The Conservative, "Pro-Life" Christian Love for AR-15s
Yesterday, a man walked into a Manhattan office building with an AR-15 and murdered four people before turning the gun on himself.
I’m writing and recording this piece the morning after, knowing full well that soon this story will have vanished from the news and slipped from public consciousness. In a matter of days (if that), it will be replaced by yet another mass murder, the specifics of which will shift to one degree or another: the details of the shooter, the location of the horror, and the names and faces of the victims. In very short order, this particular massacre in broad daylight, which took four lives, irreparably disfigured four families, and left a lifetime trail of grief and trauma for untold numbers of people, will very quickly be forgotten.
This is the stunning regularity of gun violence in America.
These assassinations are commonplace here.
And today, in the aftermath of the murders in New York City, as always, there are efforts by Conservative media and voters to craft a narrative around those killings that places the blame on politics, nationality, mental health, pigmentation—everywhere but where it belongs: in the hands of those who love guns more than the people assassinated with them.
All violent crimes require means, motive, and opportunity, and the truth is, all angry and unstable people with the motive and opportunity to murder will always have the means, as long as Republicans hold power, because they work tirelessly for shooters to have access to AR-15s.
They emblazon their lapels with them in Congress, they adorn their chests with them, and affix their pickup truck bumpers with them.
And of course, they relentlessly craft legislation to sustain them.
Despite being the weapon of choice for all sick and hateful people wanting to inflict rapid carnage upon human life, Conservatives insist that AR-15s be readily available, for no other reason than the inherited, irrational gun lust that makes them feel strong and secure. Because they find their identity in the weapons, the weapons, not the lives taken with them, are sacred.
So, today, as always, these supposed pro-life Christians will cut-and-paste hollow, heartless thoughts and prayers platitudes for victims’ families and engage in performative mourning, while continuing to ensure that a steady stream of military-grade instruments of destruction never stops flowing, ensuring other families will soon walk the same painful path of early funerals, mutilated bodies, stolen childhoods, and severed relationships.
The cognitive dissonance is almost beyond comprehension: to be able to tell yourself a story that you believe in defending the “sanctity of life,” while actively championing the single most common tool used to commit mass murders, one that no other civilized nation is burdened with.
The theological gymnastics, intellectual acrobatics, and steadfast self-delusion necessary to make that make sense in one’s head must be incalculable, and honestly, that’s a place most of us simply can’t go.
From the outside, though, the rest of us see what a farce it is to self-identify as a defender of human life while simultaneously trafficking in the source of so much preventable bloodshed and death.
Conservatives, you can’t love AR-15s and be pro-life, and that’s just how it is.
Please, don’t shoot the messenger.
Please, don’t shoot the messenger.
We refer to the conservative movement as "pro-birth", not "pro-life". As long as you are born, they don't care if you are starving, have no access to health care, or are shot by high-powered weapons for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, even if it is in your school or place of worship.
Absolutely right.
I carried that very weapon—an M16A2 and later the M4, military cousins to the AR-15—for over two decades. I trained with it, qualified with it, cleaned it blindfolded, and knew precisely what it could do. I was expected to use it if the balloon went up, if we had to repel borders or return fire in a hostile theater. That weapon has one job: to kill human beings efficiently. Not suppress, not scare, not defend. Kill.
And it does that job exceptionally well.
Let me be blunt. This weapon was designed to tear through bodies, not punch holes. The round isn’t some polite full-metal jacket that you could maybe repurpose for target shooting or deer season. It’s a high-velocity, tumbling round that shreds tissue, bounces off bone, and turns organs into soup. I don’t say that to be dramatic. I say it as someone who knows what it looks like when it hits a human body.
You don’t take that into the woods for venison. You don’t mount it over the fireplace to show off Grandpa’s war relics. You sure as hell don’t keep it in the hall closet for “home defense,” unless your plan is to reduce your living room to drywall confetti and get your neighbors’ kid killed through the wall.
This whole fantasy of the armed civilian rising up in a red dawn moment to defend freedom with their trusty rifle? It’s a cosplay. A deadly one. And more often than not, it ends with that same civilian either shooting themselves in the foot, being outgunned by someone better trained, or—more commonly—getting themselves or someone else killed before the so-called enemy ever shows up. If they ever do. Which they won’t. Because they’re imaginary.
Let me say it plain: There is no rational, defensible reason for a civilian to own an AR-15. None. Every argument I’ve ever heard in its favor is either fantasy, delusion, or an NRA fever dream designed to keep people scared, armed, and stupid.
Self-defense? A shotgun or pistol is more effective in close quarters and less likely to take out the neighbor’s cat.
Hunting? The meat’s ruined. Congrats, you turned a 12-point buck into red oatmeal.
Tyranny? You already lost. The government has drones and satellites. Your big play is hiding behind a shed with a camo hat and Facebook memes?
These arguments are so specious, they practically glitter.
Meanwhile, children are dying. Women are dying. Worshippers, shoppers, teenagers in school cafeterias—they’re bleeding out in seconds while we argue over whether the Second Amendment includes the right to be a walking war crime.
And the same folks clutching rosaries and crowing about “pro-life” values are the ones making sure those rifles stay on shelves, stay in hands, stay loaded. They’ll fight to save the unborn but turn a blind eye when that same child is shot dead in a classroom a decade later.
The hypocrisy would be hilarious if it weren’t soaked in blood.
I’ve seen what these weapons do. And I’ve seen what people become when they’re lied to long enough about what liberty means. We are not safer with these weapons in our homes. We are not freer. We are one press of the trigger away from being another headline that vanishes by lunchtime.
This isn’t a difference of opinion. This is a difference between those of us who’ve seen what killing really looks like—and those who’ve only seen it in movies.
So no, Conservatives, you don’t get to wrap yourself in the flag and cradle a weapon of war while calling yourself pro-life.
You are neither.