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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026

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I've been meaning to ask, did you read friend of The Motte BJ Campbell's "After Action Report: Bridging the Divide"? He participated in an experimental parley with firearms, firearms policy, and gun violence experts, and they created a document which I read at the time but do not recall liking very much.

It's a read, although I'll admit I did some puckering when he linked to a Cam Edwards piece as if it were a hit piece, and then everything Edwards said was accurate. And while Siegel has some willingness to at least talk the talk, neither Siegel's efforts in the 97Percent group or his and Campbell's actions here did anything productive or any serious compromise rather than just getting half the cake now.

It's telling that Campbell's piece highlights constitutional carry as one of the biggest three options, and it's pointedly not in the final policy document. And that problem's built-in. Campbell himself notes that his opponents on the panel were the epitome of the saying about it being impossible to convinced someone against what their job requires.

It's not the first time he's written about this, but universal background checks are one of the "common sense" solutions that could work to target violent criminals.

Maybe. I'm still not convinced they're getting a real signal, rather than assuming the effectiveness of the tool.

What better way to rebuild trust than limit one's own policy in one's own states to only the most effective bits? As a pragmatic framework for antigun states this could be net positive for gun rights. The major caveat is that it doesn't change the incentives that push politicians to chase the dragon on this issue, disband Brady, or have a chance in hell.

I think it's a lot worse than that. It's not clear how any of this policy paper actually goes that way. We've seen what Purple and even Red State-implemented GVROs look like, and gunnies with a lot more function still weren't able to get serious due process there. The reductions to NICS, to marijuana prohibitions, or to nonviolent felonies all require changes to federal law that aren't happening unless the courts intervene (and maybe not even then, cfe Range) or the Trump admin starts rubberstamping the rights restoration process (and then only so long as the Trump admin is there). At the same time, the increases are free and readily available at the state level for gun control proponents. Red States can already (and often have already) pulled their NFA restrictions; Purple States won't. Optimistically the in-school gun safety stuff could be helpful, at least in theory? But we already know how that ends: the Biden administration abused the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to kill voluntary school gun leagues; the proposed policy lacks both a counter or even any consideration of the likely efforts by school administration to turn these into gun control brainwashing sessions.