Republican reasons for opposing reasonable gun regulations

“. . . . the typical citizen drops down to a lower level of mental performance as soon as he enters the political field. He argues and analyzes in a way which he would readily recognize as infantile within the sphere of his real interests. . . . cherished ideas and judgments we bring to politics are stereotypes and simplifications with little room for adjustment as the facts change. . . . . the real environment is altogether too big, too complex, and too fleeting for direct acquaintance. We are not equipped to deal with so much subtlety, so much variety, so many permutations and combinations. Although we have to act in that environment, we have to reconstruct it on a simpler model before we can manage it.” -- Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels, Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government, 2016

“And, the infantile reasoning situation is even worse when the typical citizen is constantly bombarded with disinformation, lies, opacity, irrational emotional manipulation and crackpot reasoning. What passes for reason in the minds of the deceived and manipulated is usually irrational drivel.” -- Germaine, 2022

At 3:54-6:52 of the video, Trevor Noah describes a few examples of the “reasoning” that Republicans in Congress cite to explain why they oppose gun regulations, currently in the form of the Protecting Our Kids Act.[1] Their thinking is either infantile, or far more likely, insulting cynical mendacity. No adult can be this infantile and function normally. 

Those Republicans are not stupid, but they just cannot come up with anything close to rational to explain their reasoning. One cannot rationally defend the indefensible. So, Republican elites are forced to defend the indefensible with irrationality. Most of the people this kind of thinking works with (~90% ?) are gun nuts who themselves are infantile in their reasoning on this issue.

Footnote: 

1. The House passed the bill, but the Senate will kill it. Republicans oppose it and the filibuster prevents its passage. Once again, nothing significant will come from congress in the wake of another mass slaughter inflicted by a weapon of war in the hands of an insane person. 

The main provisions of the bill are:

• People under 21 years of age cannot purchase assault rifles
• Outlaw high capacity ammo clips and bump stocks
• Mark all firearms to make them traceable (bans ghost guns)
• Promote responsible maintenance of guns
• Hold adults accountable if they fail to safely store their firearms
• Makes firearms trafficking a distinct Federal crime allowing prosecutors to go after people who provide guns to criminals 

That is what Republicans, gun makers, the NRA, Faux News** and gun freaks vehemently oppose. Presumably most normal American adults (~75% ?) support it, but by now we all know that public opinion walks and campaign contributions talk.

** I'll be using Faux News as shorthand for the whole neo-fascist, radical right propaganda Leviathan.