There are two main extremes in the debate over guns. The gun control people are basically worshippers of the state. They grovel before the image of the state. They believe in the state. They see the state as redemptive: an agency of healing. This agency must be armed, they say, in order to collect the money necessary to fund the state's messianic claims and programs.

A state that can heal must be a state that can kill. The gun control crowd worships a state that can heal. So, they call for the abolition of private gun ownership. This is consistent.

At the other extreme is the private militia crowd. They think that ownership of weapons is basic to conducting a new American Revolution. They think that that their ownership of weapons will, in some way, slow down the state. Some day, the people will take up arms against the state.

I reject both positions.

Here is the reality...