December 23, 2012
I have 5 children, 2-8 years of age, and am moved to write on the topic of gun control.
I don’t want to. Believe me. But I feel I must, as one who has been all over on the topic, and still feels ambivalence.
As a former US Marine Infantryman, and one of the earlier recipients of training that would come to be called Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) – (I’m 2nd generation USMC; served with pride; pray my children know some similar honor of devotion in their lives) – I understand weapons in a way that few do.
As a younger man, I felt firmly that an armed society is a polite society, and said so. For a while, I paid dues to the National Rifle Association, until I felt that my associates-at-a-distance were not really representing my full viewset, and so watched without offering financial support. Truthfully, I’ve come to feel that association has gone a bridge too far, with a recent suggestion from its spokesperson that we arm volunteers at schools throughout the nation.
At the same time, I do understand that at a certain point, the floodgates of weaponry are open and that putting the genie back in the bottle is tricky – and might require armed responses from time to time. Still, I’m very uncomfortable with amateur gun handling at schools, and tens of thousands of well-meaning gun-toting citizens are statistically bound to have some totally unfortunate accidental discharge on a campus, with all that implies.
Without even knowing what it is I’m trying to come to in terms of actual policy suggestions, this will be a personal attempt to phrase a few of the basic points on the compass, so that later, further reflections might align with some sort of underlying grid, offering navigational aid.
So – for the crowd that generally feels pretty strongly that the 2nd Amendment is a very good thing exactly as it is written, and that the Government (of the people) ought not be telling the Person what they do and don’t need…
- There is validity to a literal reading of the 2nd Amendment, for a variety of reasons.
- There is really no reason that an otherwise law-abiding citizen, properly trained and sober and so forth, ought to be denied the most effective self-protection methods in world of increasing violence and decreasing public funding for police and other crime-handling personnel.
- Capitalism is wonderful in the sense that a panoply of possibilities, in all colors, shapes, styles, sizes and so forth are available for the law-abiding, sane consumer, who might elect to protect themselves and their loved ones any number of discreet ways.
- At the same time, desensitization does occur through repeated exposure; and I’m not sure that I want my children desensitized to cold steel and gunpowder when it’s in the same room they are. I’d really like them on their toes when explosives are nearby, and I can’t realistically expect them to only go to places I preapprove and actively monitor, and I can’t really control all the interactions they will inevitably have with the wonderfully wide variety of people comprising this United States of Ours. I’m terrified by the cavalier attitudes I’ve seen in the Real World about steel and powder, and I’m not loving the thought of thousands of people suddenly deciding that they should practice the very martial art of weapons ownership and maintenance.
- Similarly, with respect to exposure/desensitization – mass media is here to stay. So is the Internet, connectivity, and tribalism (at least for a while, on that last one). One need only lift one’s head to find egregious examples of leadership with respect to this topic in all communities, except perhaps the Amish (as I recently learned from a movie – apparently there are places in that community with no recorded homicides. Interesting.)
- There could be some validity to the idea that on an island where guns never existed and couldn’t be invented, that society’s interest might be served by ensuring that tools specifically designed to help with killing don’t flood into the community. Hence, as we no longer accept slavery or Jim Crow laws as a good idea, and we’ve just quietly waited for their crafters and supporters to move along to their next plane of existence while the rest of us have a rainbow of friends, so might society benefit from altering the future through today’s legislation, and allowing at least some combinations of steel and powder to become anachronistic expressions of a bygone era.
Now, for the crowd that feels the 2nd Amendment was intended to prevent invasions and tyranny and so forth, but that nobody really needs to carry around (or probably even own) thousands of rounds and a closet, or eight, full of steel…
- It is true that society is only polite because it’s fed. Anyone who has ever walked on the other side, or even been close to the depravity that is possible when human minds are desensitized and the welfare of others is low on the list of priorities, knows that sometimes the only answer is the ability to end the conversation emphatically. It’s totally reasonable for a man, walking with his family on a side street to their parked car, to know that if needed, he has the means to repel attackers, who are real and who wait to prey.
- Not everyone is Joe Kung-Fu and can defend themselves against a younger attacker, or a group of attackers. For a modest investment and with some readily available training, Grandmother really can walk safely to get some creamer at 9:30 p.m. and isn’t independence for the elderly something to support?
- The genie really is out of the bottle. Putting the genie back in is impossible. We can’t keep undesirable people, cargo and so forth out of our country now, and it’s not like bad guys keep plastic knives and forks for stickups.
- It may be fine to legislate some arguably serious compromise around personal weapons ownership and maintenance, but it must be acknowledged that the anti-NRA crowd has their own bridge-too-far and it’s not as though they’re likely to suddenly call a halt on the march just because some moderate views found their way into the ruleset. This is the old give-em-a-dollar argument, and it too is valid.
- Expressions of violence against children, civilians and non-villains in the public square are more than just issues of controlling weapons ownership. We see this all over the world, notably in China recently, where some loco slashed numbers of children. Perhaps society does have some responsibility for the milieu it maintains and makes readily available to impressionable minds in every state of development and maintenance. Perhaps we can agree that glorification and limitless extrapolations of violence are not particularly helpful, even if they may be valid artistically, or some other way.
- It really is not the American way to rely on the Government for everything. Autonomy, individualism, independence of thought and action are hallmarks of the current experiment in self-management, and maybe individuals really should be free to follow their own hearts and consciences regarding the martial art of weapon ownership. Perhaps, as it is true that social safety nets are imperiled, and that violence is in the hearts of many, that we ought not interfere too much with individual choices about how best to protect one’s life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
It’s beyond troubling that the children of Newtown are gone. The efficiency and effectiveness of the assault should be a clarion call for all of us in our little Newtowns. For this reflection, I am clear that armed volunteers on every campus is past my own personal comfort zone. I am also sure that desensitization to steel and powder is not in the long-term interests of my children. My respect for the martial arts is profound. My desire to protect my children from harm is beyond expression in this form. My certainty that some measure of societal engagement is in everyone’s interest, that some middle ground will be acceptable to the first sigma of the bell curve that is Us, that acrimony might be held to a manageable level and societal benefit measurably increased, leads me to offer this frame for thought.
Until next time.
Thinking Out Loud 