When Liberal Democrats Finally Realize the 2A is for Everyone…Even Them

A while back, an elderly lady popped into the Cape Gun Works in Hyannis — a school lunch lady, it turned out.  “I don’t like guns,” she said. “How do I get one?” Looking for answers to this and other questions, I went to visit Toby Leary, the owner and president of Cape Gun Works. If you’re thinking of purchasing a firearm around here, this would be the place to do it. They also have the only public indoor gun shooting range in southeast New England.

Liberals like me talk about guns, but this was my first conversation with somebody who actually knows a lot about them. We need to have more conversations like this …

Everything about this was weird. I have believed for a long time that America would be a safer place if there were far fewer weapons in it. So what am I doing in a gun shop? I’m looking around because the reality on the ground is that lots and lots of Americans own guns for all kinds of reasons and maybe it was about time I met some of them and learned something. …

“Some people shouldn’t buy guns,” said Toby … “temper, judgment.”  But gun ownership is a constitutional right. Here in Massachusetts, there is a system in place to screen out at least some of the folks for whom gun ownership is problematical. The process takes a couple of months.  At least someone can’t stalk into a gun shop smoking mad, buy a gun, walk out and shoot someone. The state requires a four-hour mandated safety class and soon, a mandated eight-hour shooting range training. …

I still have no way to reconcile myself to it — and I’m not sure I’m supposed to. But we just had another election and it’s clear America has no intention of disarming itself anytime soon. So if there are going to be guns, and we know there will, this seems by far the best way to do it.

Besides, there’s no reason why a Democrat can’t learn to shoot straight.

— Lawrence Brown in What a Self-Described Liberal Learned About Guns at the Local Gun Shop