Somebody please save me from the guns
The United States drew horrified/disgusted/bewildered gasps from the rest of the world in February when yet another mass shooting unfolded at a high school.
What is it about the guns and those crazy Americans? Why is it seemingly impossible to prevent crimes like this?
I’ve never seen a gun in China, except on TV and those carried by soldiers. By contrast, in the United States they’re everywhere, both seen and unseen, and easily available to the general public. Guns are found in around 35 percent of households.
In Utah, my home state, which is arguably the most “gun-friendly” place in the country, it has long been legal — explicitly by law, with some exceptions — for a per- son to possess a gun in any public place, including a retail store, restaurant, park, hospital, state university campus or government building.
Near my home there are at least four shooting ranges — three indoor ones, and one outdoors — within a 2-kilometer radius. Gun shops abound. Pawn shops selling guns dot the landscape. There’s a gun desk in virtually every major sporting goods store.
Ammunition is lined up in boxes on shelves in every caliber known to man, ready for customers to grab as they scurry off to the cashier. It’s easier to buy than vegetables.
You can legally carry a gun into Utah’s Capitol building while the legislature is in session. There are no metal detectors, no pat-downs by security officers. Nobody seems to care.
A casual observer would never know it, but a significant number of elected state lawmakers, debating bills on the floor of the House of Representatives and Senate, are armed beneath their dark jackets.
Full disclosure: I’m a gun collector. I have a permit to carry a concealed weapon that’s recognized by about two-thirds of the states. Of course, I don’t shoot people.
Gun owners are, as a group, not only law-abiding but fanatically so. Our love affair with guns arises from our country’s frontier history, and from the democratic ethic that says good citizens should participate in their own security. The police are usually not around in moments of crisis.
Admittedly, incidents requiring deadly self-defense are increasingly rare. But then so is a house fire, and we still keep fire extinguishers. This is a powerful concept — so powerful that it found its way into the US Constitution.
Mass shootings can be seen as the awful price a country pays for unbound freedom.
This is complicated all the more by the unlikelihood that regulatory measures can prevent murder.
Would confiscation work? Perhaps. But it would take 100 years to accomplish, so it’s time we got started. Good luck finding the votes.
Truth be told, I don’t really “need” all the guns in my collection. Even in Utah, I seldom go to the shooting range. But guns are “normal” to me. When handled properly, they are great fun. And law-abiding people have stopped crimes on many occasions.
I went home recently for Spring Festival, and I just did what comes naturally: I bought another one. Will someone please talk some sense into me?