Last month, I watched the city board meeting in McHenry County, IL. The city of McHenry was voting on becoming a “sanctuary city” for the recently passed Protect Illinois Communities Act. This meant they were discussing whether to comply with the recent ban on assault weapons.
When it came time for the public comments, people queued up to speak. It wasn’t long before things got weird. The speeches veered into paranoid rants about the holocaust, the new world order, the January 6 Capitol attack, how we’re on the verge of an Orwellian dystopia.
Just the whiff of gun control rendered some pro gun people apoplectic. One man started sputtering about dominoes falling and that next will one will be the 2nd amendment. Another seemed to threaten a judge with a very poorly-timed, gun-related euphemism.
People who seemed normal, when they got to the podium, suddenly went nuclear about their “divine right” to own a gun.
People who looked crazy- disheveled hair, rumpled clothes- delivered eloquent, logical rebukes of gun rights arguments.
The great gun debate is a complicated study in conflicting narratives. There were many gun owners who spoke about having smart gun management. One lady helped other women learn how to protect themselves with guns. The meeting was a perfect microcosm of why people cannot…
