Don't Shoot the Mirror

It’s been a couple of weeks since the awful, senseless murders of 20 defenseless school children and 6 teachers at a grade school in Connecticut. I can’t imagine the fear in the minds of those innocents moments before their lives were taken, nor can I imagine the overwhelming sense of loss of parents and family of those left behind. Nothing we say, think, pray, or legislate will bring the lost back, nor hold the guilty accountable in this tragic event.

I’m hesitant to share my opinions on this matter at this time, out of respect for the memory of those lost, and for their survivors, however, some are trying to leverage a tragedy to promote their own, largely political agendas, and so I feel compelled to write, not so much with a solution that would have prevented that massacre, but with some thoughts to promote examination of what we believe and why.

It’s only natural that as a society, we want to find ways to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again.  Since the lives were taken by firearms, it seems easiest to begin there, and look to limit the availability of firearms to the general public.  We also believe in the notion that the government’s highest purpose is to protect its citizens, and so it seems logical that we would look to our government to solve the problem of too many guns killing people, and enact laws that would make gun ownership illegal.

I believe that that approach, while sincere, is misinformed, and is focused on the wrong problem.

Though that statement may make me sound like a gun nut to some, I must confess that personally, I don’t understand the infatuation that we Americans have with firearms.  I think that in many respects, we’re a society obsessed with firearms. One only has to look at our televisions, theaters and video consoles to see how popular gun-themed entertainment is. Watch a bunch of boys playing and you’ll often see pretend gun play. We buy our kids toy guns. Many parents keep real guns in the home, taking their children to the firing range, so they learn gun safety at an early age. Our news channels run continuous coverage when something awful involving guns happens. Our music promotes the “gangsta” culture.  What impression does all this firearm exposure have on young minds?

Hunting is commonly accepted as a virtuous sport. Really? Shooting an animal in the wild doesn’t seem like much sport to me.  Hand-to-hand combat would be more sporting.  Hunting animals seems like a very close cousin to the Hunger Games - animals today, humans tomorrow. Maybe one group of hunters should dress up like deer or moose and run through the woods while another group of hunters try to kill them.  It would be more sporting, since both groups are aware of the “game” and how to “win”.  Maybe that would be a good Darwin-ian solution to part of the gun problem.

While I believe that we as a society have gone overboard with guns, and that resulting gun violence is the unfortunate result, I don’t think that having the government making more guns illegal will solve the problem.

By-in-large, having the government control or regulate anything is almost a sure sign that the problem will continue, and possibly get worse.  Consider the following:

·         The CDC says that smoking causes 1 in 5 deaths every year, and that, “More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined”.  Tobacco is heavily regulated and taxed by the government, yet it remains a huge killer, including of the innocent through exposure to second-hand smoke.

·         The government has focused heavily on preventing illegal drug use, spending in excess of $40 billion a year, causing 1.6 million arrests. Approximately 25% of our prison population is made up of drug law offenders. The problem continues to grow, however, and the number of deaths each year attributed to illegal drugs is approximately 1.6% of all deaths in the US.

·         Alcohol (again, a largely regulated and taxed vice) is directly responsible for approximately 1% of all deaths in the US

·         The wheel. Government is involved in all aspects of transportation, from levying taxes on fuel, to building roads. They have a whole department charged with enforcing safety, and yet transportation accidents account for almost 2% of all deaths in the United States.

·         Gun control laws are much stricter in Mexico, where it is virtually illegal for an ordinary citizen to carry firearms in public, however, their rate of murder by firearms is almost 3 times higher than that in the US.

·         For the purposes of comparison, the number of homicides caused by guns each year is less than half of one percent of all deaths in the US

Almost 25% of the deaths in the US each year come as a result of things that the government already regulates and taxes.  Underage kids still smoke and drink, even though it’s illegal for them to do so.  Millions of Americans have been arrested over the past few years on drug charges for drugs already made illegal. Simply making some guns more restricted or illegal will have little effect on keeping weapons out of the hands of those who mean to do harm.

Is the problem really the gun, or is the problem that we have encouraged a society of people to accept guns?

I understand that the 2nd Amendment protects citizen's rights to own and bear arms, but there was a thought and purpose behind that amendment - it was so that citizens could form local militias and protect themselves against a corrupt government.  But c'mon, if the government really became THAT corrupt, do we seriously believe that the weapons we might have in our homes would defend us against the weapons that the government would have? Not a chance.  It's not a musket against a musket anymore. Keeping guns in our homes to protect us against a corrupt government is fanciful at best, and lethal at worst.

I don't believe that there's an immediate solution to the gun issue - I believe it's a solution that begins with each of us and our attitudes to guns and violence in our lives, entertainment, and recreation.  There's some truth to the notion that we reap what we sow. The solution to the gun problem begins in the mirror, with how we chose to handle ourselves in everyday life. Do wee flee from violence, or look upon it as a voyeur?

Finally, I think our approach to mental health is a key to this issue.  Many have talked about having a mental health test as part of the permitting process.  Really?  And what do we do with those who fail?  Deny them a gun or provide them with help?  We spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on health care for people with preventable diseases, yet how much do we invest on promoting and improving the mental health of our population. 

Mental health is perhaps the most stigmatized area of health care. As a society, we do an extremely poor job of aiding those with mental issues.  Again, perhaps we're reaping what we're sowing.

Making more kinds of guns illegal is simply sticking our heads in the sand, ignoring the real issues.  Until we deal with the real issues of violence and mental health, vicious senseless murders will continue by whatever means are available.

Really - isn't it just Common Sense?