Calling out America’s gun sickness
To be clear, guns don’t bother me and I’ve always respected those who hunt to put meat on their tables. But it’s a different matter with assault weapons and a mentality that deifies a gun culture.
During the decade that the Second Amendment was written into the Constitution, the most common rifle owned by an American citizen was a black powder musket. Experts agree that only a meticulously trained rifleman could fire — at the most — three shots a minute, so it’s safe to assume that for the majority of Americans, two bullets was the maximum. In terms of committing mass murder, an assailant would be better equipped with a knife or a hatchet. It was a far cry from an AR-15, which can slaughter a classroom full of kids in a few heartbeats. The Founding Fathers, whatever their faults, were a fairly intelligent bunch. If they witnessed the weekly mass murders of schoolchildren and other American citizens being justified under the Second Amendment, they would have judicially rewritten it, if not entirely scrapped it.
According to Republicans, gun violence is caused by abortions, CRT, “Woke” culture, single-parents, lack of prayer in schools (actually, kids pray in school every day that they won’t be shot), moral decline, liberals, lesbians, trans individuals, Democrats, rap music and video games. And, of course, that old stand-by, mental illness and “hardened criminals.” In short, they blame everything except the guns.
Obviously, a person who feels compelled to shoot down any chosen group of people isn’t in his right mind. But I’ve learned from personal experience that many of those who suffer from mental illness don’t see themselves that way. Quite the contrary, they feel justified and entitled to inflict their mania on the rest of us and have no compassion or consideration for those they hurt. Besides, other western democracies have their share of mentally-ill residents yet have managed to avoid the gun mayhem that has become an American trademark.
As reported by this newspaper about gun laws under consideration in our state’s legislature, those against any form of gun regulation offer some bizarre arguments. We can begin with their assertion that guns are a defense against the tyrannies of Big Government, “tyranny” being defined as having to wear a mask during a killer pandemic or getting a vaccine. Oddly, these tyrannies only exist when the Democrats are in office. Gun advocates are fine when Republicans suppress voting and civil rights. As far as taking on the government, we saw examples of that on Jan. 6, 2021 and their attempts to kidnap and murder the Michigan state governor.
Then there is the old “They’re going to confiscate all our guns!” bugaboo. No, they aren’t. I’ve been hearing that nonsense since 1972 and — surprise — there are now 400,000,000 guns in America. No politician, no matter how progressive, would suggest such a thing, but there is no reason for any American citizen to own an assault weapon. If you want to play tough soldier, join the Ukrainian army. And those “hardened criminals?” Nearly all the mass shootings have been caused by individuals with no criminal record. If you want to lock up every adolescent having a bad day, you’ll need a prison the size of Taos County.
As I write this, the GOP-controlled Missouri state legislature is allowing minors with no minimum age restriction to carry guns in public, and the gun manufacturer WEE1 Tactical is offering an AR-15 designed for children. Imagine a classroom full of hormonal teenage boys armed to the teeth.
A few years ago when I was a substitute teacher at Enos Garcia Elementary School, there was a live shooter drill. For five awful seconds, I thought it was the real thing. My 4th-grade students huddled against the wall as I turned off the lights and locked the door. The thoughts going through my mind were too unsettling to recall. After the drill ended, the kids went back to their desks as unruffled as if it were a routine fire drill. For them, this was the new normal. For me, I wanted to hug each and every one of them. Instead, I went home and had my own personal nervous breakdown, distraught by America’s gun sickness.
After the Uvalde massacre, they had to use DNA so parents could identify their dead children. If the leadership of the NRA was forced to view the mutilated body of a small child shot with an AR-15, they’d go down on their knees and beg for forgiveness.