Why is the U.S. gunning up so much? We have more guns than people (although a small minority own a huge amount).
I believe we are gunning up out of fear, and it’s helped along by our politicians and our media who reinforce that people are coming for our rights, our families, our way of life, etc. Guns can make us feel less afraid, but they can also fill us with a sense of power.
This sense of fear is nothing new. During slavery and in the post-Civil War South, white people protected themselves out of fear of the black man. Is it any wonder that white supremacists always gun up so much more than other people who are merely trying to protect their homes? (Unless of course you’re a GOP Congressman taking your Christmas Card picture.)
One common refrain from people who gun up like crazy or who fight against sensible gun legislation (such as waiting periods or closing loopholes at gun shows) is that the Second Amendment protects people from the government coming to get them. There is a palpable and growing fear in this country that the government, and we need to protect ourselves from it.
Except it’s not. In this country, the government is “of, by, and for the people,” which we all learned in first grade. What these crazies really believe is that the people are coming for the people. You are coming for yourself. Duh.
But let’s say it’s true. Let’s say we need to arm ourselves against a government takeover of our lives. The government (which we have entrusted to protect us) has far more than guns. Where would this ridiculous escalation take us, and where would it end?
- The government has bazookas. Are we going to allow concealed carry of bazookas to arm ourselves against the government? And can you carry a bazooka and in any way conceal it? (“Is that a bazooka in your pocket, or…?”)
- The government has tanks. Are we all going to get tanks? (Note to self: start investing in steel companies and garage renovators.)
- The government has F-16s. Very few of us know how to fly them. In fact, in order to learn you’d have to join the military—a branch of our government.
You see where I’m going with this…
- The government has nuclear weapons. I don’t even know if there’s enough plutonium in the world to compete…not that it would matter at that point.
We have a system of legal redress in this country. If we truly believe the government is infringing on any of our rights, we can take action through the courts, through lobbying our representatives, or any number of other peaceful ways. This is part of our social contract in a peaceful society…assuming we still want one.
But now, because of fear, we assume people are coming for us. News stories would seem to suggest so. A lost black kid knocks on someone’s door asking for an address, and boom: he’s shot dead. A woman enters the wrong apartment in her own building and boom: she’s shot dead. A black runner running in the wrong white neighborhood—unarmed, like the aforementioned examples—and boom: he’s shot dead.
And our politicians and news media ramp up this ugliness and tell the public that all sorts of people are coming to get you in one way or another.
The LGBTQ+ community is coming to get your kids and make them gay or trans, change their pronouns, and force them to have life-altering surgery. (And Disney is helping them!) Migrants who don’t speak English are coming to take your job, and you’re afraid that your pension or 401K might go away if you stop washing dishes or selling lettuce and corn by the side of the road. (And Taco Bell is helping them!) Some vast global conspiracy—the deep state, George Soros, alien pedophiles in league with Democrats—is really running things, and they’re coming to get Amurica. (And the Jews are helping them with their space lasers!)
Is it any wonder with so many people coming after us that so many people in this country think they have to gun up?
How did we get here from the right to bear arms? I’m not even clear that the idea of protecting yourself from the government is even in the Second Amendment. Let’s take a look.
I see (besides one too many commas) “security of a free State,” not “from a free State,” and I also see a “well regulated Militia” that we entrust to secure that free State, not every single citizen with a musket or a bazooka. And even if we all have the right to protect our homes and communities, it doesn’t translate into leaving our homes and communities to do the job of that well regulated Militia. We entrust them to do that for us, and we don’t need to take our act on the road and carry guns everywhere looking for trouble…especially if you’re an underage punk from Kenosha, Wisconsin.
We look for enemies, and we see them all over: people who are different from us, people who believe the opposite of what we believe, and then we eventually see half of America as the problem. We need to stop being afraid of each other. We live in the freest country in the world, one that allows us to carry guns everywhere.
And we need leaders and news media to stop telling us to be afraid of the other half of the country. Fear leads to more guns. Bravery, I believe, leads to more calm—as in “Keep Calm and Carry On”—and calm can only help us achieve fewer gun deaths.
