And this, remember, is a lobby that never lacked for successes at the lower rates. A whole lot of mothers marching. 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.
Gun ownership is highest in rural and small-town America.
It's higher among whites than blacks. More than 40 percent of men, but just 9 percent of women, own guns. But sense is far from everything. 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.