"Mutually Assured Massacre"

"In retrospect, I believe Lott's work and those who built upon it played a similar role in the post-Columbine evolution of the firearms debate. (And to be clear, I'm not equating them substantively. I'm talking about the need for a 'positive good' version of pro-gun advocacy.) Indeed, Lott's first article was published in 1997 and his first book More Guns Less Crime in 1998, just a year before the Columbine Massacre in 1999. Though his first work just preceded Columbine, it filled a critical, necessary role for 'gun rights' advocates in the post-Columbine world. The NRA wasn't always against all gun restrictions. In the 1980s and 1990s, it didn't oppose some very limited restrictions. That changed over the course of the 1990s, for a variety of reasons. Paradoxically, I believe one reason was the historic crime drop of the latter half of the 1990s. As long as crime seems out of control a lot of ordinary people want a gun to protect themselves, regardless of the larger societal impact, regardless of studies that might suggest you're more likely to be killed by your own gun than saved by it."

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo explains how the gun lobby developed a "positive good" argument.