Voices of vets join chorus for gun safety

HOUSTON — Nearly three weeks “after Uvalde,” this feels different from other gun massacres.

The number killed. The timeline. The terror. The failures. The proximity. The calls for change. The children.

But it also feels the same. The sense that nothing will change.

On May 27, at the protest outside the National Rifle Association’s convention, two men holding handwritten signs — “Vets for Sane Gun Laws” — brought another difference into focus: Veterans joining the calls for better gun safety.

Their message resonated with me. I’m a vet, and I’d been thinking about how other vets feel about lax federal and state gun laws. The easy access to weapons combined with no substantive vetting or education requirements counters our military training and experience.

Todd Brannon, 52, reached out to his buddy and fellow Army vet Glenn Keels, 56, and said they needed to make the trip from Austin to Houston.

“The slaughter is going to continue,” Brannon said. “It’s unacceptable, and we’ve got to make changes.”

As we spoke, a lady in scrubs with a sign that read “Hell Hath No Fury Like an Angry Pediatrician-Mom” thanked Brannon and Keels.

“The thing that maybe upsets me the most is the way patriotism has been appropriated by some of these voices — equating these kinds of extreme views around guns with patriotism, and that really burns my ass,” Brannon said. “The fetishism is embarrassing. It’s absurd and it’s dangerous.”

Keels, once a Republican and NRA member, said their goal was “to show there’s a lot of folks who are veterans who are absolutely for the Second Amendment, but there’s a silent majority who want sensible gun control.”

Vets are not monolithic, and many have begun lending their voices to the call for gun safety.

The political action committee VoteVets and Common Defense, a grassroots group, have rallied vets, and the hashtag #VetsForGunSafety has gained traction.

Last Sunday, the Vet Voice Foundation bought a full-page ad in the New York Times that read: “It’s not gun control. It’s gun safety.”

On Wednesday, Veterans for Responsible Leadership shared a video from retired Army

Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

“Keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people is just common sense, yet in spite of overwhelming popular support, too many senators in Washington refuse to act,” he said. “Enough is enough. Pass background checks now.”

I reached out to Mike Jason, 49, a retired Army colonel concerned about our nation’s gun problem. He agreed there’s an increasing number of vets wanting safer gun laws.

The former battalion commander now working as a consultant said the partisanship around firearms makes it difficult for military people to voice their opinions because they can’t be politically involved.

“There’s a maturing now that people are saying, ‘Wait a minute, this isn’t partisan,’ ” he said. “‘I can talk about gun safety all day long.’ ”

He said society can learn from how the military mitigates risk with firearms — vetting, training, limited access — and described the “Swiss cheese model” of gun safety policies and laws. There may be holes in each layer, but with enough layers, there’s better security.

And with 20 million ARstyle rifles in circulation across the country, the risk is high.

Many politicians aren’t interested in creating new gun laws to mitigate the risks. So far, Republicans and other politicians who have served in the military haven’t joined the growing chorus of vets seeking safer gun laws.

That’s not new, but maybe they’ll hear the voices of their fellow veterans who want gun safety.

But we’re not there yet. On Wednesday, Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Navy vet who represents Uvalde, voted against a bill that would raise the age to purchase semi-automatic weapons to 21, limit gun trafficking, require weapons to be traceable, enhance gun storage and further limit bump stocks. Gonzales called the bill a “purely partisan, messaging package.”

Yes, this time feels different, but I fear it’s not different enough. Not yet.

Brannon

Keels