Emotions vs reason on gun control

E. J. Dionne's recent column in the AJC helped clarify the current debate -- not about gun control itself, but about how the Newtown families are participating in lobbying Congress.

Opponents to gun control have made snide charges, such as "the families are being used as human shields."     It's true, this is a very emotional issue.  It is also true that the laws being considered to have any hope of passage would not have prevented the tragedy in Newtown.

It is simply a matter that the feelings aroused in the nation by so many innocent children being intentionally killed by a disturbed individual -- using guns legally obtained by his mother and kept in the house he shared with her -- provide a unique opportunity to get people to think about the issues.

Dionne's contribution to this is pointing out that it is not the proponents of gun control, and the families, that are using emotions.   Their genuine, deeply felt loss is the vehicle through which they are getting people to stop and consider the human element.  But it is the reason and the facts that are swaying the argument.

In contrast, it is the gun lobby that is using the emotion of fear as its only weapon.   Fear of what?   For many it seems to be the fear that our government will turn on its own people.   They confuse government regulations and laws and taxation with oppression.   So they insist on an armed citizenry -- with no limits to what arms can be purchased -- as their 2nd amendment rights.

Even Justice Antonin Scalia has written in previous SCOTUS opinions that the 2nd amendment does not guarantee the right to own any and every kind of weapon.

So who trades on emotion?    It's clear that it is those who use fear as a tactic to increase their sales of guns -- the gun industry through it's political arm, the NRA.

Ralph