[molson]

It's kind of a death spiral because the more that this is a heated social media issue (that Russia is probably fanning the flames of), gun sales just increase and increase. Well, until 2017 anyway. That was the first time gun sales didn't set a new record in many years, and it was almost definitely because we had a conservative president and people were no longer afraid of new gun control legislation.

It's not intuitive, it's not rational, but the only proven way to decrease gun sales in the U.S. is to remove the threat of gun control legislation. And once a country is really, really full of guns, you'd have to change the 4th Amendment as well as the 2nd to get them all back. If there was actually ever a real effort to seriously restrict guns - I can't even imagine the floodgates that that would open.

I took a full-day gun safety course last year to get the enhanced concealed weapon permit. Not because I needed it, it was just a social group thing. But I have enjoyed going out shooting in the desert with those people over the last few months, and due to the nature of my job I probably should have some limited firearm home protection. The class was really helpful with gun safety and becoming competent with a handgun - I had never touched one before. But it think it otherwise promoted a general gun enthusiasm. Which shouldn't have been surprising, it's generally going to be gun enthusiasts who are qualified to teach gun classes. But the tone was a little more uh, patriotic and political than I expected.

It would probably be a good thing if more people were required to take classes before buying guns, or at least handguns, or to get concealed weapon permits. I think they definitely cut back on accidents. But I'm not sure it would cut back on gun violence, and it might increase the number of gun nuts.