Alright, guys, listen up. I’ve done 20 years of arguing usually the pro-gun side of the gun issue. I don’t really give a shit about guns at this point. I mean, I think liberals rushing to disarm themselves while alt-right types arm up and start using guns to publically intimidate people with the tacit support of the police is very dangerous and I don’t think anything you do is going to change them being armed, but whatever, I’m definitely not arguing from a right wing gun nut point of view.
Republican strategists are desperately wishing for you to make gun control the issue of the 2022 elections. They would fucking love it, absolutely jump for joy - if you make a big push for gun control right now. We’re in the middle of a republican coup. The republicans have unleashed unprecedented levels of misinformation and disinformation. They are actively rolling back constitutional/civil rights. They are putting people in place on election boards and other critical infrastructure so that their attempt at extra-legal election fuckery is better supported this time around. Our democracy is probably already lost, but if it isn’t, if we lose the 2022 elections, it will be. They will forever enshrine themselves in power, and then everything is fucked. Gun laws get more permissive. Climate change gets off the table. Civil rights for women and minorities get rolled back. Wealth inequality accelerates. Pretty much everything bad in this country gets worse. They’re pretty much evil on every single issue.
We are literally facing an existential crisis to our democracy and to the world. Some school shootings are not going to collapse the United States. It is not even remotely in the category of existential threat. But we are facing real existential threats. And if you make the political fight over gun control - one of the most divisive issues you can have that loses over and over again - instead of being about our last chance to defeat a fascist takeover - you will lose any shot we have at keeping any pretense of a democracy.
This is a distraction. This is a losing issue. When you force gun control to be an issue that we spend political capital on, that we run on for the elections, not only are you going to lose our country to republicans who will never give up power again, but you’ll never even be able to pass your gun reforms anyway because by running on that issue you’ve given them permanent control of government. There is nothing to gain by trying to make this a political issue, and an incredible amount to lose. Even if your primary goal is gun control - and that is crazy, given what else is on the table right now - you’re still less likely to have those gun control laws passed by running on them for the election because it makes it far less likely you win the election to be able to implement any laws at all.
I’m not saying this as a gun rights advocate. I would give up all my guns in a second if it meant the permanent defeat of the fascist republican party of today. I’m saying this as someone who sees that we are facing an existential crisis as a semi-functioning democracy and who has seen democrats choose terrible strategies over and over again and constantly lose. Not only are there more important things to argue over than gun control, it is a loser. It is a gift to the republicans. It is just the ticket they need to end our democracy.