This is exactly how dumb the gun debate has become

Enter Kristi Noem.

(South Dakota Gov. Kristie Noem)

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Over the weekend, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — along with lots of other ambitious Republicans — spoke at the National Rifle Association conference in Indianapolis.

I listened to her speech on C-SPAN radio — the best! — as I drove my kids from one sporting event to another.

One line stood out so much to me that I was convinced I had misheard it.

Noem was telling the conference attendees about her two grandkids — one, a girl, who is almost two and a newborn boy. Which, cute!

Then she said this: “Addie, who soon will need them, I want to reassure you, she already has a shotgun and she already has a rifle.”

Here’s the thing. I didn’t mishear it. That’s exactly what Noem said.

Just so we’re clear on this, Noem is saying:

1. Her one-year-old granddaughter already has a rifle and a shotgun

2. She “soon will need them.”

This is, in a word, dumb.

I don’t care whether you believe the 2nd Amendment is a sacred right or an outdated bit of history. There’s just NO way that it makes sense for a one-year-old kid to have a shotgun and/or a rifle. And she certainly doesn’t need one “soon.”

Look, it’s obvious what Noem is doing here. She is pandering. She knows she is speaking to a heavily pro-gun audience and so she is saying the most outlandish crap she can think of to get applause.¹

But, it speaks volume about where we are in the gun debate in this country that she chooses to pander using an anecdote about a 1 year old and a gun. (Actually guns.)

In Noem’s mind, this is virtue signaling; she is telling the audience that she is one of them because, like them, she values her gun rights. She values them SO much, in fact, that her granddaughter, who isn’t even two, already has two guns to her name.²

THAT’s how pro gun she is!

Again, this makes no sense. No one thinks a little kid should have a gun. But, what Noem knows — or thinks she knows — is that gun ownership is considered so fundamental to the NRA crowd that her telling a ridiculous story about her granddaughter will endear her to them.

We’ve left logic entirely behind here. This is all about emotions — and how owning a gun makes someone feel.

A 2017 Pew study got at some of this. Three quarters (74%) of gun owners said that owning a gun was an essential part of their personal freedom. Only 35% of non-gun owners said the same thing.

That same survey showed that half of all gun owners said that owning a gun was either very or somewhat important to their sense of self.

Gun ownership then has become about sending a message to yourself and others about what kind of person you are. It’s become about personal freedom.

You’ll notice that nowhere in that sentiment is there any sort of gun policy mentioned.

Which means that on one side of the gun debate, you have people pragmatically promoting policies — strengthening red flag laws, banning high capacity magazines etc. — to strengthen gun control measures in the country while on the other side you have people reacting emotionally to what they view as a threat not just to their freedom but to their entire sense of self.

It doesn’t take a political genius to figure out that this can’t and doesn’t work. It’s a fundamental mismatch in motivations and goals.

And, of course, politicians — especially those on the pro gun side of the equation only make things worse.

Politicians — like Noem — understand that issues that play on peoples’ emotions are often the most powerful ones in terms of stirring loyalty and identification. So, what better way to score political points than a) make people feel like their basic freedoms are under assault and b) the Noems of them world are the only people standing in the breach.

It’s that sort of thinking — and political calculation — that has led us to this moment in gun politics: In which policies supported by overwhelming majorities of the public can’t even get a hearing in Congress.

All so the likes of Noem can tell you about her toddler granddaughter owning two guns.

1. Even that ploy for cheap applause backfired on Noem. If you listen to the clip the audience seems more surprised than anything else. There’s applause — but it’s decidedly scattered.

2. I HAVE to assume that Noem meant to say that her granddaughter has two guns that her parents have bought her for future use — when she is of an appropriate age to own and handle weapons.