On Moral Revolutions

Appiah, Kwame Anthony, in his fine book, "The Honor Code," writes of moral revolutions that changed the world ... when people, who once accepted and defended certain practices, came to understand how shameful these practices were, and though some always remain loyal, the practices were outlawed and ultimately removed from society.

The practices he examines are 1) Dueling in England, 2) the binding of women's feet in China, 3) the Atlantic slave trade, and 4) various "wars" against women.

I think our "love of guns" fits these parameters, and I'm quire sure that at some distant date, Americans will come to see just how shameful gun ownership is because it's NOT simply a matter of owning a gun, but a whole world of myth and religion and power and pride and money behind it.

It is the LOVE of guns that dishonors us, and it's the ceaseless defense of it, with lies that distort the reality of what the prevalence of guns are doing to our society, and silly, adolescent, stories about self-defense and "saving our families," and "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

There will be a time when Americans hang their heads in shame that we embraced such foolishness.