So the NRA will continue to market its primary ware: not guns, but fear. The NRA’s millionaire bullies convince hard-working men and women to contribute membership dues of $40 per year, preaching that the alternative would be for malign forces within our government — that strangely elusive “deep state” — to seize power and take our guns.

The NRA’s dire warnings fuel a bizarre, all-too-common fantasy among its acolytes (I’ve been startled by how often I’ve encountered it). The scenario runs that either our government and military will turn on the population in a new civil war, or the government and military will suffer catastrophic failure — at which point our freedom will be preserved by out-of-shape, middle-aged men with AR-15s.

My fellow Americans, if our military can’t protect us, geezers with guns won’t.