There was a story in GunFAIL LIV picked up from WSAZ in Huntington, WV. Two men were shot at long range with a rifle by a man from his home.
This incident has struck me deeply. Partially because I grew up in Huntington/Barboursville and partly because I can see my self going happily to a new piece of property I’ve just bought or rented. The dead men were planning to build on a lot they had just bought and went to look at it. A neighbor was confused and thought wrongly they were on his land and just killed them outright. No warning, no first aid, didn’t even call 911—just killed them.
It is affecting me as much as anything since Newtown where I could see my grandson in each of the dead kids. Feelings are important in the struggle for and against guns. The feelings of heartbreak and despair from those who have lost loved ones vs. the feelings of power and exhilaration of gun lovers. You can love guns or you can love people; but you have to be under a serious delusion to love both.
I hear the concrete arguments that cars, hammers, swimming pools, etc. kill more than guns. Or that guns make one safer. Or that being armed to the teeth is a God given constitutional right. These are baloney on a literal level; but, more than that, they are just ways of saying “I want what I want, and I don’t care about the consequences for anyone else.”