January 15, 2013
In the aftermath of our latest school shooting atrocity, everyone is talking about guns. Here's my opinion: I would be much more excited about a nationwide campaign to reduce all kinds of violence than one dedicated to stopping "gun violence." The latter is politically impractical, probably impossible and, even if achieved, would only change the weapon of choice.
Mankind has suffered mayhem for millenia. Take away their guns and angry young men will turn to explosives, chemicals, knives, and other weapons. Reducing the extent of each episode (the number of victims) would be too little, too late. And once the monsters turn to explosives (like in Oklahoma City) or chemicals, the extent of each incident will increase, not decrease. Besides, it's simply not possible to take away all the guns. The citizens who would turn in their guns aren't the ones we need to be worried about. And no amount of future sale limitation will prevent maniacs from getting hold of whatever guns they need to commit mayhem.
Although I do support a ban on assault weapons and on very large clips even for tamer guns, I do not suffer the common delusion that that measure alone would reduce the number of gun massacres. It wouldn't even reduce the numbers of casualties because there are so many bullet-spraying guns out there now and for the forseeable future. It would take decades of police state tactics to significantly deplete the national private arsenal of guns that are available to those who would use them for ill.
I believe it would actually be more practical to change the American ethos, our communal psyche. That is also a tall order but one that I believe is achievable. It will take time, just as it took time to sink to our present low. Since the 1950s (which I barely remember myself) we seem to have changed from a nation weary of war, dedicated to freedom, respectful of society and relatively comfortable with our lives as individuals and families into a nation that worships the self, promotes violence and tolerates, even applauds or tacitly encourages, a dark underside of society. Ours has become a Frankenstein society that may soon become its own undoing unless we act now. This was a long, slow, potentially reversible transition and reverse it we must, even if it takes the next half century. For a while during a previous Administration we heard some positive language from the White House about addressing violence in the media and mental health in the real world and that encouraged me, but the conversation had just begun and now appears to be in stasis. But until we cure the mass mental illness of America, no amount of gun control will have a significant impact on the problem.
2019 Addendum, #1: It's getting worse ... much worse. We now receive incitement to violence from all levels of society, all the way up to and including the White House. Our President is a megalomaniac con artist broadcasting toxic memes daily, shunning our traditional allies, mocking our traditional values, squandering the leverage of his office, and cozying up to murderous dictators. I shudder to think what the generation that is forming its social ethos today will do to those of us who survive long enough to find out. These are dark times.
2019 Addendum #2, 8/10/2019: Gilroy, El Paso, Dayton, Chicago ... In the past year there have been over 400 mass killings, defined as four or more injured or killed in apparently random acts of mayhem. The pace is accelerating and mass murder seems to be approaching the level of national sport. It is an epidemic that threatens our society. I believe more than ever that we must implement universal background checks prior to all gun transfers, "red-flag" laws that let authorities remove guns from people who are deemed dangerous, renewal of prohibitions on assault-style weapons, and other reasonable steps to make it more difficult to acquire guns legally (accompanied by fair means of appeal since laws are enforced by people and even well-meaning people do make mistakes). But I am not deluded to think that any of this will "solve" the problem. Just as alcohol prohibition did not stop people from manufacturing, distributing, selling, and drinking alcohol, gun restrictions will not stop people from keeping existing guns and acquiring new (to them) guns. In the United States we have about 250 million guns in civilian hands, something like half the civilian guns in the world. The illicit firearms market will flourish as we restrict the legal one. Bad guys will continue to get guns and use them for ill. Although I'm skeptical about the NRA's mantra of good guys with guns stopping the bad guys and disgusted by their one-dimensional view of regulation, I remain convinced that the only way truly to stop the carnage is to reform society, to cure the obsession with mass murder, to restore what religious people often call the "fear of God" in the hearts and minds of Americans. (There are other, secular terms for the same thing.) We must make the unthinkable again just that - unthinkable. I'm working on a manifesto describing some ways to do this. Stay tuned.
2020 Addendum: And this year we have finally opened our eyes to violence perpetrated by those who should be protecting us and our freedoms, the police. Although most of our police, judges, and even politicians believe in equal justice for all, there really is a systemic bias against some people based on the color of their skin and, perhaps slightly less so, on their country of origin. Black lives matter. They really do. But in our society, based on the repeated actions of a minority of bad actors, black lives are more at risk than others, and more often destroyed or damaged, without justification, by law enforcement or the judiciary. I don't know what to do about this. I hope someone figures it out. Let me know how I, a privileged, upper class, white man, can help.