What is it that drives people to make decisions that any cognizant human being must know will have catastrophic consequences. Unless I'm giving people way too much credit intellectually, it seems that they voluntarily choose some voluntarily form of mental illness.

My own take: it's folly. Widespread, pervasive folly. All-too-many progs start off as fools and grow into panderers to fools.

The only thing standing between the American people and the despotism of a totalitarian regime is the 2nd Amendment.

I've read some Patriot fiction. In most of them, the despotism the heroes fight does kick off with wholesale gun grabbing. Gun grabbing is up there with 'temporarily' suspending elections and bringing in foreign or UN troops as the mark of the tyrants.