WHY WE CAN’T TALK ABOUT GUNS: “I’ve come to realize after the Sandy Hook shooting that the reason we can’t have a rational gun debate is because the anti-gun side pre-supposes that their pro-gun opponents must first accept that guns are bad in order to have a discussion about guns in the first place. Before we even start the conversation, we’re the bad guys and we have to admit it. Without accepting that guns are bad and supplicating themselves to the anti-gunner, the pro-gunner can’t get a word in edgewise, and is quickly reduced to being called a murderer, or a low, immoral and horrible human being. You might think that’s hyperbole too, but I’ve experienced it personally from people I considered friends until recently. . . . How can we ‘gun people’ honestly be expected to come to the table with anti-gunners when anti-gunners are willfully stupid about guns, and openly hate, despise and ridicule those of us who own them? There must first be respect and trust — even just a little — before there can be even the beginnings of legitimate discussion of the issue.”

As with most lefty causes, the key driver is a craving for moral superiority, usually driven by oikophobia.

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “This part of Snell’s column bears repeating: Gun people don’t trust anti-gun people because they lie to us. Yes, they do. For that reason alone, I will not trust them. Period.”