“Unstable people with powerful guns & an unhinged hatred for Hillary are listening to you, Mr Trump"

[kpete]

WHY GUN OWNERS SHOULD REJECT TRUMP’S CALL TO “SECOND AMENDMENT PEOPLE”



..........

As Trump’s words spread, Senator Chris Murphy, of Connecticut, where a troubled young man massacred twenty-six people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, took to Twitter. “This isn’t play,” he wrote. “Unstable people with powerful guns and an unhinged hatred for Hillary are listening to you, @realDonaldTrump.”

Many gun owners I know, especially those who are most passionate about defending the Second Amendment, take pride in reminding others that they are law-abiding. They are responsible for their conduct and for the safe handling and storage of a firearm; they try not to lose their tempers, and to argue their ideas with facts and civility. Trump, in this sense, is harming them; by suggesting that, to use his phrase, “Second Amendment people” would turn to violence because their favored candidate loses an election is an insult to gun owners everywhere. By feeding a caricature, Trump is effectively advancing the case of those who would seek to curtail access to guns. Truly protecting the Second Amendment means identifying those who are misusing it for their own political purposes.

We do not know if Trump’s remark actually endangered Clinton—or if the legal system will hold him responsible for flirting with that prospect. But it is already clear that, by impugning the character of Second Amendment believers, he is harming their cause.


MORE:
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-gun-owners-should-reject-trumps-call-to-second-amendment-people
https://twitter.com/lauraolin/status/763343143819472896

[angrychair]

1. I get the point of the New Yorker

With all due respect, they give most "second amendment people" way to much credit. In my experience anyone that rants about their "gun rights" are irrational, single issue demagogues that have no more courage than a frightened child and are no more rational than a starved and caged wild animal.
How and when such a pervasive need to be armed at all times has wormed its way into a small subset of our society and taken so much oxygen from the room is a bigger subject for another day.
What Trump did was dangerous and irrational but he is no more dangerous and irrational as the Republican Party that perfectly reflects themselves in his mirror.

[napkinz]

2. that's the whole problem, Trump doesn't listen to anyone but Trump

"I'm speaking with myself."