Oldskoolfan, this one quote from the link you just posted rings right out at me:
There's the key right in there. Ruling classes. That's what it's about. It's about the powerful maintaining their ability to do what they will at the expense of all of us. This is done not only by stripping us of our right to defend ourselves and those around us, it is also done by fracturing us along political, racial, social and class lines. Pick a big group, set them against a smaller and less powerful group that's artificially inflated into a threat. Pick a belief system and tell them they're on the verge of being wiped out despite all evidence to the contrary. Pick a crisis and propose a solution that looks good on the surface even though you've gutted it so that it only benefits you and your own, no one else. We have a political system in this country in which it is patently impossible for anyone to run for higher office without being vetted by the powerful and the wealthy. They benefit from any and every government foray into authoritarianism, whether it's the further proliferation of corporate-run prisons, the development of "less than lethal" crowd control devices, looser regulation of surveillance, the militarization of police departments and naturally, gun control. They benefit and we lose.
In my mind, and I think I'm not alone here, there is no single earthly reason why someone can't be pro-firearm and pro-same-sex marriage, or pro-firearm and pro-choice, or what have you. The idea of being able to own a firearm for the purposes of self-defense does not conflict with a single thing I believe in. If anything, it lines up perfectly with them. It is a continuation of the idea of being secure in my own person and rejecting any and all attempts by authority to constrain behavior that harms no one and is frankly none of their damn business. Why more people don't see this, I'm not sure. What I do know is, I'm going to continue changing that whenever possible.
