The Last Place on Earth to Have Guns

I like to wear orange on Fridays. It's my thing. Last Friday I was grocery shopping in the above shirt that states: "End gun violence" when a woman walks by me. She stops directly in front of me to read my shirt. "That's not right." She says loudly. "You're making responsible gun owners look bad."

I was dumbfounded. I had no words to say. I didn't want a confrontation. The town I shop in has more NRA stickers in the parking lot than I can count. It is common to hear phrases in support of gun rights and the second amendment. I wear my shirt as a quiet reminder that not everyone agrees. But am I really making "responsible gun owners" look bad?

Imagine a time where technology has created weaponized drones that can literally fly and kill a person anywhere, anytime, with 99.5% accuracy. There is little or no detection and these weapons can be operated remotely, from any cell phone on the planet. Governments and their military use them. Private citizens do not. Instead, people use guns.

Now imagine that every country in the world has banned guns, except one. Nowhere on the planet can individual citizens own a rifle, shotgun, machine gun, pistol, revolver, handgun, etc. Outside of the military or police, no weapons that use bullets can be owned or made by individuals, period. There has been a ban so long that confiscation occurred years ago. Any remaining exceptions are rare, but quick and harsh punishment fall upon anyone caught with a gun.

Unless you happen to live in the one country that refused to change. In this country, another world view applies. Here, anyone can buy a gun. Some cities and states attempt to reign in the bigger threats to society. They target organized crime or suspicious persons by giving the military and police even more deadly weapons. These enforcers use special weapons and tanks. They also use drones, just like every other country in the world.

So this 2nd amendment argument that people need rifles to stop the evil tyranny of a governmental agency is absurd. No one should believe that owning guns will protect you from the police or military. Unless you believe the movies. That's where we learn this fairy tale of gun culture in the United States.

But who are these "responsible" gun owners?

They are my neighbors. They grew up watching the same TV programs and movies with themes of violence. Every good story eventually led to conflicts that are resolved through force. We celebrate bloody victories as if we lived in video games. We let kids practice as they grow up. Indoor and outdoor shooting ranges are popular forms of family entertainment. People can own as many guns as they want. They can buy any kind they want… from individual one-shot purse pistols to machine guns with laser sighting. And bullets, as many as you need. It is a buyer’s market with plenty of supply to meet the demand. At last count, 400 million guns are on the books or about "120.5 firearms for every 100 residents." There is a billion-dollar industry that influences the government and the public to protect gun sales.

Of course, people are free to be in public and they can arm themselves however they see fit. Mass shootings are advertised (I should say, announced) daily on the news and people can get alerts if they want to sign up. My responsible gun owner friend explains it like this: "Death is a fact of life. I mean, as long as it ain't your people getting killed. Right? It's kinda natural selection." Again, I was speechless.

A few years ago I moderated a workshop at a higher education conference in Northern California. As the moderator I had to announce a "moment of silence" to honor the victims of a mass shooting on a college campus that morning. I was a skilled speaker and could easily get everyone to pay attention and quiet down. We held space for those students in that twenty-eight seconds. Then someone broke in, running late for the workshop.

There is only pity for those who perish at the hands of a mass shooter, regardless of where it occurs. School yards, cinemas, concert halls and football stadiums are not safe. Religious gatherings are often a target. Random senseless violence is celebrated as an expression of the individual. The names of those lost and those who did the killing are written on our screens to memorialize. The entire nation pays attention to the shooter, until the next mass shooting occurs. Andy Warhol was right about fifteen minutes of fame… at least for these poor souls. Or twenty-eight seconds in some cases.

So I wear orange on Fridays to honor the students killed due to gun violence. There are so many students lost to this epidemic. Too many schools now have "active shooter drills" as a response to the times. Yet, within this nation there are some, who want to join the rest of the world and ban all guns. In my neighborhood, those few are seen as fools that ignore the obvious facts. Man is basically violent and any attempts to limit or regulate handguns will inevitably fail. Their advice to the rest of the world can be summed up as: GET OVER IT. People like to kill, and some people are going to die. Get over it. Get a gun if you are frightened -- but get over your fear. Face facts. There are simply bad people in the world and our best defense is to arm ourselves to protect against them. We are fools to think that taking away guns will stop that. Be responsible. Buy a gun.