Here\u2019s one reason why we can\u2019t have a rational discussion about guns in America, even after witnessing mass shootings like those in Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Orlando, Columbine, Virginia Tech and San Bernadino, to name just a few: Politicians love guns. They love them so much that they use them as campaign props. They use them as blatantly obvious metaphors for what they plan to do to regulations and laws they don\u2019t like\u2014especially those rules that would limit access to guns. They pledge allegiance to their gun-lobby donor overlords. And they gleefully fire off weapons of mass destruction in their ads as a way of demonstrating their manliness, their toughness and their take-no-prisoners political attitude. Guns are their political weapons of choice.<\/p>\n

The violence — both implicit and explicit — in these ads is astonishing and frightening. They promote culture in which people worship guns, boast about their collections, show off their firepower, and willfully refuse to acknowledge the dangers inherent in widespread, unregulated gun ownership. These ads are about addressing problems not with words, but with bullets and brutality. These politicians have calculated that demonstrating a shoot-first-talk-later [or never] attitude is a winning campaign strategy. And unfortunately, in many cases, they are right.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the once-hallowed bully pulpit has given way to the bullet<\/em> pulpit. That\u2019s why I\u2019m not holding my breath waiting for an honest conversation about ways to reduce gun deaths in America.<\/p>\n

Here are some examples. Watch and weep.<\/p>\n

Ted Cruz<\/strong> making \u201cmachine-gun bacon” [2015]<\/p>\n