when it comes to guns and debated with proponents from both anti- and pro-gun camps and I’m still at an impasse.  I’ve just resorted to making jokes about many a man’s (and let’s face it, most gun nuts are men) fanaticism for guns, equivocating shooting a gun with having sex.  I mean, it makes sense in a way. Hold a gun and you hold a big metal dick. You control when to pull the trigger and when to stop.  Guns just seem to help relieve people’s insecurities and anxieties.  Or maybe relieve is the wrong word.  But guns certainly touch something inside people that other aspects of the law do not.  Any thoughts as to why?