The inevitable gun control post

Obama's executive order proposals on gun regulation look reasonable, at least to my eyes. If you're a gun nut, your eyes probably work differently. The stuff he hopes to get through Congress won't go anywhere.

This excerpt from Obama's speech should give you the gist:

The law already requires licensed gun dealers to run background checks, and over the last 14 years that’s kept 1.5 million of the wrong people from getting their hands on a gun.

But it’s hard to enforce that law, when as many as 40 percent of all gun purchases are conducted without a background check. That’s not safe. That’s not smart. That’s not fair to responsible gun buyers or sellers.

If you want to buy a gun, whether it’s from a licensed dealer, or a private seller, you should at least have to show you are not a felon or somebody legally prohibited from buying one. This is common sense. And an overwhelming majority of Americans agree with us on the need for universal background checks, including more than 70 percent of the National Rifle Association’s members according to one survey.

Yeah, but the 30 percenters are going to be very, very loud.

I'm reminded of the Obamacare fight, which had a paradoxical effect: The President paid the political price for inflicting "socialized medicine" on the nation -- even though he began the process by taking actual socialized medical insurance off the table. Now, Obama will be labeled a gun-grabber -- even though, in the end, I doubt that he'll grab a single gun.

The NRA responded to the President before he got a chance to say anything, which is a neat trick. They think Obama is a hypocrite because armed Secret Service guards protecting his daughters carry weapons.

This does actually reveal an important aspect of the NRA's world view. As far as they're concerned, all of us should act as though we exist in the same security situation as the president of the United States. You may think you're just the assistant regional manager of a widget company, but in fact, a terrorist commando strike force could be coming to lay siege to your home at any moment. Which is why you need to be prepared not just with a gun, but with enough weaponry to hold your own in the two-hour firefight that's just inevitable.

I would add that those Secret Service guards are there to protect the President's family from the exactly the same sort of rage-filed paranoia buffs to whom the NRA has addressed its argument. So there's hypocrisy and then there's hypocrisy.

There are people in this country who apparently want all social relations reduced to the concept of one person getting the drop on another:

"Time for lunch, Timmy!" says mother as she cocks her Glock. "Not so fast, mother dear," says Timmy as he dashes out of the pantry brandishing his Colt. "I couldn't help noticing the non-premium kibble in my dish," says Rover, who has a rocket launcher strapped to his back...

Let's all calm down and speak realistically. When this whole thing shakes out, I'm pretty sure that nobody is going to have to give up any armaments. Okay, maybe a few schizophrenics will lose easy access to firearms. I'm fine with that, and you should be as well.