James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic, and former speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter, paints a rosy picture for the gun control movement in the wake of the Aurora theater shooting.
He argues that the time is ripe for more stringent gun control legislation, including renewing the "assault weapons ban" to prevent ownership of "high-capacity weapons." He agrees with National Journal writer Ronald Brownstein that people might be receptive to more gun restrictions because Democrats "still preponderantly prioritize restrictions on gun ownership over protecting the rights of gun owners." He cites the "insanity" that Aurora shooter James Holmes "could not legally have walked onto an airplane carrying a water bottle, or without taking off his shoes", but "he could walk down the street with a legally purchased assault rifle, body armor, and as much ammo as he could lift." Of course, many would point out that the feel-good "protections" put in place by TSA do little to solve real world problems, either.
He also notes the Virginia Tech and Tuscon shootings as examples of the problem, yet conveniently ignores the recent mass shootings in Norway, France, Belgium, Netherlands, England, Canada and others where guns are much more tightly controlled than in the United States.
Two of the letters from his readers that he printed, though, do point to the very real possibility that belief in gun rights will be slowly bred out of citizens, leaving Americans as disarmed and vulnerable as citizens in other countries.
In the first of these letters, the writer states, "A new generation has grown to adulthood that, in my experience, is open to critically examining issues without bogging down in ideological assumptions carried over from the past." In other words, the idealogical assumption that no free man shall be debarred the use of arms. Successive generations have been taught and then have passed on teachings that have slowly undermined the importance of individual rights. From the "it takes a village" mentality to "spread the wealth" socialism the importance and personal rights on the individual person are being subjugated for group think.
The success of these endeavors is evident in a letter from another reader, who says he is a "a gun owner fond of old stuff" that regards "smokeless powder as vulgar" who writes, "I think in the long run gun control will win out. My gun club is mainly old white men. Few children are raised in a culture where hunting and fishing is a basic activity. This is the same demographic trend that is terrifying Republicans and leading to all their voter suppression shenanigans."
While there has been a resurgence in the popularity of gun rights over the last decade, the liberal socialists pulling the strings have not given up. They will harness the do gooder mentality of the street liberal to continue to chip at individual rights and in particular gun rights. They believe the children are their future and use the schools to indoctrinate in them the socialist agenda. Only time will tell if there are enough freedom lovers to counter that agenda.