If, as I think, you're asking about my reply to mcfly, below, I was mirroring his grammatical construction, "And are we really saying....?"

If you want to go after the NRA for corruption and bribery, I could go for that, because buying elections subverts the democratic process, even though it's traditional. Extortion will be a hard case to make. Political pressure isn't construed the same way as blackmail, which is really what extortion is, on a larger scale. Politicians only need to grow a spine to stand up to pressure. Now, if there's proof of blackmail, terroristic threats (as opposed to ordinary threats), or libel, that's another whole ball game.

I'm sorry if you thought what I said about hate was patronizing. It wasn't my intent. If you look at the way this argument has shaped up, it does look like people who own guns are the focus of a lot of rage that they really don't deserve. It really is impossible to say that gun ownership is evil without passing the evil on to the people who own the guns. Guns themselves have no more inherent moral value than an earthquake: potentially lethal, but incapable of forming an intention, and so morally neutral. Humans are the ones who form intent. That's the way I judge evil: by intent, not by effect.

I projected my way of dealing with evil on to you (sorry), for, you see, I do hate evil, so I'm very careful about identifying it and its vessels. They say it's not good for a person, but hey, the women in my family live into their 90s, and if harboring strong feelings were an Olympic sport...