Henry Rollins: When It Comes to Gun Control, the Bad Guys Have Won the Day

By Henry Rollins Thu., Jan. 10 2013 at 10:21 AM

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Saturday KCRW broadcast.]

Of all the things that transpired last year, I want to take on the Sandy Hook shooting incident. The actual event is too awful for words but some of the conclusions that were drawn were damn dismal and I think we can do much, much better.

The NRA is comprised of an extremely small fraction of gun owners in America. Some of the more ridiculous statements of the organization's colorful CEO, Wayne LaPierre, might well represent only a fraction of its members' points of view. Where the NRA realizes its power is with the politicians they have bought and paid for.

Personally, I don't believe Mr. LaPierre is all that concerned with my right to bear arms as much as he is interested in protecting my access to purchasing guns and bullets. It's a huge industry and anything that is seen as remotely detrimental to sales has the man vigilantly patrolling the perimeter of his bottom line. The more outrageous things he says, the better it is for business. Anything less -- like rationality, for instance -- would at this point be seen as "soft" by the people who feather his nest. It's not that hard to get your head around.

What is hard to digest is that throughout all of the twists and turns this conversation has taken, it seems to be that the "bad guys" have won the day. Instead of the higher, harder, more morally upright discussion of gun control and mental health issues, many have defaulted to the knee-jerk conclusion that we need a lot more guns. Seeing it this way, we must conclude that the minority has won out over the vast majority and we must arm ourselves against our fellow Americans who would seek to do us harm. We must conclude that we are not really all that free and that we failed as a society.

More guns equaling more safety is a slippery slope, and what makes it so is human blood. Great for weapons manufacturers. Not so great for citizens who potentially find themselves in a crossfire zone with little sanctuary.

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txmetalguitarist

Gun lobbyists pretty much get what they want. Not a snowballs chance in hell that gun legislation would pass on the Hill.

Liliana Vasquez-Duran

The only ones who like guns are those whom like to kill be it for sport or otherwise

Liliana Vasquez-Duran

Ofcourse it does! Violence is an extremely profitable business for both criminals and the law..

Robert Willer

Mr. Guptil, Tell me something about Rollins, anything? other than the fact that his view's regarding guns are obviously different than yours. MY views differ from Henry's as well and I exercise my 2nd Amendment rights. Does that make me hardline gun nut, hardly. There is far to much knee-jerk political posturing from both sides of the aisle on this issue. While I respect your opinion, for you to call the man a Communist is a little rich don't you think? on another note ...really looking forward to the new Bad Seeds album. That little ditty was at the end of this article if you took the time to get past his personal view's regarding guns...

JP Myers

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with our Constitution. Duh.

Pat Walsh

I used to like him until now. Were Americans, were gonna have our guns one way or another. I'd rather have taxed purchases that the government has the info on who is buying them, then have the cartels, drug smugglers, and gang members get rich selling imported guns under the table with no documentation.

John Kovacic

Very solid deduction Stephen.

David C Thompson

Thanks, Henry.

Greg McGonagle

The founding fathers also believed in slavery.

Victor Cardet

Really! The guy thinks everyone should have to chance live and love peacefully. And your best is to call him a communist.

Patrick Carpenter

oh, is that why the founding fathers created the second amendment?

Anu Nigul Guptill

Henry Rollins is obviously a Communist who should go back to North Korea.

Liisa Lee

Yes.

Saxon Burns

Totes.

JennieVasquez topcommenter

When it comes to the discussion of gun control, America needs to take a deep breath and sit down, relax, and listen to one another. Not scream and shout, not turn a deaf ear, we need to listen and discuss the issues at hand. What's one issue that bothers me? Innocent people are the ones getting hurt, not the bad people so many claim to be trying to protect themselves from. Are guns ever going to be eliminated? Of course not. I grew up in a country like environment in the Inland Empire and my Dad always had guns. He would hunt with them and any call to the cops had a response time of at least an hour so he liked having a weapon just in case of an emergency. The greater danger was a bear rather than a person but that's the joy of country living. I loved to target shoot on the ranch I grew up on and thought nothing of holding a weapon. I know the side of having a use for guns and being a responsible gun owner. As I've aged I don't personally like to be around guns but understand why some want them. The few years I spent as support staff at a police station sealed the deal for me on guns. They are a powerful weapon that can cause a lot of damage, I hated being around the officers when they were carrying rifles. I was always afraid they would trip. I trusted most of them, not all that's a whole other can of worms, and knew they were responsible, I just didn't trust their feet.

The problem is that so many people live in fear and have been lead to believe that we are in constant danger of someone wanting to kill us or steal our stuff that we must at all costs be ready to defend ourselves. Are we in constant danger? Yes, life itself is dangerous but I know I don't want to spend every waking minute in constant worry of all the ways I can be hurt. I rather live in my naive bubble and look for the good rather than worry about the evil. If something bad happens well then that will suck for me. My fear is that the more guns in the hands of people that are perhaps not so mentally stable, not responsible gun owners, people who had too much to drink, or worst of all in the hands of a child that finds one lying around, the more shootings many accidental, there will be and the more innocent people will be harmed. What can be done about that? I wish I knew the answer.