After every mass shooting we see the same reaction. The Left instantly demands we must ‘do something’ to stop gun violence, attacks the NRA, accuses gun advocates of being responsible for murder and generally exposes their consistent, yet passionate, ignorance on the entire subject. No matter how many times we correct them on their glaring mistakes and wrong information, they continue repeating it with ever more outrage and indignation.

But it goes much deeper than just political opposition. For a full understanding of the pro-gun argument I would recommend reading Dana Loesch’s Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm America and Charles C. W. Cooke’s The Conservatarian Manifesto: Libertarians, Conservatives, and the Fight for the Right’s Future. Ben Shapiro is also an excellent advocate and so are many other conservative and libertarian voices. Guns have never been of particular interest to me personally and I am not equipped to argue the nuances of the topic.

Interestingly, this does not disable me from effectively countering the Left’s many arguments surrounding guns as the primary issue of rights and American freedom trump whatever reasoning they attempt to provide. But the experts in the field, as mentioned above, should be referenced whenever possible.

The Right’s argument is pretty simple. The Constitution recognizes the natural, understood right of a person to own a firearm. It does not grant a right or give permission, nor does the government. The 2nd Amendment simply states what the founders understood to be an obvious truth. It really doesn’t matter what guns are used for or the emotional opposition to them, it is a right plain and simple.

And while I am not an expert on guns, having never used one, nor a particular advocate, I have no personal interest in owning one, I do have direct experience in the mindset of the anti-gun advocate. I used to be one. Here is a breakdown of what I believe explains the irrationally passionate opposition to guns by the Left based on my own experience and battling liberals on the issue for years.

Reliance on Government

The Right and the Left react to law differently. The Right generally view laws as useful tools in organizing society, but are easily manipulated through proper channels when necessary. The Left views law as a moral guidebook detailing what is right and what is wrong and generally defer to the law as an ultimate authority. When a mass shooting happens the Right is mostly interested in motivation and methodology. The Left demands to know why the government allowed it occur in the first place.

You can see this in how both sides respond on social media and how the media itself reports on the event. The Right demands facts, information and details of the person who committed the crime while the Left wails on about our general culture of violence, the NRA and gun owners with blood on their hands. It is typically baffling to the average person on the Right how one can view an isolated madman with a gun killing people as representative of the millions of peaceful gun owners across the country and demand to hold them accountable.

However, the Left associates advocacy of gun ownership with responsibility for gun violence. They firmly believe that the NRA manipulates or bullies Congress into shutting down vital gun protection laws. Naturally, if the NRA is invested in preventing people from being protected from gun violence, they must want gun violence. The more moderate opposition will argue negligence while the more vocal on the Left accuse the NRA of being a terrorist organization responsible for mass shootings.

None of this makes sense until you realize the core of their concern is the belief that the government is responsible for the absolute safety of the citizenry. To the Left, this translates as a demand that the government intervene to prevent any harm in any situation from befalling any citizen. This is why they are such advocates for centralized, government controlled regulatory agencies. To the Left, the gun problem is simple. If the government simply did a better job at preventing guns from being freely handed out to the population like candy, we wouldn’t have mass shootings or gun violence.

The Left seems incapable of understanding that legality is meaningless to the illegally inclined. Which brings us to the emotion associated with this obsession: safety.

Feelings of Safety

If I were to notice a trend of violence in my area, robberies, shootings, etc., I would likely do several things. I would attempt to reasonably avoid dangerous areas or situations in the trend and be more aware of my surroundings if required to be in close proximity to them. If I felt threatened or afraid I would arm myself with some form of self-defense. My options could include pepper spray to owning and carrying a gun. I would educate myself on self-defense. This does not guarantee my safety, but it would certainly provide me with ease of mind and give me a better chance at surviving an attack.

The Left, however, does not think in these terms. Liberals tend to believe their personal emotions are the direct consequence of other’s actions and behaviors. People cause them to be afraid. Therefore the responsibility falls to the outside world to make them feel safe. Guns make liberals feel afraid and so they believe you should not be allowed to carry one.

In larger terms this explains the utter obsession with ‘gun control.’ Liberals always demand, with a great sense of righteous outrage, that we need ‘common sense gun control’ and we need it now. They often declare ‘Enough is enough!’ and place the blame squarely on the Right for standing in the way. The Right understands that ‘gun control’ is a meaningless phrase that translates into gun restriction for responsible gun owners while doing absolutely nothing to prevent criminals from obtaining whatever they want.

