From time to time, someone will talk about how there's all this common ground on gun control. They'll cite polling data that was accumulated 30 minutes after people learned about a mass shooting, then never corrected once people calmed down. They'll claim people really want to find a middle-of-the-road solution to things.

But the truth of the matter is that there is no common ground on the issue. There are only those who favor gun control and those who don't.

Which is bad enough, of course, because those who want gun control vote. Yet it gets worse when you realize that they don't view people like you and me as wrong. They view us as evil.

We know this because of the reaction to Justice Clarence Thomas and his dissent in the Rahimi case. (Language warning)

"Thank goodness. Also, Clarence Thomas is truly evil."

That's how one progressive pollster responded Friday to the U.S. Supreme Court's 8-1 ruling in United States v. Rahimi, which upheld a law prohibiting individuals subject to a domestic violence restraining order from possessing a firearm.

Critics across the political spectrum called Thomas' lone dissent in the case "insane" and blasted the right-wing justice as "fucking awful," a "corrupt lunatic," and a "contemptible POS" who "continues to undermine the safety of women and disgrace the court." 

...

Amid expressions of relief that the court's other members joined Roberts' majority opinion—with several also writing concurring opinions—Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts said that "the Rahimi case should never have been taken up by SCOTUS. To even question whether domestic abusers should have access to guns shows just how extreme this court has become."

Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was murdered in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, said that he was "glad to see the Supreme Court got it right" in Rahimi, compared with the 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

"This case only existed because of the horrible Bruen ruling, a decision written by Justice Thomas who was the lone dissent here," Guttenberg noted. "I am hoping that they cleaned up some of the Bruen issues with this case. The Thomas dissent is only further proof that he is simply a threat to America."

Now, let's remember that the issue in the Rahimi case wasn't really about Rahimi himself. His actions leading to the restraining order are detestable, to say the least. The problem was that Rahimi hadn't been convicted of anything at that point, and a lot of innocent people get disarmed in the same manner.

Nuance that's clearly missing from a lot of people's perception of the case.

But rather than just disagree with Thomas and his view, they're attacking who is is as a person. They also brought up the whole Anita Hill situation and the demands for his recusal from certain cases because his wife has political opinions as well.

The thing is, Thomas doesn't exactly have a view on most issues that is different from the average Second Amendment advocate. He's labeled everything but a decent human being because of those views.

Do you think for a moment they see us any differently?

Of course they don't. In fact, they'll dismiss your opinions on everything else because you support the right to keep and bear arms.

Let's say, hypothetically, that we sat down at a table to discuss this middle ground they hope to find. Even if we were open to giving a little in order to get a little, there wouldn't be anywhere they'd be willing to go.

Every debate, every discussion, would involve a "compromise" of them taking just a little bit less than they want, and only for the moment. They'd come back the next year wanting the rest and they wouldn't blink at blasting you for your refusal to compromise, to find middle ground.

And they do this while thinking you're a vile human being because you disagree about whether a man who hadn't been convicted of anything should be disarmed by a court. 

To them, you're not wrong. You're evil.

Once you realize that and truly internalize it, you realize why there can be no middle ground on guns.