Sometimes we cannot solve our problems because what we want is uncertain. Do we want this or that? Do we want to replace this with that or, do we want a reprieve from stress? Often, it is the This versus That binary thinking that complicates the issue and obstructs potential solutions. But not this time.
Another killing in Tennessee, where a woman brought an assault weapon into a school and killed six people including children, shines a light on the sharp division among Americans concerning gun ownership and increasing gun violence. I won’t call this a mass shooting because I prefer straightforward language – murder by gun. Calling this another multiple murder by gun gives the incident what it deserves…accountability. A gun was the chosen weapon. The shooter deliberately and premeditatively became a murderer. It was not self-defense or accident or suicide by gun. For the same reason that Kyle Rittenhouse should be behind prison walls, toting and brandishing a gun where people are gathered and firing the gun at individuals or the crowd causing loss of life is Murder. Words do matter.
Language defines the problem and the solution process. We are less likely to solve a problem – don’t we all agree that the USA has a problem? – because few of us listen to each other. Few of us can state with certainty what we want for ourselves and others. Writing this essay is my problem-solving process.
I want this uniquely American violence to end. No person or group should fear gun violence where they gather in peace. Whether public protest, school, religious meeting, grocery store, shopping mall, or healthcare clinic – we have a reasonable assurance that we can safely go about our business and return home to our loved ones. That assurance is quickly diminishing. Our hearts are heavy; our losses stretch beyond the death of a child or a neighbor toward an abyss of stress and fear; our social media postings show blame instead of bereavement, reveal the growing divide instead of deliberate discussion; our international reputation worsens; our legacy looms grim. Where do we go from here, this new day and another multiple murder by gun? I will not accept an escalation of this violence or enactment of reactive policies that will change with every new administration. I want this to end.
The This for That is simple: I want peace and tranquility for all of us in exchange for this daily gun violence that kills (very few of us population-wise) but greatly harms local and national progress. But not reactive measures or ineffectual policies that appease groups. In other words, take the problem-solving out of politicians’ hands. American politics is corrupt and self-serving. Few elected officials possess the will or courage to collaborate with others while solving problems for the common good.
When my son-in law took his own life by gun twenty-five years ago, he committed to his death while assigning his very young children to life without their dad and his young wife to a trauma from which she has never fully recovered. And me to a sadness that compounds all the sadness we naturally accumulate over a lifetime. When we throw stones or undesirable debris into water, the ripple effects are merely visual manifestations of the objects’ abilities to change the lake’s environment. The stone used in this way is powerful. The death by gun of one person we know or can imagine we know is powerful. It has the power to make us genuinely sad and sincerely say, “We send thoughts and prayers your way.” It has the power to widen an emerging, corrosive gap in our collective psyche so that we take only one of two sides, like a two-lane road that hugs the canyon’s face and forces drivers into their ascending and descending lanes without opportunity to pass each other or pull over for conversation and photo opportunities. Our nation’s gun violence is powerful.
I will define the problem: murder by gun is a daily occurrence in many communities; multiple deaths by gun in one place is escalating; Americans are divided in their interpretation of gun rights and gun reform; Americans are not rejoicing over the escalation in gun violence but are refusing to approach the negotiation table; Americans need leadership from among its respected non-political authorities who are able and willing to collaborate for reasonable, efficacious, powerful solutions.
Putting trusted data aside, I have several suggestions for this team.
First, admit that millions of guns cannot now or ever be taken from American gun owners. They have them; they’ll do whatever they can to keep them. Policies like buy-back programs and door-to-door retrieval of certain types of guns are inadequate at best, violence-provoking at worst. Dismiss outright the temptation to confiscate guns from non-violent, non-criminal Americans. Gun ownership addiction will not be solved in one year or two generations. If the addict enjoys the drug without causing harm, leave him be. If the gun addict wants to spend his child’s college savings on new AR-15s, the child is unlikely to pursue higher education anyway. If the addict abides by background checks and legal purchases and secure storage laws, let him fill his guest bedroom with his drug of choice so that Nana must stay in Motel 6 when she comes around to spoil the young’uns.
Next, discuss the disinformation that fuels America’s appetite for guns and creates billionaires among gun manufacturers. What is it and what are the remedies? Disinformation is a tricky problem to solve in a thriving liberal democratic republic. But the identification of specific propaganda and its sources is a first step in determining the legal, effectual ways to combat it.
