A good essay by the Baffler on the NRA, guns, etc.

[Ghyl Tarvoke]

It's old but a must read. Seriously, read it.

[© Tweed the Younger]

you're a sucker for the 'holdover from cold-war anticommunism' tact

[Ghyl Tarvoke]

you're a sucker for the 'holdover from cold-war anticommunism' tact

Really? Explain.

I see very little on the Cold War in there.

[Ghyl Tarvoke]

you're a sucker for the 'holdover from cold-war anticommunism' tact

I will add here though I'm especially interested in the guns issues as such, I'm not after all American and I don't think I have actually seen a gun (except those held by armed police on the continent) in my life.

What I am interested in though is the US right and its weird transformation into 'movement conservatism' (which o/c comprises many variant strands - not all of which were on the 'right' before Nixon and LBJ or Carter in certain instances) which is by far the most important ideological mass-body in the US right now. On that note, there are several articles (ever read Jill Lepore?) related to this topic that I probably post here.

Also I think adding history into the debate is pretty important and we get none of that when talking about social 'issues' (except the old liberal zombie narrative of 'progress').

[Foucaulf]

Doesn't fit your criteria perfectly, but maybe someone will enjoy reading these:

"In the wake of the Newtown massacre, I'm struck by parallels between the Slave Power and a force haunting us today: call it The Gun Power." (Atlantic)

"This is not Rambo conservatism but Rimbaud conservatism, betraying less a disregard for death than an insufficient regard for life." (Crooked Timber)

"Those of us who view the events remotely, however, unless we start to evince a newfound appetite for gun-control measures ... are doing little more than displaying and enjoying our own exalted strickenness." (Economist)

[Ghyl Tarvoke]

Have to post this Mark Ames piece.