Guns were commonplace in the community where I grew up and when I was a teenager I learned to use the rifles and shotguns that were in our home for target shooting and hunting. I wasn’t a particularly avid hunter but I participated because it’s what people did. It was like cheering for the Green Bay Packers, as natural as eating or drinking. I didn’t think much about the guns…they were just there.

Later on I lived in Wyoming, and though I had not intended to be a hunter, I learned to participate in that annual fall ritual because nearly everyone in the congregation I served hunted. Many pick-ups had gun racks with visible rifles and nobody thought much about it. I certainly didn’t! It was during those years that I started hearing about gun control laws and realized that the whole subject was hugely controversial. Cars sprouted bumper stickers with all the catchy slogans like, “The West Wasn’t Won With A Registered Gun,” and “When Guns Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Guns.” I started hearing about the National Rifle Association and learned that it was girding up for a huge battle to protect our Second Amendment rights.

Since then the NRA has grown in power and influence and has pretty much dictated gun legislation (or lack of it) in this country. As a lobbying group it has been able to fund massive amounts of money to pro-gun legislators and mount powerful opposition to any candidate with a gun control agenda. As a result meaningful gun laws are lacking in most areas of our country. Any minor tweaking of laws to require back-ground checks or restrict the sale of certain forms of guns is met with great resistance. Even now, with the outcry against guns stemming from all the mass shootings, the NRA is digging in its heels and refusing to even consider that guns might be a problem. All the old slogans have been trotted out and we’ve been reminded again and again that, “Guns Don’t Kill, People Kill,” and “We have a God-given right to bear arms!”

There almost seems to be a touch of paranoia in the protests of some gun advocates. One could get the impression that their greatest enemy is our government and they need to stockpile their assault weapons for protection against our elected leaders. Indeed this seems to be their deepest fear. I haven’t seen anyone proposing that hunting weapons be confiscated and few are saying pistols need to be outlawed. I simply don’t understand the notion that armor-piercing bullets and assault rifles should be available to anyone who wants them.

The NRA has had its way now for about the last fifty years. They’ve protected gun rights in our country with great vigilance. Under their leadership gun ownership has mushroomed. More and more powerful weapons are available. They’ve passed laws in many states that allow for people to carry guns wherever they please. My question to them is this: How have they made our country safer? Statistics are hard to come by (congress has refused to allow studies of gun law effectiveness) but I do know the bottom line. About 30,000 people are killed by guns in our country every year; about 100,000 are shot. (There were about 60,000 deaths in the Vietnam War…a national tragedy.) Should we be concerned about this? Shouldn’t we at least be trying to figure out if something can be done?

Our president has signed executive orders to address this issue and legislation to control guns and ammunition has been proposed. Congress is currently posturing, something it does very well, but no one believes that anything meaningful can be passed. I suspect the pessimists are right. There’ll be all kinds of pontificating, misleading statistics will be quoted, people will flock to the gun shops to get more weapons, and the killing will continue.

I hope I’m wrong on this. I support the legislation that has been proposed and I want it to pass. But human beings are funny. The NRA, through years of propagandizing, has established the context for the debate. Their slogans and bumper stickers have been taken to heart and accepted as revealed truth. Many people actually believe that more guns make our country safer. The 30,000 who died? Well, they say, just imagine how many would have died if we didn’t have so many guns! When passions run high, logic goes out the window!