Of course the country is deeply divided. This week the Supreme Court declined to take up Maryland and Rhode Island’s ban on AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, which are legal in most states. I don’t know anybody who owns one and if a friend of mine showed me his AR-15 I’d feel funny about him, same as if he showed me his collection of photographs of corpses.
I am old enough to remember riding in the front seat of my dad’s car, standing on the seat beside him as he drove at high speed on twisty roads. Exciting to me at the time but now I can imagine my violent death at the age of six and I am grateful for the seat belt. It was accomplished over the objections of libertarians who felt the government had no right to require restraints, but the restraints were required and though there may be Shakers in rural Maine who claim the religious right to fasten them behind their backs, not around their fronts, they’ve been accepted by 99% of us.
