In the wake of the Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut shootings, it is both unfortunate and predictable that the media-induced hysteria would be followed by a massive assault against gun rights in the United States.

In the subsequent campaign of fear and hysteria promoted by the mainstream media and elected officials, gun owners and gun rights activists have responded in a variety of ways. From public statements and debates, to lobbying, and simple outreach to those who misunderstand gun nomenclature or actual gun crime statistics, gun rights supporters have frantically tried to use all means at their disposal to have their message heard.

Also predictably, the anti-gun crowd promoters such as Piers Morgan, Dianne Feinstein, and a host of others have largely responded with vitriol, ad-hominem attacks, and factually inaccurate arguments.

Indeed, when analyzing the debate between the two sides, it is virtually impossible to give even marginal credence to the anti-gun argument in terms of a legitimate argument. As one who considers himself capable of examining an opinion in opposition to my own with reasonable objectivity in order to determine the merit of the opinion I held when I came to the table, I can honestly say that rarely has there been a debate in which one set of participants were so clearly wrong and off the mark.

In fact, the current gun “debate” bears a stark resemblance to the debate surrounding the passage of the Patriot Act shortly after 9/11. Then, as now, a sizable portion of the population had been terrified by an event of a questionable nature into enthusiastically surrendering their freedom for a perception of security. Then, as now, anecdotes of Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s USSR, and MAO’s China were ineffective in staving off the mad rush toward a police/surveillance state. Then, as now, logic and reason were shunned in favor of the fear that drove the population forward into even greater bondage.

That fear still drives the American people headlong into a state of scientific dictatorship fueled by a philosophy older than all the world’s established religions and enforced by a steroid infused aggression and brute force that has existed for just as long.

Today, just as after 9/11, it remains virtually impossible to reach any individual who has made up his mind to be afraid and who has become personally and emotionally invested in a political opinion that he subconsciously sees as providing him with some level of social cohesion.

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