AMERICA’S GUN
HOW RIDICULOUSLY EASY IT IS TO FIRE THE RIFLE THAT’S THE SYMBOL OF THE GUN CONTROL DEBATE IN THE U. S.
I’d never held a gun before walking into The Shooting Galler y, a firing range and gun store in Orlando just six kilometres from Pulse nightclub. It’s a little more than 48 hours since Omar Mateen unleashed a torrent of bullets, killing 49 and wounding another 53.
A portly man with dark hair stands behind a glass case full of sidearms and ammunition. A dozen rifles and machine guns hang on the wall. He points to a waiver at the end of a form and tells me to sign it. It’s two paragraphs long.
He asks me what I want and I look at my notes — an AR-15.
“That one,” I say, pointing at the wall, recognizing the large black firearm from the news stories.
All it takes to fire the semi- automatic rifle notorious for its role in the deadliest mass shooting in the United States is US$ 111.80 and five minutes of instruction.
Chris — who declines to tell me his last name — runs me through the basics: Here’s how you grip it, finger poised around the trigger and your left hand for stability. Five minutes and I’m in the shooting range. No supervision or instructor required.
“It’s like loading a Pez dispenser,” I tell myself as I press copper- tipped brass bullets into a 9mm Glock handgun. After 50 rounds, it’s time for the big gun.
I’m surprised not by the power but at how easy the semi- automatic rifle is to use. I only have 20 bullets in the magazine but, by the last few, I’m landing shots in quick- fire succession to the head on a target more than 4.5 metres away.
The loudest cheers at a vigil Monday night for the victims at Pulse were for calls for stricter gun laws. The thousands of people in attendance were encouraged to contact their elected officials to halt the killing. On average in recent years, the U. S. has seen more than a shooting a day with three or more victims. There have been five since Sunday’s violence alone.
Every t i me a s hooter opens fire in a club, a movie theatre, on a school campus, the debate about gun control gets louder and more divisive. Before the bodies were even counted inside t hat Orlando nightclub, pundits and politicians were again debating whether this could have been prevented: whether the solution was a ban on Muslim immigrants, whether more guns would prevent more gun violence or whether stricter laws and background checks were the answer.
The AR- 15 is again the c e nt r e of t hat debate, though it turned out Mateen used a similar, but different semi- automatic rifle. He bought it legally after a cursory background check despite being been interviewed by the FBI for suspected terrorist links.
The dark irony is that for all the focus on semiautomatic rifles, handguns are far more prevalent and deadly. On average, more than 100,000 Americans will be shot each year as a result of either crime, accident or suicide attempts. According to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, nearly 33,000 of them will die. FBI statistics detail 8,124 gun murders in 2014: 2,052 of them with unnamed firearms, 248 with rifles, 262 with shotguns and 5,562 with handguns.
Yet most Americans believe guns such as the AR-15 kill the most people.
Katie Atkins has a subtle southern drawl and the kind of deep permanent tan that comes from years under the sun. She runs a ticket booth offering discount bundles for attractions to the local amusement parks that anchor the Orlando economy.
“I don’t think guns should be allowed unless you’re military, unless you’re an officer of the law. I do not think that guns should be in hands because it is too easy for anybody to lose track of what reality is,” the 42-year-old says. “Anything can push anybody over the edge and then they can just reach down and grab a weapon and go at it.”
Estimates suggest there are about 300 million firearms in the U. S., where 31 per cent of households possess at least one gun. Sentiments such as Atkins’s are i ncreasingly common as ownership rates fall. A study from the University of Chicago f ound modern gun ownership spiked at just over 50 per cent in 1977 and has been steadily declining since, with upward blips after traumatic events such as 9/11. By contrast, fewer than two million Canadians have a gun licence, according to RCMP data, less than six per cent of the population.
Yet, it would be overly simplistic to suggest Amer- icans are ready to end their long relationship with firearms. A majority believe t here could be stronger laws — 55 per cent in a Gallup poll released this week — but what they mean by stronger laws varies greatly. Few, even on the far left, support an outright ban.
“I’m from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I grew up with a gun in my hand … I own two guns and I’m telling you right now the guns laws should be stricter,” said Roxanne LeBlanc, a self- described liberal standing next to Eola Lake in the heart of Orlando. “I don’t think the Democratic party is trying to take away people’s right to bear arms. The Second Amendment is extremely important and they’re not trying to abolish it.”
Stonewall is an Orlando gay club just on the outskirts of the downtown drag. Later that night the bar shines with rainbow l i ghts and there’s a water tank upstairs for mermaid drag performances.
