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Many years ago, my town held a meeting on a proposed gun law, and one of the people in attendance was a New York State conservation officer, in uniform, packing heat. The man sitting behind me was transfixed by the carp cop’s sidearm.

“WHY IS HE CARRYING THAT GUN?”, demanded this clown every 30 seconds or so. “WHAT’S HE DOING WITH THAT GUN?”

Finally I turned around and pointed out that the pistol-packer was a sworn peace officer and required to carry a gun and please shut up.

Having watched them at work for more than 40 years, I’ve observed that people who hate guns have three things in common, regardless of age, sex, education, and socio-economic status.

They are: Complete ignorance of the subject. In the mid-1980s, when the first polymer-framed automatics came into the U.S., there was hell to pay because of speculation by the news media that people would be sneaking Glocks through airport metal detectors. The fact that these autos carried far to much steel to get past a metal detector counted for naught. They were “plastic guns,” and that was the end of it.

The second factor is hysteria. Anti-gunners have an apocalyptic view of their cause. If guns are permitted in national parks, Yellowstone will run red with the blood. If carry-permit privileges are extended, the towns and cities of America will become Stalingrads. (A number of American cities do resemble Stalingrad, but the people packing guns on their streets do not bother much with permits.) It is always a matter of complete, utter catastrophe, nothing less.

And the third is total mistrust of anyone who owns guns or advocates their use, or thinks they might come in handy in the interval between trouble starting and the cops arriving.

Senator John Thune’s amendment allowing handgun-permit holders to carry their guns from state to state was recently defeated, but very little will change. Folks who would rather be tried by twelve than carried by six will quietly stick pistols in their cars and, in violation of the law, drive through states where they are not legal.

And in the meanwhile, the real menaces to human life will carry on undeterred. They are the people with automobiles and cell phones.