On September 1st, 2017 – precisely one month before the mass shooting in Las Vegas on October 1st, 2017 – South Carolina representative Jeff Duncan introduced the laughably-titled “Sportsmen’s Heritage And Recreational Enhancement Act”, (a.k.a. the “SHARE Act”), claiming its purpose is:

To provide for the preservation of sportsmen’s heritage and enhance recreation opportunities on Federal land, and for other purposes.

Yeah, right.

Before I get too far along with my diatribe, I’ll pause for a few minutes and give the reader a chance to scan this ridiculous piece of crap, er, uh, I meant, bill. I’ve inserted a link to the bill’s text right here. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Alrighty then, let’s get started…

Heritage? My apologies Mr. Duncan, but I’m having a really hard time applying the terms ‘heritage’ and ‘recreational enhancement’ to your misguided efforts to relax existing restrictions/prohibitions on so-called “firearm silencers” and armor-piercing ammunition already on the books. Let’s face it, you’re a paid shill of the NRA and just doing their bidding.

You want to reduce the risk of hearing loss for those intrepid souls out stalking Bugs this fall? How’s about askin’ Elmer to wear some f*cking ear muffs? Help me understand – exactly – how armor-piercing ammunition is going to “enhance” the experience for anyone out tromping around in the woods? Tell me now, is Bambi sportin’ a DuPont™ Kevlar® vest these days? Somehow, I doubt it – she lacks opposing digits!

OK, so what’s Mr. Duncan’s pathetic bill really about? In short, it’s all about 88.8 guns per 100 people in the United States, (a whopping 62% increase over Yemen, the country in second place on the list, with 54.8 guns per 100 people, and a population of approximately 27.5M, according to 2016 estimates), and the bazillions of dollars spent to get there. Preserving heritage? No! Preserving revenue streams? Yes!

With roughly 5% of the world’s population, U.S. citizens own somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the world’s firearms in private possession. Why? Well, it seems Americans love, love, love, just love ‘dem guns. Listen, I get it, I just don’t happen to agree with it – gun ownership is codified in the Bill of Rights; it’s literally woven into the cultural DNA of this country – and past efforts to restrict this particular right have been effectively squelched for decades by what can only be described as an overly-enthusiastic gun lobby.

…and now I fear future efforts will continue to be squelched, despite renewed outrage over the deadliest mass shooting in the nation’s history. I shouldn’t even have to say this, (because it’s so self-evident), but Americans have way, way, way too many guns!