Mine, Mine, Mine!

Insanity has been defined as, "Doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results".  It would seem that the "Open Carry" community, to no ones surprise, would fit this definition.  Their latest target was a Home Depot in Texas.

If what has happened when these folks have invaded places like Sonic Drive In and Chipotle is any indication, the results should go something like this.  People who were scared take to twitter, etc and under threat of a boycott the company relents and announce a policy discouraging it's customers from carrying firearms into their stores.  Instead of showing force, the open carry activists have put another hole in their foot and further made gun ownership a social stigma.

I can't help but think that these open carry advocates are, in a sense, showing the "I, me, mine" mentality that makes up so much of the American Right.  Never mind what other shoppers or customers may think or how they may feel, that gun owner has the right to keep and bear, openly, their weapon.  A few dead children, etc, are merely a price of their freedom. 

If one looks at right-wing thinking, it is all about the individual; my money, my property, my guns.  Their view of "their America" is one that is predominately White, Heterosexual, Fundamentalist Protestant, and rural.  This notion of individual rights does have limits though.  It does not extend, in many cases, to a woman's body or the rights of two individuals of the same gender to marry.

Perhaps this is why the Right-Wing view, according to many, is fading.  In a culture where music, pictures, and even resources are shared, the notion of the sovereign individual may seem outdated.  One can only hope that the American culture of guns and violence may go the same way.