Thinking About Guns

I own a pistol. In my younger days I enjoyed wandering through woods and shooting at various inanimate objects I encountered: bottles, cans, fruit – anything that looked like it might explode if struck by a bullet. I would place the doomed object on a fencepost and step back a reasonable distance so I could test my aim. I never shot at mailboxes or road signs. As for shooting at paper targets – where’s the fun? I’ve never seen a sheet of paper explode from a bullet.

I never hunted. I never had a desire to kill. I acknowledge that many men do enjoy killing. It’s in our human DNA. For thousands of years our ancestors killed to survive. Killing to survive became wired in our brains. A successful hunt meant we wouldn’t starve that day. Our survival no longer depends on hiking through woods to obtain a dead animal. But the hunt and the kill still stimulates that ancient reward circuit in some people’s brains.

I haven’t fired my gun in years, but I keep bullets in the magazine, and I keep it where I can get to it fast. I tell myself that in the unlikely event of a home invasion, I’ll have a chance. But I would gladly give that gun to the authorities if it would bring back one child or teacher from any “Sandy Hook”-type massacre. And knowing that, I feel compelled to make a distinction between gun owners and gun zealots.

Gun zealots worship the concept of “no limits to gun ownership” as if it were God’s 11th commandment. Why? And why with guns but not other technologies that are less dangerous than guns?

For example, we could amend the Constitution to give everyone the right to drive. We’ll abolish drivers’ exams: no written test, no eye test, no driving test, no license. Everyone can drive, no matter what, because it’s in the Constitution. Do you suppose the roads would be safer? Would you feel safer knowing the road you are on is filled with untested, unlicensed drivers of all ages and physical and mental conditions?

Didn’t think so.

That is why every state requires would-be drivers to demonstrate a certain competence at driving. They must show they can read road signs. They must show they understand the rules of the road.

And yet, I haven’t heard anyone claim that licensing drivers is a step down a slippery slope that will lead to the government confiscating everyone’s cars.

The federal government requires would-be pilots to attend ground school, undergo flight training, fly a minimum number of hours, and demonstrate their proficiency to a pilot examiner before they are licensed to fly and carry passengers. Imagine the mayhem if anyone of any age and physical or mental condition was allowed to fly any airplane at any time with no experience and no training.

And yet, I haven’t heard anyone claim that licensing pilots is the first step toward the government confiscating all general aviation aircraft.

Our military trains its soldiers how to carry a gun, how to handle a gun, how to shoot a gun, how to know what gun is appropriate for a given situation. But I, and you, and the crazy tin-foil-hat guy who lives down the street, can walk into a gun show and walk out with an armful of very lethal weapons and thousands of rounds of ammo, and none of us have to demonstrate any knowledge of guns whatsoever. Nor do we have to prove we’re not serial killers or dangerous mental patients. Private sellers at gun shows don’t care. It’s all about the Benjamins.

Before the Civil War, millions of people considered slavery an institution approved of by no less than God Himself. Preachers in southern pulpits told their congregations that slavery was Biblical, and that God had ordained that black people in America were supposed to be slaves. Most white southerners fervently believed in the institution of slavery.

Gun zealots have a slogan: “You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.” Make no mistake, slave owners felt the very same way about their slaves. It took a war to end slavery. Between 620,000 and 850,000 Americans died in a land that counted only 31 million citizens. That was the cost of prying slavery from their cold, dead fingers.

The zealotry I see today among gun fanatics leads me to compare the struggle to enact sensible gun regulation to the struggle to end slavery. Gun zealots intend to go down swinging. But the irony is that no one wants to confiscate their guns. No one wants to end their right to buy and own firearms. No (or at least, very few) people advocate repeal of the 2nd Amendment.

If you like to hunt, or shoot at paper targets, or if you want a gun for self defense, fine – buy a gun. Some of us would just like to know you’re not a dangerous felon or criminally insane person before you walk out the door with your gun. And if you want to buy a military-grade weapon that was designed to inflict as much carnage as quickly as possible, I think we might want to put that sale on hold for a while – just as we would do if you were trying to buy a bazooka.

Lest you’ve forgotten, or perhaps never knew, 3000 kids are killed every year by guns and another 14,000 are injured by guns.

I used to go to a certain restaurant once or twice every week. One day, a waitress I knew was there with her little boy. He looked to be about six years old. One of his hands and half of his forearm were missing. I asked someone who worked there how he lost half his arm. She told me that this waitress – the boy’s mother – had an argument with her boyfriend (or maybe he was her husband – I’ve forgotten the details). During the argument, the man got out his gun and started waving it around, threatening to shoot someone or something. The boy’s mother and the man fought over the gun and the gun discharged. The bullet went through the wall and into the boy’s bedroom where it struck his arm. The injury was so severe that doctors had to amputate the arm.

That’s just one of the 14,000 child gun injuries this year that you won’t see on CNN. Nor will you see most, if any, of the 3000 children guns will kill this year.

Since 1963, nearly 193,000 children and teens have been killed with guns on American soil—more than four times the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action in the Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars combined. Something here is not right.