But I am familiar with the gun culture. I was brought up with it, and to a certain extent, I'm a part of it myself. I own guns and I own them primarily for self-defense, not for sport. I'm not afraid of guns, and I'm not ignorant about them, but that doesn't mean I like them. They are tools, and nothing more. I don't think owning tools is a constitutional right, particularly tools whose sole function is to kill people. But I'm not in favor of banning all of them outright, either. Surely there is a middle way.

But I do live in America, and whether you like it or not, if you do too and you're smart you'll own one. I can't imagine having to shoot someone, of having to defend my home by killing a stranger. It bothers me, it terrifies me, and I only am prepared to do it because I have decided that in America it is a risk we all take and we have to be ready to face. The ugly people already all seem to have guns.

There is definitely a gun mentality, it is mostly, but not exclusively, rural and Southern and it is widespread. And yes, it is strongly associated and correlated to working class white males and all those other stereotypes, including cultural chauvinism, Christian fundamentalism, conservatism and racism. Sure, not all of them are gun nuts, and you don't have to be one of them to be a gun nut. You've also got black ghetto gangsta gun nuts too. They fit right in, but they've only lately joined the club. From a distance, or from up close, you can't tell them apart in the dark, except they feel they have a god-given right to own any gun, and as many guns as they want.

The gun nut I'm thinking about carries it a bit further. He cloaks his pathology with phony civil rights excuses. He doesn't have a gun, or several, he has many. He doesn't only know how to use one, he is obsessed by them, fetishizes them, he buys and sells them, loves to handle them, caress them, work on them, shoot them, and he fantasizes about using them on the people he doesn't like. And these people don't like anybody except those just like them. I have talked to them, I know what they are like.

They are afraid and they hate, and they are just dying to have a legal excuse to carry one, brandish one and especially to kill someone. THey love the sound of the action chambering a round.

I live in Rocky Raccoon country, I was born and raised in it. I am not making it up, I know exactly what I'm talking about. And although there are lots of gun owners and users, the kind I am talking about is a distinct and recognizeable type where I come from, and I've known them for as long as I can remember.

Forget about Barney Fife. I'm Barney Fife. Have you ever seen "Deliverance"?