The NRA framed the gun debate at its core; “Culture War” is exactly the issue. “You gotta a gun, I gotta a gun, everybody gotta gun” is the culture the NRA wants for the country. If you saw the show “Boardwalk Empire” you would recognize the quote, and remember the result: A shoot-out where nearly everyone got shot.

The culture of gun ownership is an American value brought forward from our founding when the country was unsettled. That is not our time. We have explored, pioneered and settled this continent to the point of civility.

To perpetuate the gun culture is an expression of our unwillingness to advance as a society. Believing we must own guns to protect ourselves from our government casts a dubious shadow on our Constitution. The government we live under is “of, by, and for the people,” not the corporate shills running it today. The NRA and its corporate, gunmaking supporters want to keep the guns flowing, just like tobacco companies want to keep us smoking; they don’t care if it kills us, as long as they show a profit.