Guns 'R' US: Part 1

It’s been over a week since the Parkland shooting, and it is still getting considerable attention in the media.  This is due in no small part to the efforts of some of the surviving children to raise some hell.  They are young and powerless, but some of them are quite intelligent and articulate, and they seem determined.  Maybe this will inject some new energy into our public discourse about firearms.  Or maybe not.

     So far, public discourse about guns continues pathetically along well-trodden paths.  The right tries to move discourse away from guns toward issues of mental health or failures by responsible authorities or whatever.  Of course, there is a clarion call for more guns everywhere.  Since this was a school shooting, there are the usual demands that we reconstruct our schools as maximum security prisons.  And let’s not forget how necessary all the gun-toting citizens are to protect us from tyranny or criminals or each other.

     The left tends to be more focused on efforts to ban various firearms and magazines and such.  It strains my imagination to think what it might mean to ban something that millions of US citizens already have.  (And I cannot help but wonder why so many people who call for ending the war on pot smokers because bans don’t work also seem to think that banning firearms is a good idea.)  Of course, the left never misses the chance to call for more funding for various social programs which will, I guess, discourage people from wanting to kill a bunch of their fellows.  

     Certainly, there are sensible things coming from both ends of the political spectrum, as well.  Trying to improve our responses to mental health issues or improving the background check system are excellent ideas.  But mostly, the sensible ideas get overwhelmed by the ideological fervor that grips so many of us whenever we have to confront the issue of gun violence.  If the sensible ideas are to get any traction, we have to make fundamental changes in the way we think about this issue.  Here are three suggestions.

     First, we have to change the scope and focus of our thinking.  Too often, we focus on how to prevent specific sorts of violence—the next Parkland, the next Las Vegas—or on which sorts of weapons we need to ban.  These are exactly the issues that dominate the discourse sparked by the carnage at Parkland.  But it is not at all clear that there is any reasonable and constructive way to address these issues directly.  Mass shootings are just one of the many forms of carnage perpetrated with guns, and the US citizenry is well-supplied with every form of firearm.  The problem is much bigger than any of its specific manifestations.

     Second, we must understand what is really at stake here.  The mantra of gun fetishists is that “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  This is true.  The problem the US faces is that so many of us have such a passion for shooting people—ourselves and others—with guns.  That is because the use of guns carries such deep cultural meaning in the United States.  They are the source of our freedom and the last defense against tyranny, the great equalizer that allows the weakest to stand against the strongest, the instrument by which we exercise the sacred right of self-defense.  They are what allows the “good guy” to dispatch the “bad guy.”  When we give up our guns, we give up our very humanity (or, perhaps, our manhood).  No effort to curb gun violence will seem reasonable and sensible when viewed through this lens.

     Third, we need to recognize that our leadership mostly isn’t going to do squat about the carnage.  They are, or at least believe themselves to be, insulated from the violence, the gun lobby is very generous with politicians who support its agenda, and gun fetishists are conveniently dispersed throughout the electorate.  The very large problem of gun violence intersects with the even larger problem of dysfunctional government.

     So…philosophy is nice if you enjoy thinking about how we should think (which I do).  And I have written about various philosophical issues raised by guns here, here, and here.  But what should we do?  That is for Part 2, which I will post tomorrow.