As we isolate ourselves from each other, we encourage a culture of fear. Does that feed America’s gun problem?
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The other day I penned an article expressing the need for a systematic re-evaluation of our gun laws and the opinion that tighter controls can save lives. Not only was I immediately lambasted as a fear monger and a moron, friends and family rushed to condemn the opinions I shared. The reactions from stranger and familiar alike was so visceral that I began to wonder why. Why does the mere mention of any form of gun control ping the limbic system of so many Americans?
Query people from other countries and they’ll almost assuredly tell you we have a significant problem with guns. We have a love affair with firearms in this country unrivaled in other developed nations. Not everyone mind you, but enough of us to block any kind of meaningful legislation designed to limit the destructive power they allow us to wield.
Make no mistake, guns are weapons of war, destruction and death.
They are designed for the sole purpose of killing. They fire a projectile at extremely high rates of speed that is intended to pierce the flesh of a living creature thereby extinguishing its life. That is the design and purpose of a firearm. The weapon itself has evolved over the centuries, but its purpose has nonetheless remained unchanged. From the blunderbuss of old to the repeating rifle to military grade weapons that now fire armor piercing rounds, these tools are designed to kill, maim and wound.
It’s more difficult to erect a new shed on my own land than it is for me to purchase an assault rifle.
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Yes, we regulate weapons already, but there are loopholes large enough to drive a bus through. I can buy a weapon on Craigslist or at a gun show. We make a laughable effort at controlling something who’s sole designation since its inception has been to kill. It’s more difficult to erect a new shed on my own land than it is for me to purchase an assault rifle.
I am not anti-gun.
Before going any further, I’ll share something with you all. Especially those of you who’ve attacked me both publicly and privately for being anti-gun. I’m anti many things: Oathkeepers, KKK, AIDS, Bigotry, racism, gerrymandering, Donald Trump, cottage cheese and Tom Cruise. I own a few weapons, enjoy target shooting, have been hunting and possess a concealed carry permit. I own a gun that I have an emotional attachment to. I understand, to a small degree, the infatuation.
I don’t understand the absolutely visceral reaction to the mere mention of gun control. People act as though jackbooted government troops will be knocking down their doors and confiscating their personal arsenals. First, why do you need an arsenal exactly? Second, and more importantly, very few people are out to gut the Constitution and eliminate the 2nd Amendment. Alter it? Perhaps. Regulate it further? For sure. Remove it? Nope.
We celebrate war as a solution but denigrate peace and compromise as weak and passive.
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We’ve been raised immersed in a culture that reveres the gun. From Yosemite Sam as youngsters to John McClane and Jason Bourne as adults, we are taught to believe that violence solves every problem everywhere. We are the country that used a nuclear weapon. Twice. We engaged in an arms race so massive we have an arsenal capable of ending all life on this planet. We’ve made road rage a part of popular vernacular. We live in the only developed nation on the planet that can boldly claim to have at least one mass shooting per day this year. We celebrate war as a solution but denigrate peace and compromise as weak and passive. We are a culture of violence and to deny that is to deny the reality of our current society.
Taking our guns is taking our power.
A gun gives us a false sense of mastery and strength. It’s as if just the thought of tighter regulation triggers the part of our minds that regulates fight or flight. At the mere mention of more regulatory control over guns (say, like cars), people stop hearing the actual argument. When that happens, there will be no getting through. There will be no constructive dialogue, no productive compromise. It’s nearly impossible to have an intellectual discussion when it has been clouded by emotion and fear.
The emotional response is exacerbated by the perceived reduction of our freedoms. Take off your shoes at the airport and prepare for a full body scan. Have your backpack searched before entering a local fair or carnival. Be careful what you say on the phone, the government is listening. Don’t you dare make a clock out of leftover pieces and parts or you’ll go to jail (but only if you are brown and/or Muslim.) In a time when our freedoms are being crowded from every direction, the removal of certain types of guns and the ease with which we can procure them is just too much to bear.
Gun manufacturers and organizations like the NRA know this. They feed that paranoia, nurturing it to further their agenda.
