I grew up in a gun state. Or, I should say, a gun country because the vast majority of my country (The United States of America) allows personal ownership of firearms with varying degrees of regulation and fees. There are even communities in my country that require personal ownership of firearms. In the particular region of the country in which I grew up (the Southeast), gun ownership is sacred. Literally. Love of God and guns are inseparable. I’ve always found that repulsive.
I write this in fond memory of my friend Lana Clarkson… perhaps you’ve heard of her… avid gun collector/enthusiast Phil Spector murdered her. Her last moments on this earth involved Phil Spector shoving the barrel of his gun into her mouth (breaking her front teeth in the process) and then literally blowing her beautiful face off. I personally know 2 people Phil Spector threatened with a gun… one of them is still alive, the other was Lana. He did this dozens of times to dozens of people over the years… John Lennon, Ronnie Spector, hell, reportedly even Stevie Wonder, not to mention lesser-known artists, wives, women, side musicians and strangers, yet somehow he was able to avoid living up to the responsibility that comes with his 2nd Amendment rights for nearly half a century and was allowed to legally own and possess an array of firearms right up until the moment he was found guilty of murdering my friend.
When those of you who’ve chosen to conflate “liberal gun ownership advocacy” here on DailyKos with the Civil Rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s are willing to suggest a mechanism by which people like Phil Spector would forfeit their Second Amendment rights when they’ve say, been accused, on the record, multiple times of threatening others with firearms, I’ll be impressed with your effort at carving out some votes from Independents on the gun issue by adopting essentially the opposition’s position. That guns should be less regulated, not more regulated. I happen to disagree with that. Strongly. So does the Democratic Party which this site purports to promote. And I have every right to do so here. But if you show yourselves willing to put as much effort into getting guns out of the hands of assholes like Phil Spector as you do into angrily asserting holding onto your own, I’ll find it possible to mull the issue as something to consider as a progressive. But until then, in my eyes, what happened to my friend Lana will be nothing more than an unfortunate consequence to you, an acceptable trade-off so that you’re not inconvenienced at the gun store or don’t have to pay a few extra bucks for bullets. I won’t hold my breath.
But don’t tell me I live:
a life of rainbows, unicorns and warm fuzzy pooties
I don’t. Horrifying shit goes on in close proximity to me too. All the time. I live in Los Angeles. I’m fucking scared shitless a lot of the time myself. But for me, owning a gun would make me feel less safe, not more safe. I hate guns. That doesn’t make me naïve, that’s me exercising MY 2nd Amendment right to NOT OWN A GUN.
I don’t find guns fascinating at all and I don’t become tumescent when I hold one. Quite the contrary, actually. I prefer big booms and concussives made by electrified musical instruments and drums. Sure there are risks and casualties associated with those activities, but nobody’s child ever died from playing with his dad’s guitar.
I don’t want any of you to lose your guns… unless you’re an asshole like Phil Spector. In which case, I want them physically confiscated yesterday. At some point, the standard has to change from the current “until he/she is convicted of shooting and killing someone” to something else. I’m open to suggestions. Well, suggestions other than “less regulation” of firearms. So I leave that to you… how do you deal with assholes like Phil Spector? Waiting until he was convicted of killing someone to take away his guns cost my friend her life.
As a progressive, I tend to lean towards “more responsible regulation” rather than less regulation of many things, not just guns… Wall Street and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico come to mind, so if I’m going to adopt the decidedly Republican/conservative position on guns, why stop there? We could probably peel some votes off independents and appear less scary to some moderate Republicans if we had a Pro Life faction in the Democratic Party and here on Daily Kos too. Any number of issues, really. But then, why would I want to be a Democrat or on Daily Kos?
I get that liberals can own guns. I just don’t get if liberals can adopt “more guns, less regulation” as a policy. Or if they should.
Dream with Angels, Lana…