Even as it seems like we as a nation can’t go more than two days without a mass shooting, I’ve tried to be sensitive to the rights of firearms owners and the arguments that come along with gun ownership. After all, I have family members and friends who own guns. By and large, I consider them to be on the responsible end of the spectrum. Still, even the mass execution of kindergartners couldn’t move these people off their ‘right’ to their guns.
Something about Wednesday’s events in San Bernardino flipped a switch for me on this, though.
I can’t say for sure what that something is, though. I can’t imagine it’s the body count, or even the cumulative number of mass shootings in America just this year. Or, rather, it’s not just those things.
It’s also the bullshit. The heaping, full-throated nonsense that comes from those who seem content to allow this sort of thing to continue to happen.
The ‘it’s too early to politicize a tragedy’ argument is disgustingly frequent. While it would be nice to believe that there’s some sincere concern for victims and their families in this sentiment, it’s also utter nonsense when there’s no shortage of tragedies, and never any movement to address the root causes of these tragedies. Frankly, this argument is a patent cover for ‘no, please don’t use obvious evidence of the consequences of our inaction to take action’.
Another one that I’ve seen pop up on the think tank that is Facebook is the ‘guns protect our freedom from a power-hungry government’. If ever at a point in history there existed a more laughable and tone-deaf argument, I’d be rather surprised. Point the first-many, many countries-allies of ours-have strict gun control, and yes, maintain plenty of freedom to vote for their representatives, speak, assemble and worship as they please, and maintain a robust (if much better regulated) economy. Secondly, to make this argument while never, ever decrying the militarization of our police forces and the trillions of dollars in military spending the country has engaged in over the past 30 years? Please. If the US government, in all its jack-booted glory, wants to come get your guns, they’re going to by God come and get your guns, no matter how deep a bunker you’ve dug in your central Michigan backyard. We have people vaporize Arab wedding parties from halfway around the globe while ordering Starbucks. Your three bedroom bungalow with a makeshift armory is of little consequence to them.
Maybe the one that really tipped me today was the bit I caught on the radio on the way home from the office. A caller to the local talk station was on about his concealed-carry permit and how, if ever in that situation, etc. etc. The rest is obvious. And, as much as I enjoy the regular Urban Rambo fantasies that these geniuses have from hundreds of miles away, it just drives me nuts. Ignoring the fact that instances of armed civilians limiting casualties are extremely rare, it’s an argument rooted in action-movie fantasy. Studies have proven that our natural reactions are to seek safety in dangerous situations, and it takes hours (and not the kind of hours that get you a concealed carry permit) to overcome that reaction.
At some point, the Overton Window on guns needs to shift back in the other direction. When not a single bit of gun control legislation can be considered ‘acceptable’, I fear we’ve reached a point of no return. And when you consider that the 2nd Amendment isn’t a gun rights amendment, but rather a gun control amendment, it gets a lot easier to reach a much different view of ‘gun control’.
This is where I say, fuck it-take everyone’s guns. All of them. Melt them down, build wind-turbines out of them-just to piss the right off twice. I’ll even bend a little back to the right-bolt action hunting rifles and personal small-caliber, non-automatic hand guns are fine. A gun you own gets used in the commission of any crime? Class A felony, minimum 10 years in federal prison. It gets used in a murder? Life in jail.
Want to own more than that? There’s a well-regulated militia I know of that would be happy to have you and ship you to the fucking desert to do all the tough-guy shooting of brown people that your black little heart desires.
