No Lives Matter

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Terrordome

Memorial Weekend, 2022: the year American intransigence on gun-control stopped apologizing. Armed nihilism sans regret.

This isn’t about the N.R.A. anymore. —Hasn’t been for a long time. The N.R.A. has been in disarray for years. What remains are dissenting factions of all kinds, and no longer a single lobby to promote a unified position on “gun use.” How quaint.

You may wonder, “Well, who’s representing the gun companies? Who’s Mr. AR15? Do we lay this at the feet of Colt’s ancestral trademark?”

No. The gunmakers’ financial destinies are not scored to redneck retail. They really aren’t. They’re playing an international arms economy level that has little to do with Mom and Pop gun stores. They take their page from Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, and others.

What is propping up tinpots like Ted Cruz, Greg Abbott, Mitch McConnell, or the Goebbels-like juggernauts of Fox News?

Follow their names and their fortunes.

“Guns Before Life” is a successful branding strategy. It is a political power op…