Armed America

Jill Lepore has a good piece in the New Yorker on violence, gun rights, and the second amendment.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_lepore  The best line from the piece is:

"When carrying a concealed weapon for self-defense is understood not as a failure of civil society, to be mourned, but as an act of citizenship, to be vaunted, there is little civilian life left."

I have some qualms with the article.  Namely, that Lepore touches on so many aspects of the history of guns in American life that the article at times feels a bit disconnected.  Nevertheless, Lepore does well to demonstrate that the NRA's position on gun control has more to do with conservative politics than firearm ownership.  She also does well to point out the silliness of the NRA position that Barack Obama will do anything to infringe on gun ownership rights.  Finally, one cannot help but wonder how we got to the point where a private citizen could willfully initiate a confrontation with another private citizen in a public place and claim a perfect defense to criminal liability.

What strikes me most about gun rights advocates is not the idea that one ought to be able to own a firearm but the notion that gun ownership is somehow necessary.  Lepore's formulation above conveys the absurdity of the matter well.  In my own thoughts, I consider the argument that gun ownership is necessary essentially admits that we are not adults.  The idea of life in a society so fragile that the only mechanism of self-preservation is the threat of violence from every individual is so fraught with insecurity as to be unimaginable.  The point of civil society is civility, a common understanding of the basic rights and rules of interaction in the public and private spheres so that we are able to function without constant suspicion and fear.  Civil society is supposed to elevate us beyond the insecurity of mere survival so that we can, as a society, flourish in ways pre-civil societies cannot.  The gun rights advocates turn this on its head and tell us that it is in fact better if we revert to an age when the very act of survival is precarious, anxious, and fearful.  Doesn't anyone else think this is insane?