Ignorance, Fear, Greed and Gun Control

I've been avoiding this as much as possible. Mainly because I've got a lot of work I need to get done and it's difficult enough for me to do it without writing blog posts about things that don't have anything to do with software development. I've also been avoiding this because I consider myself a rational person and somewhat of a pragmatist rather than an ideologue and the last month or so has left me feeling very lonely as fear, ignorance and greed have been rampaging across our national psyche.

I like guns. I would definitely consider myself a shooting enthusiast. I've done IDPA-style pistol competitions, I hunt upland birds as well as deer and would like to get into 3-gun shooting, long distance shooting and pretty much anything else that involves shooting a gun. I own more than a few firearms and feel connected to them the same way one might connect with their first car. I also know a lot about my guns. I know when they were manufactured, how to completely disassemble and then reassemble them. I know where and when they were designed and for the most part, who designed them. I know their limitations and I can tell when one is misbehaving or not performing like it should. I guess what I am trying to say is that I am educated about guns.

However, in a seemingly rare combination, I'm also educated about politics. I hold a bachelor's degree in Political Science and while I certainly don't have the "right" answer for any of the tough political questions facing the nation today I can think analytically about the information presented. And I have to admit the information I've been gleaning recently has been more and more disturbing as it is comes from both sides of the gun control debate.

To understand what is happening I want to introduce the different actors in our gun control drama. First you have the gun crowd. I suppose I belong to this group. These are the masses that enjoy and use guns. Second are the gun elite. These are the supposed representatives of the gun interests, and include gun manufactures, gun lobbies. Third there are the non-gun masses which includes most of the people in the US whose primary exposure to guns is through movies, tv, etc. Then there are the anti-gun folks who would like to see varying degrees of increased restrictions on guns. Finally there are Politicians.

This post is already too long and I plan on expounding on this to make several points but what I want to drive home right now is that the only common thread these groups share is a high degree of ignorance.