Over the last two weeks, the United States has had three high-profile mass shootings, Buffalo, NY; Uvalde, TX; and Tulsa, OK. So naturally, the gun-grabbers are on the attack, and most Republican politicians are running like scalded dogs from any defense of the Second Amendment and the God-given right of free men and free women to own and carry the means to preserve their lives and the lives of others.

There are reports that a bipartisan group of ten senators is working to come up with a gun-control package that will get 60 votes in the Senate. The Democrat contribution to the group is Chris Murphy (CT), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Joe Manchin (WV) Martin Heinrich (NM). Our Vichy Republicans are Pat Toomey (PA), Susan Collins (ME), Lindsey Graham (SC), and Bill Cassidy (LA). John Cornyn (TX) is leading the GOP effort…that should make you feel really comfortable.

Last night, an obviously addled Joe Biden became a caricature of the old-man-shouting-at-the-clouds as he burbled “Enough” and demanded that we “do something.” See my colleague Bonchie’s post on the speech at Joe Biden’s Gun Control Speech Was Washington in a Nutshell.

There are two powerful impulses at work here. The first I would attribute to the modernist heresy and the anti-Christian belief in the perfectability of man and the perfectability of society by using government to eradicate all evils.

Evil is mistaken for mental illness because the SmartSet™ could never bring themselves to believe Evil exists. It does exist. Evil is real. It is not a mere philosophical concept. Evil will find a way of acting out. The denial of the existence of Evil leads to a belief that with enough systems, we can prevent the wrong people from acquiring firearms and using them to commit crimes. We can’t.

The ideas being circulated are as old and tired as the members of the group discussing them: a ban on assault weapons, a limit on magazine capacity, waiting periods, age limits, and Red Flag laws. Based on comments by the Dotard-in-Chief, it seems that outlawing 9mm and .223-caliber ammunition could be on the table. We can’t, you know, have sh** in the hands of mere citizens that could “blow your lungs out.”  Mass shootings occur in all jurisdictions, even those like New York, that virtually ban modern sporting rifles. These laws don’t work where they are in place, so there is no reason to assume they will work if we impose them on still more people.

The second impulse is political cowardice.

M. Stanton Evans, journalist and former president of the American Conservative Union, said, “We have two parties here, and only two. One is the evil party, and the other is the stupid party. … I’m very proud to be a member of the stupid party. … Occasionally, the two parties get together to do something that’s both evil and stupid. That’s called bipartisanship.”

The heady combination of evil and stupid is what is being brewed on Capitol Hill. No one actually believes that anyone on the Democrat side of this issue is negotiating in good faith. Their objective is to abolish the right of Americans to own and use firearms. There might be any number of noble motivations lurking behind the scenes, but the common ground they are searching for makes firearms ownership more difficult for those who can’t afford private security guards.

Given the prevalence of “scary black rifles” in the country and the extraordinary rarity of their use in committing crimes, it is difficult to conclude that modern sporting rifles or high-capacity magazines constitute a threat to anything other than the ability of the government to control its citizens. It shouldn’t be hard to stand up and pronounce this truth, but for our so-called leaders, it is. Making this gutlessness more absurd is that, according to a post by my colleague Sister Toldjah, see Democrats Hit Two Massive Roadblocks on the Path to Gun Control Legislation. A majority of Americans believe we have enough restrictions on firearms and their ownership.

Notably, things that could make schools safer, like hardening points of ingress and training teachers or parent volunteers to be proficient in firearms and armed, are not on the table. That, I’m convinced, is no accident.

I’m not interested in discussing any of these “common sense solutions” because, in my view, they are either a greater evil than the Evil they purport to prevent, or they are meaningless acts of virtue signaling. In particular, the “Red Flag laws” place your liberty and property in the hands of the nutbags at the American Psychiatric Association, who literally decide what mental illness is. And, by extension, that makes you vulnerable to anyone who doesn’t like you or your politics. If you don’t want a modern sporting rifle and 30-round magazine, don’t buy them. If you want to know why I need them, I need them because f*** you.

I will not engage in the process of negotiating away my rights and the rights of my children because you don’t like guns and are afraid. I don’t need your approval. I will not play this stupid game.