IT DOESN'T MATTER

I'm not able to watch the hearing on guns, but it doesn't really matter. The lefties I follow on Twitter all think Wayne LaPierre is beclowning himself, and maybe he is, but whatever he's saying, the mainstream press won't excerpt the nuttiest stuff he says when it reviews the day's events -- it'll show much respect for his general theory of gun violence and highlight his areas of apparent agreement with the rest of us.

By contrast, the right-wing press will hammer away at alleged threats to freedom, and even (gently) rebut Gabby Giffords by saying something like, "Oh, if there'd been somebody with a gun at that mall, she'd never have been shot. (Of course, there was a "good guy with a gun" in Tucson, and he almost shot another Good Samaritan.)

The point is, mainstream-media coverage will be evenhanded, with maybe a moderate sympathy skew toward the gun-control side; outside MSNBC and lefty blogs, and maybe Piers Morgan's show, LaPierre and his GOP coat-holders will be treated with respect. And that's how most Americans will learn about this hearing, not from media sources that treat the gunners with the contempt they deserve. Whereas the GOP base will get its news from Fox and talk radio, which will show no comparable restraint.

And tomorrow we'll be right back where we always are -- with a pro-gun-control majority lacking all conviction, and a gun-absolutist minority full of passionate intensity.