Re:Charlie Kirk shot at event in Utah
by FireBeyond on Wednesday September 10, 2025 @05:53PM
(#45204448)
I think though joked about, one of the most telling things about the NRA is their absolute militancy about gun rights... when it suits them. As you pointed out.
And as also evidenced by things like "From my cold, dead hands! ... unless you're at an NRA convention, in which case please use these lockers or leave your gun at home, and walk through this metal detector, please."
The origins of hyper-individualism are complex. I ssupect the frontier nature of the US played a big part, directly and indirectly. Think about it: who left Europe for the US? Largely people who were escaping the social systems of the Old World for various reasons. There's a selection bias here. We as a country fetishize the Wild West. It's a core part of the American mythology.
But that doesn't mean we want everyone to have guns. Oh no. Famously, then California Governor Ronald Reagan famously passed the Mulford Act in 1967 because the Black Panthers began open carrying weapons [1].
For more contemporary examples, we can look at how certain deaths are treated differently. One famous example is Amir Locke who owned a legal firearm. The police served a no-knock warrant so didn't identify themselves and he was shot by police when he stirred from sleep with his weapon.
This was a legal firearm owner at home who was executed by the police. Where was the NRA outrage for that? What about other Second Amendment defenders? What could be different about this particular firearm owner?
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Amir_Locke