Slight derail. This paragraph here:
“Declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal. Hey! We did it to the Communist Party, and the NRA has led to the deaths of more of us than American Commies ever did. (I would also raze the organization’s headquarters, clear the rubble and salt the earth, but that’s optional.) Make ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony. If some people refused to give up their guns, that ‘prying the guns from their cold, dead hands’ thing works for me.”
Was written by a guy named Donald Kaul. When he wrote this he was a pretty old man, hardly capable of prying anything from anyone's hands. He died at 83 years old in 2018, which frankly fills me with ennui. He made his bones writing heated, controversial articles ( Pulitzer termed it, unapologetic). He was a pundit and a hack and they gave him two Pulitzer prizes for journalism.
Such is the state of "Journalism" in this country today.