Revving up the NRA crowd

The National Rifle Association is having its annual convention this weekend in Indiana.   An estimated 70,000 were expected to attend.    Here are some excerpts from the speech by  CEO Wayne LaPierre.

Freedom has never needed our defense more than now. Almost everywhere you look, something has gone wrong. You feel it in your heart, you know it in your gut. Something has gone wrong. The core values we believe in, the things we care about most, are changing. Eroding. Our right to speak. Our right to gather. Our right to privacy. The freedom to work, and practice our religion, and raise and protect our families the way we see fit. Those aren't old values. They aren't new values. They are core freedoms, the core values that have always defined us as a nation. And we feel them -- we feel them -- slipping away. . . .

We know, in the world that surrounds us, there are terrorists and home invaders . . . . campus killers, airport killers, shopping mall killers, road-rage killers, and killers who scheme to destroy our country . . . .  I ask you. Do you trust this government to protect you? We are on our own. . . . 

This election is going to be a bare-knuckled street fight. They're going after every House and Senate seat, governor's chair . . . .  -- laying the groundwork to put a Clinton back in the White House. They intend to finish the job, to fulfill their commitment . . . of fundamentally transforming America into an America you won't recognize. But mark my words: The NRA will not go quietly into the night. We will fight.

Here's what I think this whole crazy gun thing is about:   For a certain kind of white man, their guns symbolize their manhood, with all the privileges and power that has given them in the past.   They feel all of this is being taken away, and they are scared they will have nothing left.

Who has been gaining in our society, as they have been losing their exclusive, privileged status?   Women.   Gays.   African-Americans.    Immigrants.   So they fight against all of them, in some way or other.   With women, the fight is over reproductive rights.   They're beginning to realize they've lost the fight against gays, so they're giving up on that one.   They have our first black president to be the scapegoat for their resentment of the advancement of blacks.   And immigrants -- well, just listen to their rhetoric.

They frame it as losing their freedom -- and they are brave and patriotic to fight for our freedoms.   Behind that they are lashing back out of fear of what they are losing -- and in doing so they magnify what they are actually losing.

So the last line in the sand, for them, is:   "You can't take away our guns."  The Constitution gives us the right, so we're going to assert that right to carry our guns -- even in places where it makes no sense to do so.  But we have to have our guns, because it reassures us that we still matter, we still have some power.

Ralph