While the media seizes on the tragedy in Connecticut to tell us that Americans have now largely turned a corner and thrown away their love for 2nd Amendment freedoms, reality tells us something completely different.

The reality is that "8,000 new members" have the joined the National Rifle Association (NRA) every day since the terrible crime at Sandy Hook Elementary School was committed.

To be clear, NRA membership always grows in the days after any incident where gun rights are called into question. But reports indicate that these numbers -- 8,000 a day -- "dwarf past trends."

Perhaps the aftermath of this incident is different because it's one in which the public has a growing knowledge that gun bans, gun-free school zones, and restrictions on law-abiding citizens have only fueled crime by providing the mentally ill and criminally-minded with helpless, soft targets that they can strike at will?

The message 8,000 new NRA members a day is sending is clear: Enough is enough. Gun control is not the answer, law-abiding citizens owning and carrying guns for their own defense is.