As it happened, last week I was reading Robert Harris' historical novel Imperium, and couldn't help but be struck by this passage:

You can always spot a fool, for he is the man who will tell you he knows who is going to win an election. But an election is a living thing – you might almost say, the most vigorously alive thing there is – with thousands upon thousands of brains and limbs and eyes and thoughts and desires, and it will wriggle and turn and run off in directions no one ever predicted, sometimes just for the joy of proving the wiseacres wrong.

The best statement regarding Donald Trump's ""Second Amendment people"" remark comes from Ronald Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis, who said:

To Donald Trump: I am the daughter of a man who was shot by someone who got his inspiration from a movie, someone who believed if he killed the President the actress from that movie would notice him. Your glib and horrifying comment about ""Second Amendment people"" was heard around the world. It was heard by sane and decent people who shudder at your fondness for verbal violence. It was heard by your supporters, many of whom gleefully and angrily yell, 'Lock her up!' at your rallies. It was heard by the person sitting alone in a room, locked in his own dark fantasies, who sees unbridled violence as a way to make his mark in the world, and is just looking for ideas. Yes, Mr. Trump, words matter. But then you know that, which makes this all even more horrifying.

(As reported by NBC News)

Perhaps gun enthusiasts don’t believe the statistics that people who own a gun are far more likely to be shot with their gun, or have a member of their household shot, than they are to shoot a burglar or intruder. Or if they do believe the statistics, they may think that other damn fools may come to grief with their own guns but they, themselves, are responsible enough, careful enough, and well trained enough to avoid such tragedies.

I don’t know whether that’s what Jamie Gilt of Putnam County, Florida thought. But Jamie maintained a Facebook page titled ""Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense"" in which she advocated having guns for defense of home and family. She posted a picture of her holding a rifle in one hand and a small child in another. And she posted such statements such as “My right to protect my child with my gun trumps your fear of my gun,” and “Even my 4 year old gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22.”

According to news reports, Jamie’s four-year-old son accidently shot her with his mother’s .45-caliber handgun. Jamie was driving a pickup truck at the time; her son was in the backseat. Fortunately, Jamie survived.