The NRA is utterly shameless (Recent tweet).

[Tommy_Carcetti]

85. For some, I think they do. At least subconsciously.

Am I saying that those gun enthusiasts actually thought that 27 people dead, including 20 children, at the hands of a shooter with an AR-15 was a good thing? Certainly not.

But I do think those same people are numb to certain realities. I think there are too many people who want AR-15s simply because they think they should have one, and that's just backwards thinking to me. A gun shouldn't be a vanity piece. If the reason one is purchasing a gun is for self-defense reasons, I believe it should be purchased with a heavy heart and with great reluctance. They should know the gravity of the situation they are getting themselves into. And if the reason one is purchasing a gun is for hunting, they should realize that hunting is a sport and not a war, and that they don't **need** maximum firepower to compete in a sport. (Hence why fishing with dynamite is frowned upon and illegal in many jurisdictions.) Sometimes the animal will win, and that's okay.

And if the reason one is purchasing a gun is to prepare for some imaginary revolution or insurrection, I don't know what to say to them. Those people are just plum crazy.

28 people dead, and one of the first things many gun enthusiasts thought was to go to the gun store and buy more AR-15s, because God forbid they might be restricted from doing so in the future. I would venture to guess that for many, those AR-15s were not their first gun. That they probably had a concealable handgun if they lived in a CCW jurisdiction or if they needed something to defend their house. That if they were hunters, they probably also had a gun more reasonably suited for hunting in the context of hunting merely being a sport. I have to wonder how many already had another AR-15 or similar semi automatic rifle. Buying an AR-15 simply for the sake of buying an AR-15--it really bothers me. Especially in the wake of two high profile mass shootings within the span of 6 months where that was the weapon of choice.