[Tom Servo]

Let me drop a bit of a stinger on you guys: I once supported gun control.

My father taught me to shoot and handle guns safely at a very early age. My grandparents taught me the horrors of the Third Reich and the idea that something like that can very well happen again.

But it didn't stick. By my teenage years, I was smarter than everyone else, and I ended up going into the music business. Imagine my surprise when I met people even smarter than me. They had all the right slogans and everything.

It wasn't until my mid-20's when I left that scene and reconsidered the issue for myself. By that point, I'd seen through some of the intellectual laziness I'd been indulging, and I had a few peers who were patient in convincing me to reconsider.

I worry that we don't have that now. The battle lines are drawn, and heaven help anyone who tries to cross them. We prefer zingers and soundbites over nuanced or complex discussions, and it feels more and more like scoring points on social media has replaced respectful discussion.

Now, there are people who have spent a great deal of time and capital on restricting our rights. They're in political office and in charge of gun-control organizations. Those guys have heard all our counterarguments and they don't care. What's more, they lie. Those people can't be changed, so we have to rely on sheer political pressure.

But the other 99% of the population can. We lose out if we don't engage them.