School-gun advocates drown out majority

One more round on the gun issue.

Based on the e-mail responses to my column last week on guns in schools, you'd think the vast majority of Utahns are perfectly happy with people packing pistols into classrooms.

The opposite is true, according to every legitimate poll ever done on the subject. But you wouldn't know that, based on the barrage of messages I received. My little experience perfectly illustrates the challenge and difficulty of developing good public policy with regard to guns. As long as the gun activists are a dozen times more vocal than the majority of people who don't want guns in schools, guess how legislators are going to vote?

Here's the e-mail response tally over the past week:

In favor of my position: 2

Opposed to my position: 25

Couldn't tell: 1

The tone of my column was respectful and reasonable. I didn't call anyone a wacko or an extremist. To the credit of the writers, most of the messages I received were written with a similar tone, although some conveyed anger and aggression.

Here's how I would describe the nature of the messages opposed to my position:

Reasoned and respectful: 13

Irate and irritated: 11

Abusive and threatening: 1

Two people challenged me to debates. One fellow demanded that I answer a long list of questions. It was apparent the column was sent to at least one gun activist e-mail list. Some messages were from out-of-state. Nobody called my home and harassed my wife or children. That was nice.

Because I own guns and enjoy shooting but don't want guns in schools, to some of these folks I'm a traitor, worse than a liberal Democrat who would like to ban all guns. In their minds, there is no compromise, no middle ground. You can't be truly pro-gun unless you go all the way.

I was just writing about it. But if you really want to see fury unleashed, propose to actually pass a law. So here's the point of all this. Let's say you're a moderate Republican legislator who generally supports gun rights but doesn't think guns belong in schools. You propose a law to that effect. What happens?