Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News sent this report on March 25. “Boulder mayor to gun owners:  Banning  assault weapons in not tyranny.”

“Contending that an assault weapons ban could have prevented the massacre this week, Boulder Mayor Sam Weaver pleaded with gun rights advocates to reconsider their opposition to such a move, asking them to address a single overriding question: “Why wouldn’t you want a future where we have fewer innocent people killed?”

Mayor Sam’s question renews a question of my own. ‘Are American politicians really that stupid, or do they assume that a majority of America’s voters are that stupid?’

Weaver spoke out on the a Yahoo News podcast on Wednesday, just hours after receiving a condolence call from President Biden. During the call, Weaver said the president pledged to fight to renew a federal assault weapons ban, even while acknowledging that passage would be “very difficult” due to the all-out resistance from gun groups. “I don’t really understand the points they are making,” Weaver said about the gun rights advocates who have fought the assault weapons ban.

A quote from Weaver’s podcasting answers his own question. “Assault weapons are designed to blow big holes in human beings.” according to the mayor, “If I’m speaking to somebody who is an advocate [of assault weapons], I would ask, ‘Why is it important to have these kinds of weapons?'”

A serious question, rather than rhetorical baiting, would have gone like this. “Do you think we should all have weapons designed to blow big holes into human beings. There are over 320,000,000 people in the U.S. so there has to be couple of big hole advocates who might be found, but this who has heard of them?

Warming to his subject, the mayor pounces on those crazy Gun Nuts with this familiar sneer:  “And if I hear something about ‘tyranny’ and ‘standing against tyranny,’ obviously, that doesn’t make any sense. Do we give people grenade launchers? Do we give them tanks? Where does that line get drawn? Is it really worth the killing of all of these innocent people to have all these weapons in the hands of a million people in our country?”

The mayor’s question is, again, addressed to people who exist only in his imagination.There is no grenade launcher lobby in the United States.There’s no ‘Tank Owners of Maine’ organization I’ve ever heard of. More revealing is Sam’s equating the Second Amendment to the right to own heavy artillery. So where exactly would Control Nuts want to draw their lines?

Since the NRA has never opposed limitations on howitzers the Control Nuts have to be clearer about what weapons they wish to outlaw. Evasive blather about “common sense gun laws” is no use.  Every contending political group in the United States claims exclusive ownership of ‘common sense’ and no one can offer an exact definition of the thing.

When Mayor Sam asks if “we want all these weapons in the hands of a million people in our country?” He sets off a tyranny alarm. He’s not talking about simple “common sense” gun laws aimed at a problem affecting few people.  He’s targeting a million people (at least).

How many must be targeted to ‘end gun violence.’ How many search warrants must be issued? How much resistance, how many prison sentences and  how many casualties should be expect. The Gun Nuts are allowed to expect the approach of tyranny until and unless these questions are addressed.

President Biden’s promise of immediate gun control legislation or, better yet, executive edicts neglects a long familiar objection to decisions made in moments of extreme fear.

The decision to remove ethnically Japanese Americans from California to the camps east of the Rockies for fear of subversion in aid of an actual invasion; and the “Enabling Act” granting Hitler extraordinary powers in order to suppress a planned Communist uprising.

This demand for prompt action is motivated by the political advantage that comes from striking when the iron of popular opinion is hot. There’s no practical need for speed.

John Frary of Farmington, the GOP candidate for Congress in 2008, is a retired history professor, an emeritus board member of Maine Taxpayers United, a Maine Citizens Coalition Board member and publisher of FraryHomeCompanion.com. He can be reached at jnfrary777@gmail.com