Hmm..one more reason?

Much of the noise being created over gun control seems to come from the sources responsible for most American discord: angry white males. These people are not too good at connecting the dots, and in the case before the house now, neither was I.

I wrote a few days ago about the amazing price tag that assault weapons carry, but I missed the other part of the equation. They are generally very cheap to manufacture. Low production cost was one of the chief objectives behind one of the grandparents of assault rifles: the Russian AK-47.

By creating a market for weapons that are deficient for recreational purposes, deadly, and cheap to make, firearms makers can gradually get rid of gunsmiths, the artisans who created items like my old Lefever shotgun. Skilled artisans are an expensive resource, more costly than the assembly line operators who churn out assault weapons.

No wonder, then, that the manufacturers are pulling the strings of all their pro-gun puppets with exceptional vigour. It's never about rights, or safety: it's always about profit. I would rather have manufacturers who nourish and cherish the creation of beautiful things than those who are simply stamping out (literally) products that have no purpose other than to spit out killing projectiles. If the aesthetics are gone from the manufacture of firearms, then we're rather close to the "the hell with it" moment.

Just sayin'.