... And unplug for a while.

If the masses are fixated on shooting each other, no one is fixated on what the Republicans and 1%ers are doing to us. It will be interesting to see what happens if this country ever has the US version of the Arab Spring. I doubt it will ever happen because you would never get the masses to actually band together for anything. This is evidenced by the fact that there is hardly a crime that someone in the financial industry can commit that will land him/her in jail. This is evidenced by the fact that people continue to vote in state legislatures that pass laws that are anti-education, anti-women, restricting voters rights, etc. I know that living in Oklahoma, there is not a law dumb enough that they won't try to pass it. The first law presented by the new Speaker of the House is to protect Christmas in the public schools. There have been attempts to deny public libraries funding if they did not segregate certain books. Trying to make sharia law illegal in Oklahoma (failing to realize that a lot of the laws they pass could actually be deemed sharia law wrapped up in the Bible.

And to line the pockets of NRA executives.

Nothing more.

There will be a tipping point, especially when minorities start swinging more elections, and the white population will beg to rid us of those laws.

That would run contrary to the trend of the last decade and a half or so. Do you have a cite for this?

yes - reading too much into this

just another issue the GOP can latch onto to gain votes - like religion, abortion rights, tax cuts, death tax, Benghazi, "oh no - not another Clinton", etc. Just something to lure the conservatives in . . . and generate votes

wing small government types who don't want any laws at all. The stand your ground bill was written by ALEC, I believe. The NRA isn't the one who brought the Heller case in Washington DC. That's the case that the scotus used to affirm an individuals right to own weapons was covered under 2A. It was the Cato Institute that brought the case, the NRA tried to stop them because they didn't think they had the scotus yet. The NRA signed on w/an amicus brief.

While I do think many issues are being brought up by the folks on the right for no other purpose than to divide the voters, I wouldn't say this is the biggest. Look at the bills being introduced in state legislatures. Abortion, education, anti-union, anti-gay marriage, etc. All those issues are close to the 50/50 mark for and against. Those are the issues they're using to distract us and rob the American citizens and the government blind.

Also with SYG laws, the city police chiefs union is against them. Only the sheriff's association is for them. Not even the police agree on the issue.

when everyone's under the gun, when every nook and cranny of society is under potential watch, that's what ossifies society

it doesn't have to mean more gunplay: the threat doesn't have to be violence "breaking out" in malls and theaters and schools a few times a year: the potential is now at the back of everyone's mind, and everyone knows their place

More people are not killing each other.
Ones fear is not more important than another's life.
No we are not becoming a militarized dictatorship.
Nobody is going to your guns so they can squeeze the life out of you.
No one is trying to enslave you.