The Deep South has, traditionally, been a haven of gun culture. Down this way, hunting isn’t just a pastime, but a way of life and people take protecting themselves and their family seriously. Guns facilitate both of those things for the average Southerner.

However, that doesn’t mean we don’t have politicians who want to take away our Second Amendment rights.

Enter Alabama’s Doug Jones.

Alabamians are ready for more gun control.

At least that’s what their Democratic Sen. Doug Jones said.

Jones wants tighter background checks for gun sales and to raise the age requirement to purchase a gun from 18 to 21, and he thinks Alabamians are on the same page.

“People in Alabama love their guns, but they also love their children,” Jones told CNN Friday at an event at Birmingham’s Civil Rights Institute sponsored by the Faith and Politics Institute, NOLA.com reported. “And they like to be safe in theaters, and they like to be safe in churches, and I think there is common ground.”

Lawmakers are considering a host of proposals in the latest round of talks surrounding mass shootings after a 19-year-old gunman killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in February.

A Democrat from a deeply red state, Jones has his eye fixed on the middle of the political spectrum and hopes the gun debate can be a harbinger of greater bipartisan efforts on other issues.

Yeah, people in Alabama love their kids. I have family in Alabama, so I know that for a fact.

However, the implication of his comment is that opposing gun control is somehow supporting kids being gunned down. It’s not. Not even close, and I resent that implication.

Further, I think Jones is off his rocker if he thinks the average Alabama citizen is going to back him up on this. Not by a longshot.

You see, down here, we tend to distrust any government that doesn’t trust us in return. Any effort to disarm people is seen as such. Jones should know that. He should also know that he only got elected because Alabama Republicans nominated a trainwreck of a nominee and even then, he only won by 1.7 points.

Jones should have learned to tread carefully while in office, that heavily progressive positions like gun control aren’t likely to lead to a second term in office.

Instead, he’s viewing his own election not as a response to a candidate with tons of baggage, more baggage than some Alabamans could deal with, but as part of some progressive mandate taking place within the state.

It’s not.

The good people of Alabama haven’t changed a whole lot. They’re still the hard-working, God-fearing people they’ve always been…even if a certain Georgia fan and gun rights writer *ahem!* is still harboring some resentment for a certain National Championship game. They still support their Second Amendment rights and nothing has changed that.

Yeah, if Parkland had taken place in Alabama, that might have changed things for a bit, but not indefinitely and not all that much.

Jones and his feelings on Alabamans and gun control is nothing more than wishful thinking on the part of a Democrat who got lucky and is now trying to hold onto relevance.