WASHINGTON -- My fellow mothers, we are whupped. We have succeeded in bestirring the National Rifle Association, which is saying something. Unfortunately, one of the things it's saying is that now, by all odds, we and our legions of allies, and our common-sense views, probably haven't a prayer.
Did you catch the videotape of Charlton Heston, at the NRA's recent convention in Charlotte, N.C.? There he stood, holding aloft a musket, and shouting to a giddy crowd, "From my cold, dead hands." If you fail to be compelled by this phrase, just take it from me: We, the rational majority, are toast.
I was at the Million Mom March -- as were many of you, it being quite a crowd. If you recall, nobody said anything about cold, dead hands. They talked about "common-sense gun laws." They said, "Enough is enough." Rational things like that.
Not that feelings were absent. The mothers whose kids had been shot were pretty emotional. In fact, I thought of them when I read what Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president, said the Million Mom March really was:
"It wasn't a grass-roots rally but a Gore campaign rally, scripted and coached by the White House. It wasn't about safety." Even LaPierre, a man so cold-eyed he said President Clinton is "willing to accept a certain level of killing to further his political agenda" -- even he, I think, would have trouble looking right at mothers whose kids were killed with guns and telling them that they were scripted, that safety and life were not their concerns.
But maybe not. The NRA's audacity may be boundless. This same LaPierre has been scouting Times Square for the perfect place to set up a shoot'em-up restaurant arcade and gift shop. The NRA plans a place like Planet Hollywood -- only with guns as the theme.
If you have any doubts about the size of the opposition (probably you don't, the NRA being awfully visible), it's worth noting that they're getting bigger by the minute. Their membership stands at a record 3.6 million. At least they say so: Such figures aren't independently corroborated. But I have no trouble accepting it. Every time I write about guns, I get swamped by mail. Common sense is not the emphasis.
These folks mean business. They've made clear that they're going to turn this election into a national referendum on guns. The NRA's chief lobbyist says they'll spend $10 million to $15 million: at least 25 percent more than ever before. And this, remember, is a lobby that never lacked for successes at the lower rates.
What is their opposition? A whole lot of mothers marching. And organizations like Handgun Control -- which has some 500,000 members and contributors and hopes to spend $2 million this election in support of sensible gun controls.
Still, if you look at raw numbers, you'd think that common sense stands a good chance. People may talk about there being more than 200 million guns in the United States, enough for almost everyone to own one. But in fact, most people don't have one. According to a 1997 study from the Department of Justice (I can just see the mail now about how you can't trust the government, which is why we need guns in the first place, so how can I be stupid enough to trust the Department of Justice, etc.), about a quarter of adults actually own firearms. Most of these people own more than one: Some 10 million people own about 105 million guns.
Gun ownership is highest in rural and small-town America. It's higher among whites than blacks. And -- here's the most interesting part -- it's vastly higher among men than women. More than 40 percent of men, but just 9 percent of women, own guns.
You put that fact together with the recent Gallup Poll showing that three-fourths of the women surveyed support stricter gun controls (along with about half the men, including many gun owners) and you see why the Million Mom March made a lot of sense.
But sense is far from everything. The fact is, if the meek are going to inherit the earth, the meek will have to put their money -- and their mouths and votes and imagination and passion -- where their minds are. Because complacent reliance on good old common sense hasn't a chance against memorable foolishness about cold, dead hands. You pit zealotry against common sense, zealotry wins.
And democracy loses, big time.
Geneva Overholser is a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group.
© 1999-2000 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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