To the Right, if we restrict gun ownership even more than we already do it will simply empower the violent to prey on the ever-more helpless population bound by government regulation and civic duty to obey the law. To the Left, however, ‘gun control’ translates into ‘the government is doing something to make me safe.’

The Left relies on the government to protect them and therefore they believe, with absolute conviction, that only the government can stop gun violence.

Ignorance About Guns

The Left is profoundly ignorant on the nature of guns or gun ownership. From the absurd mis-reading of the 2nd Amendment to arguments over ‘who needs this or that gun’ the Left routinely shows it has no idea what it is talking about. Liberals believe you can walk into the grocery store and walk out with a machine gun and a bag of chips and soda. They love to make the argument ‘it is easier to get a gun than to…’ and then go on to cite provably false examples.

They seem unaware of current gun regulation or legal standards and simply do not respond when we point out that everything they demand be put in place already is. They cannot tell the difference between types of guns, preferring to simply refer to them all as ‘assault weapons’ and they repeat provably false statistics claiming more guns equal more violence.

Furthermore they genuinely cannot fathom why any individual needs or would want a firearm. To the Left, rights are dependent on need. If the Left determines the general population no longer ‘needs’ something, they see no reason to maintain a right to it. They genuinely believe the government ‘allows’ the citizenry to own guns.

Therefore their reasoning forces them to view gun advocates as violence advocates since they can see no other purpose for guns.

Anti-American Culture

The Left has positioned itself as the opposition party to American culture. Progressively we have seen them portray everything from the founding to the flag, the anthem, monuments, patriotic heroes and so on as racist, terroristic, hateful and outdated. Guns represent a period before the progressive enlightenment when people shot each other in the streets and racists were marching waving rifles in the air. Guns paint a picture of violence, authoritarianism, conquest and oppression in the mind of the Left.

The Left is fond of making the argument that at the time the 2nd Amendment was written, we only had muskets and therefore the amendment serves no current purpose. In their quest to erase absolutely everything associated with traditional America, guns are their greatest prize. If they can destroy the right to own guns, they have successfully destroyed the nation of evil they have fought so long.

The Left tends to associate gun ownership and advocacy with middle Americans which they consider to be uneducated, bigoted and unimportant. This is the same population that honors the flag, stands in genuine respect for the anthem and openly expresses love for their country. The Left has a particular interest in attacking this specific population and their values.

Liberals whine that other ‘modern’ countries ban guns or heavily restrict them. Their messaging is straightforward. They want America to be Europe because they believe America as she is, is embarrassing. If only we could be as sophisticated and less savage, the world would embrace us.

Finally, they enjoy invoking the stereotype of the ultra-macho persona of the American gun owner. In their quest to destroy masculinity and all concepts of masculine heroics in our culture, gun ownership is a top priority. They like to imagine men own guns to compensate for male inadequacy and there is nothing liberals love more than to shame male insecurity.

Revenge on the Right

And this brings me to the primary reason why the Left hates guns. People often ask me why Leftist Jews oppose Evangelical Christian support of Israel. Every Republican leader for decades has been passionately pro-Israel and yet most American Jews vote Democrat. Why? The reason is liberals associate support for Israel with Christianity and Republicanism. The Left is so blinded by hatred for the Right they cannot allow themselves to stand on common ground with them on any issue.

The same is true about guns. The Right cares about protecting the 2nd Amendment so the Left is determined to tear it all down. I often see liberals reference the 2nd Amendment as a ‘Republican’ issue, for example. In their minds it is no different than the Republican opposition to same-sex marriage, government-paid contraception or anti-abortion messaging.

Unfortunately the Left and the Right are arguing two separate issues. While the Right is interested in defending a core right from the progressive tendency to destroy the house to kill a spider, the Left is fixated on their emotions and illusion of safety. It does not matter how many statistics we debunk, how much reasoning we provide, how strongly we advocate for rights or how many of their lies we openly correct, the Left believes we shouldn’t own guns.

It is the responsibility of the Republican party to prevent the Democratic party from hastily imposing ‘gun control’ measures onto the population in response to the emotional outcry immediately after a terrorist attack or shooting. We must remain level headed and fact-driven and continue repeating the absolute truth that the right to own guns is simply not up for debate. The Left has already made too much progress in restricting that right. We cannot allow their irrational hatred of America to destroy it any further.