Thread by @nathansnewman

Why the gun issue matters beyond the immediate horrors of children getting gunned down repeatedly.

Gun issue gets horribly simplified in public debate but here is part progressives who care about how we ended up with current racist rightwing GOP coalition should focus on. /1

Gun issue has never really been about guns themselves -- first serious mention of 2nd Amend in Cruikshank case (1875) where 100 black folks burned alive inside courthouse fighting to defend local Reconstruction government (theoretically as a militia under the 2nd Amendment). /2

Supreme Court said, sucks to be them but since it was private KKK-style actors killing them, the federal government could do nothing to punish the white murderers because the 14th Amendment under a "states rights" view only covered official government actions. /3

So private gun ownership exploded in Jim Crow era since official white government officials did not have federal license to terrorize blacks to prevent them from voting or demanding rights (although still did so), but private KKK and lynching mobs could do so with impunity. /4

This put a premium on making the 2nd Amendment be about individual ownership of guns, since any requirement for official govt sanction of a militia would bring racist abuses by such a militia under 14th Amendment. /5

That strain of racist defense of the 2nd Amendment would fuse over time with a whole range of other rightwing anti-government views, then be backed by the corporate interests of gun manufacturers in the form of the NRA. /6

NRA in turn would largely fuse with the New Right in the 1970s to team up with the neoconservatives, religious right, and corporate right to build the Reagan and now the Trump coalition. /7

So breaking the gun lobby is part of breaking the GOP coalition that expands corporate power and promotes the wide range of racism and sexism coming out of the GOP. /8

Trump-like resentments of so many of the shooters involved in mass killings is not some random "mental illness" (even if that may encourage some specific shooters to act) but just worst projections of the paranoia and racism that fuels the overall politics we see now. /9

To be harsh, same pro-gun politics unleashing mass killers also seeks even more deaths that would flow from denying millions health care, food and other support needed.

Apathy to Parkland deaths is of a piece with their broad apathy to harm from their policies. /10

Breaking the NRA is then part of breaking an ideological backbone of the paranoid resentments that are used to keep WWC voters tied to the GOP corporate oligarchs who use those resentments to keep their financial interests protected. /11

There is no "common sense" policy where the GOP will liquidate a key ideological base supporting their whole movement.

Massive reaction & amazing leadership by Parkland students create an opportunity but the resistance will be fierce for this reason. /12