Generally, whenever a lefty says “it’s time for a conversation about guns”, they mean “conversation” in the same sense that the crazy guy in the back of the bus means it; they talk (at full bellow), you shut up and listen.

Anthony Bourdain, of all people, sounds off with a useful contribution, by way of some notes about an upcoming episode of one of his foodie shows:

I suspect what people are going to talk about when they see our New Mexico episode is the sight of me; socialist sympathizer, leftie, liberal New Yorker, gleefully hammering away with an AR-15, an instrument of mayhem and loathing that also has the distinction of being America’s favorite weapon.

I like guns.

His next lunch in TriBeCa is going to be interesting.

But he carries on:

I like shooting them. I like holding their sleek, heavy, deadly weight in my hands. I like shooting at targets: cans, paper cut-outs, and—even though I’m not a hunter—the occasional animal. Though I do not own a gun—I would, if I lived in a rural area like, say…Montana—consider owning one.

And – this is really unusual – he actually holds up both ends of the conversation, from the perspective he already admitted to:

 Whatever my feelings about gun regulation—and my worries, as a father, about what kind of world my daughter will have to live in, I think I should have as many guns as I like. Even Ted Nugent should have guns. He likes them a lot. They make him happy—and as offensive as I may find a lot of what comes out of his mouth, I’m pretty sure, based on first hand experience, that he’s a responsible gun owner.

You, however, I’m not so sure about. And my next door neighbor. I’m not so sure about him either.

 He wants background checks.  As do, I’ll point out, not a few gunnies – who do you think supported the current NICS system, anyway? – provided it doesn’t turn into a tool for the world’s Michael Bloombergs to use against us.

But Bourdain notes exactly why it’s so hard to actually have the “conversation”:

The conversation so far has illuminated, instead of any substantial issues, mostly the huge cultural divide between those like me who live in coastal cities with restrictive gun laws—and that vast swath of America who live very differently. We don’t understand how they live. And they don’t understand how we could POSSIBLY live the way we live. A little respect for that difference might be a good thing. The contempt, mockery and total lack of understanding for all those people “out there” by deep thinkers and pundits who’ve never sat down for a cold beer in a bar full of camo-wearing duck hunters is both despicable and counterproductive. We are too busy expressing disbelief at the ways others have chosen to live to ever really talk about the nuts and bolts of making America safer and less violent.

No middle ground is possible when even the notion of a sane, reasonable person who likes to shoot lots of bullets at stuff is seen as so foreign—so “other”. Maybe we would be better off– safer, kinder to one another if we were Denmark or Sweden.

But we are not.

It’s worth a read.