Years back, I was a staunch gun control advocate. Last week, I joined the NRA and the Gun Owners of America, and I’m looking to join more Second Amendment advocacy groups. How did this evolution take place?
In 2014, I wrote articles for “The Huffington Post” titled “If ISIS Had Committed the 11 School Shootings Since Sandy Hook, Congress Would Have Declared War” and “What Gun Advocates Should Remember: You’ll Never Overthrow The Government and It Isn’t Scared of You.“[1][2]
Rebuttals from numerous publications resulted from the latter piece, especially since it highlighted my disdain (at the time) for gun owners. “The American Conservative” published a 2017 piece by Grayson Quay titled “The Left Has the Stronger Case for Gun Ownership[3],” explaining my tunnel vision:
“The article, written by H. A. Goodman, contains some truly puzzling arguments about how the failure of the Whisky Rebellion proves the impossibility of a successful uprising … Since he never mentions it, I can only assume Mr. Goodman hasn’t heard of the successful American Revolution, which just a few years earlier had succeeded in throwing off British rule and establishing the very nation against which the Whisky rebels revolted.”
Interestingly, it took me until 2018 to realize that Mr. Quay was correct about the benefits of an armed populace.
After witnessing the union of the Democratic Party and former spy chiefs James Clapper, James Comey and John Brennan, I slowly realized my trust in the federal government had been naive. Of course, I’d never advocate an armed rebellion, but the fact 37 percent of American families[4] own some type of firearm ensures that unelected officials think twice about the extent of their schemes.