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In addition to our relationship with violence, we live in constant fear. Fear of others. Fear of the government. Fear of chemicals, cancer and BIG PHARMA. We fear our neighbors and the unfamiliar. We’re afraid of everything and everyone. The natural result of this intertwining culture of violence and fear is defensiveness. Gun manufacturers and organizations like the NRA know this. They feed that paranoia, nurturing it to further their agenda. We are very much products of our environment and it has driven some of us further into a corner and created a defensive society.
Due in large part to fear, we have disconnected from society.
Each of us has been sucked into an electronic world of perceived safety, where we are unable to be physically harmed. Emotionally however, we have become stunted and isolated. Even many of the people who eschew electronic interaction are often withdrawn from society. We concern ourselves only with our own while stepping over the homeless and needy. We ignore the signs of desperation and contempt as a way of guaranteeing our own safety. We don’t help because we fear the result, thereby ensuring the result we had dreaded.
Our natural inclination to retreat has in essence worsened an already terrible problem.
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As the violence worsens and more lives are extinguished, we become desensitized to the horrors. We expect them. There is no shock like there was with Columbine. There are no tears like there were in Sandy Hook. We are numbing ourselves to the pain. Isolating ourselves within smaller and smaller units, disconnecting from society, from neighbors and even from friends. Our natural inclination to retreat has in essence worsened an already terrible problem.
No, gun control isn’t a magic bullet.
It won’t solve all of our problems or force the bad guys away. It can be a great place to start, and can be a potential game changer. It can help slow down a problem that is quickly spiraling out of control. Fixing our broken society cannot be done with a single solution or act. We require a multi-faceted approach to curbing the death and destruction in what are supposed to be our safest places. We need to stop hoping and praying and start acting.
Photo Credit: AK Rockefeller/flickr
Guns, like property, have not always been available to everyone. Slaves, for instance, never allowed to own guns. Jewish citizens in WWII, no guns. Guns have been widely bought and were owned at much larger numbers in Americas past. So there is some terrible history to who gets guns and who does not. There is also history to our ownership, what has changed? The Family, the universal belief that life mattered, and people who murder are the worst of us.
Yes, you can buy a gun advertised on craigslist, but you still have to follow the same laws and fill out the same forms which apply if you buy a gun advertised anywhere else.
Could you expand a bit more on what you mean by social connection in this context?
Then let’s start by taking full-auto military weapons away from police and Federal Agents who are supposed to “serve and protect”. Giving them military hardware encourages a mindset to use it even if the situation does not call for it. They are becoming what the Redcoats were over 200 years ago: an occupying army that sees “civilians” as potential enemies.
I agree, well stated Wes
Hi: I am flabbergasted; you seem to be genuinely concerned about out the issues concerning firearms, and yet inform us that you have several weapons and have a concealed carrying permit. However, the most surprising is the fact that you do not want the repealing of the 2nd Amendment, which is terribly outdated. Why on earth do you bother to be concerned in the first place when you support a silly, outdated concept that is at the root of the problem? One more thing, I have noticed that our conventional wisdom is increasingly stating that only so called “nut jobs”… Read more »
“he problem with this line of thought is that before these people commit their act, there very often nothing to suggest that they may “snap”, as it were, before committing these horrors. So I put it to you that the “nut jobs” only become “nut jobs” after they actually commit the act. At the end of the day, you are part of the problem. ” Wrong …. Mental illness has been a problem for countless years and it’s still not being addressed properly, especially where it related to men. I volunteer at a homeless shelter and I would comfortably say… Read more »
As a gun owner, you know it’s extraordinarily difficult to buy an assault rifle. You likely presumed correctly that the readers don’t know better. Many or most gun murders are committed by gang bangers. Do gang bangers spend too much time on Facebook? Yeah, all gun owners are psychologically ruined nutcases. We knew that already. Cuomo, after Sandy Hook, said confiscation isn’t off the table. He’s not the only one. I suppose we could take your word that we need not take their word. After all, politicians lie all the time, anyway. One of the principles of the Oathkeepers is… Read more »
I can always rely on you Richard, to bring this into perspective and save me time typing.