The radicalization of gun owners

Eric Raymond wrote this a number of years back, but is well worth reading again.  It's futile to have a "conversation about gun violence" when trust has been destroyed:

Now comes the news that the head of the Department of Homeland Security officially thanked the Governor of Missuri for violating state law by illegally passing to the DHS Missouri’s list of concealed-carry permit holders. The Governor then lied about his actions.

The Feds, meanwhile, continue to illegally retain transfer records from federally licensed firearms dealers past the statutory time limit, among several other continuing violations of a 1986 law forbidding the establishment of a national gun registry.

The BATF also criminally violated its authorizing laws by transferring over 2000 firearms to Mexican drug gangs through illegal straw purchases (google “ATF gunwalking scandal”). Over 150 Mexican citizens and United States Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry were killed with these guns.

Meanwhile, following scandals about “drop guns” at the sites of police shootings, some big-city police forces (notably in LA and NYC) are strongly suspected of routinely using planted guns to frame suspects they can’t otherwise nail on firearms-possession charges.

Any trust that “gun control” will be administered with even minimal respect for civil rights is long gone, destroyed by the behavior of the enforcers themselves.

This is yet another way to destroy the middle. Anti-firearms activists speak of “common-sense regulation”, knowing that the agencies enforcing these have engaged in a series of criminal conspiracies to evade and ignore safeguards against abuse of such regulations. By doing so, they annihilate any trust firearms owners might have once felt that “common-sense regulation” is anything other than a prequel to those abuses.

In the absence of trust there can be no compromise.

Raymond ends by saying "No more gun laws, ever."  In the comments, people suggest repealing a goodly number, including the licensing of suppressors.

The discussion didn't used to be along these lines - I remember a day when there was a willingness to compromise.  That started to evaporate in the 1990s, with the "Assault Weapons" ban, Ruby Ridge, and Waco.  It's grown ever since.  I think that Raymond is entirely correct that a combination of repeated lies and criminal activity by the government agencies tasked with enforcing gun laws has poisoned the well.

To well-meaning people in the middle on this, don't take this personally.  I very strongly believe that most of these people are good folks who want to do something to help.  I also think that very few of these have much familiarity with firearms, and almost none have paid much attention to the repeated lies from the gun control side.  Raymond put together and excellent introduction to firearms policy fraud.  If you're a middle-grounder, I highly recommend that you take ten minutes to read it, because it will give you a very good understanding of why people say "No more gun laws, ever."