Want the Shooting to Stop?
/GET RID OF THE GUNS! Seriously, you still haven’t figured that out?
Have you heard this one? “If guns made us safe, we’d be the safest nation on earth.” Ain’t that the truth? We have 4% of the world’s population and 42% of the world’s guns – far more guns than people, and yet the percentage of Americans owning guns is shrinking. Sixty-nine percent of us don’t even own a gun, but of those who do, 29% of them own five or more guns! What does that mean? More guns concentrated in the hands of fewer people. And why would that be? Might there be something about gun ownership we’re failing to recognize?
Perhaps we should consider who feels the need to own a gun, and why. According to Pew Research:
The more guns an individual owns, the more important gun ownership feels to him or her.
73% of gun owners say they couldn’t imagine not owning a gun.
Men who own guns are highly likely to have had a gun since age 19.
79% of gun owners who grew up with guns in the house insist that the right to own guns is essential to their freedom.
While only a quarter of gun owners claim that gun ownership is very important to their identity, 42% of those who own 5 or more guns consider gun ownership very important to their identity.
78% of gun owners believe gun owners are perceived in a positive way; only 53% of non-gun-owners believe gun owners are perceived in a positive way.
Gun ownership among Republicans is more than double the rate among Democrats.
The total number of privately owned guns in the U.S. is 393 million – at the moment. (There are 323 million people in the U.S.!)
While we’re considering the facts, how about we take another look at that Second Amendment, which absolutely DOES NOT guarantee you or me or anyone the right to own a gun for self-defense. Does not! For God’s sake, take a minute to read this sentence with an open mind – and get over the insane misinterpretation the Supreme Court fabricated in its Heller decision of 2008. Here’s the amendment – read it in its totality; don’t parse it:
A well-organized militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right
of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Very simply, this amendment was meant to protect state’s rights against a potentially autocratic federal government reminiscent of the English king from whom we had just won independence. In case the president got some crazy, “kingly” ideas, in case he established a strong central military force to push the states around, each state should have a “well-organized militia” to stand up to such a threat. And how does a state have a well-organized militia? By mandating that every able-bodied man own a gun and bring it to training! And by ensuring the federal government cannot take that right away from each state.
There was no state National Guard in the eighteenth century. Still, the colonists had experienced the concept of local militias, and they definitely favored that plan as opposed to a central militia controlled by one executive. And so, each new state set its own law regarding the ages between which all white men must possess a gun and bring it to militia training. Each state set its own training schedule and policies. Therefore, under the bed of each white man of the appropriate age lay a musket to be pulled out and taken to the training ground when summoned so the militia might be “well organized.”
Nobody was told to have a gun for self-defense against his neighbors. Nobody was told that gun ownership was his personal, constitutional right as an American. Men were mandated by law to own the one gun they’d use as part of the state militia, should the need arise for the state to defend itself – and, most importantly, the federal government could not deny those state militiamen the right to bear arms.
In 1903 the National Guard was established, each state still having rights and responsibilities over its own “militia,” which could be called up by the governor. Gradually the states established weapons depots for the storage of guns, so guardsmen no longer had to keep their guns at home. And gradually guns became more sophisticated, more deadly. And gradually the firearms industry grew stronger, with a need to sell more guns and make more profit. But always, the purpose of a gun was simply to kill.
And still the Second Amendment did not change. Has never changed. The National Rifle Association sort of dropped the opening participial phrase (oops!) and just went with the “right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” but that didn’t change anything – except in the minds of individuals entranced with guns and gun ownership – and gun manufacturers who wanted to sell more guns. The Second Amendment does NOT give anyone the right to own or carry or use a gun for his or her own personal enjoyment, protection, ego or thrill.
So just stop splitting hairs over permits and registries and licenses. Stop haggling over the possibility that a testosterone-crazed 21-year-old might be more responsible with a gun than a testosterone-crazed 18-year-old. Stop diverting your attention to “open carry” versus “concealed carry” and “gun safety” and “weapons of war.” For God’s sake, the firearm is now the leading cause of death among American children and adolescents! Mass shootings and school shootings are weekly (maybe daily?) affairs now – in our wonderful democracy. When are you going to open your eyes and clear your head and have the guts to stand up against the minority of Americans who own guns (without which they could shoot no one)?
The solution is so simple:
Arm the military
Arm the police
Arm the National Guard
Store all hunting guns on licensed hunting compounds for use there only
And get rid of all other guns.
Period.
Today is July 5, 2022. Our country has had 17 mass shootings in 13 states in the past four days! But, shucks, only a dozen people actually died; 101 others were injured. In the first half of this year, we’ve endured 306 mass shootings! And yet 40% of American guns are owned by about 8% of the gun owners – each of whom owns ten guns or more! You don’t see anything wrong with this picture? You don’t feel hostage to someone else’s deadly fantasy?
And now that gun ownership and mass shootings and school shootings and “gun rights” have choked the life out of our nation, if you think parsing amendments and dickering over the appropriate age for a young man to raise a weapon of war on a rooftop overlooking an Independence Day parade might provide a solution, I say you are delirious. If you’re frozen with terror because you, like me, are one of the MAJORITY of Americans who are NOT armed, well – welcome to the crowd. Now, how long are you going to engage in this insane discussion while we are all held hostage by a mechanism that has no other purpose or use but to kill (and, of course, make money for the firearms industry)?
I’ll say it one more time: There’s only one actual solution:
Arm the military
Arm the police
Arm the National Guard
Store all hunting guns on licensed hunting compounds for use there only
And get rid of all other guns
How much more gun insanity do you intend to endure?