Steve, a bartender with toned arms and grey creeping into the corners of his short blond hair, says tougher gun laws make sense.
“No one needs an assault rifle,” he says.
But, like LeBlanc, he owns two guns he “hasn’t fired in years” and believes in the right to bear arms for protection and hunting.
The fact that right is enshrined in the constitution, under the Bill of Rights in the ever- debated Second Amendment, is only part of the story. Owning a gun isn’t voting; as Peter Loewen, director of the Centre for the Study of the United States at the University of Toronto, put it, it’s not like most people think, “Gee, I better exercise my Second Amendment right today” and go buy a gun.
“You have people who culturally take a lot from firearm ownership. The fact it’s enshrined in the Second Amendment simply enhances the debate,” Loewen said. “You don’t have to run by the government your right to say something, so why would they to own a gun?
“They view themselves as well within the mainstream of an American culture of rights.”
Many agree t hat l awmakers need to act to keep guns away from people such as Mateen.
Even Republican l awmakers caved to a Democratic filibuster this week to simply allow a vote on a bill to restrict firearm sales in all states to those convicted of serious crimes, with severe mental illnesses and those on terrorist watch lists.
Most American gun owners are not the Confederate- flag bearing, immigrant fearing Trump supporters so many urban Canadians would presume.
John Dempsey, a lawyer turned high- school teacher and l i felong Republican, echoed a variation of the phrase outside the Orlando Gun Club l ast week. But he’s also worried about his country, the state of the debate and what this election cycle with Trump — whom he calls a dangerous buffoon — and Clinton — whom he calls a liar — means. He chatted about the need for due process before putting people on “terror watch lists” and barring them from buying weapons. He also explained the difference between explicit and implicit rights as l aid out by the American founding fathers in the 18th century.
But the Bill of Rights is clear, and he quotes the Second Amendment itself: “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Just over an hour’s drive from Disney World, deeper into the Florida wetlands in a town called Inverness in Citrus County, one of the state’s most bombastic gunrights advocates knows how to make his voice heard.
A sign outside of his Florida Gun Supply store near a courthouse declares it a “Muslim-Free Zone.”
“It’s not a joke,” said Andy Hallinan, owner and self-declared defender of freedom of speech and the Second Amendment. He believes his sign is legal because the 1964 Civil Rights Act doesn’t include retail space in its list of areas that require public access.
“The ‘ Muslim- Free Zone’ sign is me standing up to radical Islam,” he said on the phone from California, where he’s wrapping up a business trip. “The sign is intended to make Muslims feel unwelcome.”
He’s no stranger to making news for such stunts — and he supports Trump for the same brashness. His recent decision to sell a target sporting Bernie Sanders face created an online fire- storm, and he continues to sell other targets with Clinton and President Barack Obama’s faces. He’s been investigated by the Secret Service and the FBI and the ATF.
“The reason I created the targets was to demonstrate the power of the First Amendment,” he said. “It offends me, yeah. I don’t like looking at those targets.”
But he’s also a constitutional literalist who believes deeply in the Bill of Rights as written.
“The reason that the government doesn’t like the Second Amendment is because inherently when you put the firepower in civilians’ hands, the government is physically accountable for what they do. But if you remove the firepower from people’s hands, the government is no longer accountable to the people.”
It’s not the firearms themselves he’s so passionate about, but what their power represents and their role in curbing the ever- encroaching arm of the state.
“I don’t like guns, personally … they don’t interest me,” Hallinan said.
“What I do have an interest in is training, because people think they can just go buy a gun and they’re Rambo.”
Back inside The Shooting Gallery, I’m marvelling at my handiwork.
Almost all of my shots with the AR-15 were lethal; the bullets cut clean holes through the head and torso of my man-shaped target. As a southern Ontario girl, the closest I’ve previously come to a shooting range was archery at summer camp.
Chris rings up my total. The bullets, not the range fee or the gun rental, are the most expensive part. It baffles my Canadian brain as I try to wrap my head around the fact I’ve fired the same weapon that killed dozens of children in Connecticut, civilians at a workplace in California and moviegoers inside a movie theatre in Colorado.
The AR- 15 can be purchased in many American states in minutes. Chris tells me different versions cost between $ 1,000 and $ 2,000 American. I ask how long it takes to buy one.
“With a clean record and if you were a Florida resident,” he says, “under 30 minutes.”
(LOADING THE WEAPON) IS LIKE LOADING A PEZ DISPENSER.