One would think that people who are opposed to gun ownership would be a peaceful lot. Well, you would be wrong.

Let’s get something straight. Guns are already regulated in America. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of laws on the books, just like there are probably thousands of laws against murder, theft, rape, sex with children, and driving while intoxicated. Even so, tens of thousands of people break these laws every year.

“The Newtown gunman was a monster who slaughtered his own mother, five heroic educators and 20 angel-faced schoolchildren. He ignored laws against murder. He bypassed Connecticut’s strict gun control regulations, and he circumvented the Sandy Hook Elementary School’s security measures. Every decent American is horrified and heartsick by this outbreak of pure evil.”

Believing that even more laws will stop the deaths, anti-gun advocates are going for the throat. Here are some choice comments from University of Rhode Island Professor Erik Loomis who teaches U.S. environmental history, the Civil War, late 19th and early 20th century America, labor history, and the American West in the university’s history department. Keep in mind that our tax dollars help to pay his salary:

“This week, the nutty professor took to Twitter to rail against law-abiding gun owners and the National Rifle Association. ‘Looks like the National Rifle Association has murdered some more children,’ Loomis fumed. ‘Now I want Wayne LaPierre’s head on a stick,’ he added. (LaPierre is executive vice president and CEO of the NRA.) Loomis was just warming up.

“‘F**k the National Rifle Association and its policies to put crazy guns in everyone’s hands,’ Loomis tweeted. ‘You are g*dd*mn right we should politicize this tragedy. F**k the NRA. Wayne LaPierre should be in prison,’ he spewed.

‘Can we define NRA membership dues as contributing to a terrorist organization?’

“If all that wasn’t clear enough, Loomis also re-tweeted the following message from a fellow left-winger: ‘First f**ker to say the solution is for elementary school teachers to carry guns needs to get beaten to death.’”

People kill other people for a variety of reasons. Deep down in their darkened souls they offer justification for their actions. In what way is Professor Erik Loomis’ rationale for wanting to beat to death a pro-gun activist any different from the various reasons people put forth as to why shooters kill and maim people in schools, at political campaign events, and in movie theaters?

Doc Loomis is not alone. John Cobaruvvias, the Texas Democratic Party leader, tweeted violence against NRA members: “Can we now shoot the #NRA and everyone who defends them?” Of course, later he said that he was not really serious.

The sad fact is, many people are serious. Will some disturbed person act on the above irresponsible statements and kill in the name of “Whatever?” If it happens, the gun rather than the person will be blamed. Maybe it’s time that we blame the rhetoric.