One bit of (non)wisdom is, “It’s an investment in home security”. Prevalent on the fences and front doors of many gun owners are signs announcing that inside the residence is a gold-mine of guns…that can be immediately sold across the border or to a gang or to a stranger’s uncle with a vault in the back of his barn. Also, who gets shot when a sleeping husband is awakened in the night but his wife who had turned out lights again after picking up the broken glass? Who frequents the gun range and brags about his newest gun purchase and posts on Facebook “You’ll take my guns out’n my cold dead hands” but the guy who called police after his home was broken into? Not the guy who quietly keeps one shotgun in a locked cabinet but has a collection of valuable Edwardian antiques.
It's easy and worthwhile to point out the fallacy in the ‘home security’ argument. Although there are many rural areas and urban neighborhoods into which police will hesitate to enter or be too distant to respond as needed, in general it is true that easy access to a gun is not the best way to ensure home security and family safety.
Another line that fuels America’s drug…I mean gun…addiction, “I got my rights”. Sure, recreational cocaine use harms no one…except the children and women who are trafficked by the drug cartels. Your need to own and fire and caress guns harms no one…until the gun is fired accidentally or stolen and used to kill others. But aside from a selfish desire to fulfill a craving, what exactly defines the right to own any kind of gun? Does God decree this right? Put all the religious text from Bible to papyrus together that says deity commands every person to own a gun…and you won’t have enough paper to wipe your ass.
Which brings us to the Second Amendment. Too easy. The writers were clear. Every state entity can form a militia, as needed, under state government control, with federal guidelines. Not a volunteer band of resentful men whose sole aim is to impress the guys with the bigger dicks by rounding up ten-year-old children who cross the Arizona desert alone. When the Constitution was written, they needed militia, and they had single-shot muskets. Militia are commanded in military structure; they are not a mishmash of far right lunatics allowed to wield power over their neighbors or decide their own rules of engagement. There was accountability then, just as there is now over our National Guard and United States Coast Guard. Accountability and control of firearms.
Therefore, to promote responsible gun ownership and legal remedies to irresponsible gun ownership, information that contradicts and disembowels disinformation about gun ownership should defend the Second Amendment’s purpose and context. Let us be honest with each other. Gun owners rarely use their guns criminally, but gun ownership is a Constitutional right tied to a state’s right to defend itself. The opening here to write gun reforms that demand greater accountability is wide and deep.
Every gun-owner residence must have secure, locked storage for the guns. Unless a gun owner shows proof that his guns are locked in a secure private gun range facility, he must be able to show that he has child-proof storage in the residence. Gun ownership must be serious business and under greater regulation than car ownership. Americans complained about and defied seatbelt laws for decades…until they did not. Complaining and resisting must be in our collective DNA. But a campaign that infuses trustworthy data with respectful, unbiased emotional appeal can sway many an addict to act responsibly.
Empathy. To contradict disinformation campaigns that fuel America’s divide and create wealth for NRA-supported politicians, gun lobbyists and gun manufacturers, we who desire Violence Control must appeal to America’s collective empathy. We do have empathy for others; we just often forget to exercise it before it weakens and atrophies. When the gun lobby via 24/7 Conservative Rant Radio says, “It’s us versus them; all the others want to kill our children and abolish religious freedom”, we must reply, “Who wants that? We are all in this together. If one group loses its freedoms, we all lose.”
Instead of further dividing the nation with rhetoric that creates enemies and resentments, offer the constant voice of reason and hope. Show that children suffer because parents are in criminal gangs, parents are buying guns instead of saving for college, parents are sharing guns with children who accidentally shoot other children, angry parents have been taken as fools by propagandists who rile them with lies about liberal indoctrination and drag shows, parents buy guns for children who kill others at a public protest at which the child does not belong and who take the guns to school and kill their classmates. Describe the real plight of America’s children.
Then offer better choices for parents. Build a thriving public education system K through 16. Institute a program of residential gun storage at low cost or free of cost. Create a public high school system that gives broader choices of vocational training and college preparation. Promote responsible gun ownership via free or low-cost classes (over which the NRA has no influence). Commit to community efforts (separate from police departments) that help families, especially families with troubled teenagers. Fund community programs (separate from faith-based programs) that help families who struggle with addictions or mental illnesses. Fund fact-based information campaigns across all media that contradict far right disinformation, exposes lies and hysteria, and teaches listeners how to recognize propaganda techniques.
Empower inquiry and curiosity. Highlight community members and national figures who teach critical thinking skills. Build a national consensus that our Violence problem is escalating out of control.
Politicians cannot do this, nor will those who benefit from societal chaos want to. These campaigns must be community led and nationally endorsed by people who are nationally respected.
We have a violence problem. We have a gun addiction problem. We have a disinformation problem. And all three are connected to each other. Inextricably connected.
Let us say it. Let us come together as a nation to end the problems with reason, within the Constitution, with empathy for all others in our communities, with funding and commitment, knowing it is Do or Die time.