This Isn't Going to be Easy

Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me,

And get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!

Why will you die, O house of Israel?

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, 

Says the Lord God.

Turn then, and live.

-Ezekiel 18: 31-32

Most of us agree that things are not going well.  Our diagnosis of the disease varies by personal and political disposition, but all around we seem to agree that we have a sickness in our culture.  Whether it is a sickness unto death remains to be seen, but we all know something just ain't right.  There are shootings, there is brutality, there is oppression, there is hatred and division, there are people who can't even settle down and have a proper discussion of the issues at hand because they're just so angry and easily dog-whistled away from engaging one another as human beings.

Liberals and Conservatives have become the Sadducees and Pharisees of modern life, taking up doctrinaire stances on opposing sides of some line that most people really don't care much about, but feel like they probably ought to take a side.  They pick their side usually on the grounds of some hot button issue that riles their blood: abortion, gun control, same sex marriage, civil rights, free speech, free markets.  Something or other gets them into a certain camp and once they've been recruited there is a process of isolation and bubble forming that puts the brainwashing techniques of ISIS and Al Quaeda to shame.  People become fact resistant and truth denying.

After every new instance of a mass shooting we go through this painful, obtuse and fruitless debate about guns.  I am as guilty as anyone, but the truth is that we aren't going to be able to legislate our way out of this.  I own guns. I like to shoot. I have been through the process in what locals and gun show types call the People's Republic of Maryland to be a lawful owner of a handgun. My motives for being a gun owner is not some sort of delusional Rambo fantasy that I will be waging war against a communist invasion or a zombie apocalypse, but because I find shooting to a be a pretty therapeutic hobby for me.  It calls up good relationships with my Grandfathers, from whom I inherited a few of the guns I own.  It allows me to feel a sense of accomplishment as my proficiency grows and as I adhere to the disciplines of safety and accuracy.  There is a bit of a "man" thing, where I feel empowered and competent to handle something so deadly.  None of this is impaired by having to pass  a safety course, go through a background check (in Maryland for a Handgun Qualifying License this involves fingerprinting and a lengthy review period), having to wait a few days for delivery of a gun, or by not being able to buy an AR-15 or a 30 round magazine (both of which are illegal in this blue state).  Honestly I feel like "jumping through the hoops," in order to possess and use a firearm is an important element of exercising a "right," if you want to call it that.

I favor the sort of "gun control" that I live with as a resident of Maryland.  The system, as far as I have experienced it, works well and is not as much of a hassle as getting a driver's license.  I do not subscribe the NRA's scare tactics, nor will I support their madness.  That being said, regulations on the actual guns are not going to solve our mass shooting problem.  A lot is being made of the Las Vegas shooting and the technical aspects of the weapons used.  He had a bunch of guns, including one that was rigged to shoot fast, almost like a fully automatic rifle.  While that may be chilling to some, I would maintain that it matters very little.  A good semiautomatic will fire off bullets as fast as you like, with the secure vantage point Paddock had and the nature of his target he could have killed as horrifically with most uncontroversial hunting rifles you could find. If his fancy toys were unavailable, he would have found some other tool to vent his violence.

That is not an argument against gun control, that is simply a statement of fact. I think this opinion piece from the Washington Post this morning sums up the problem pretty well.  It's not the end of the discussion to be sure, but my feeling is that we on the side of regulations need to account for the fact that the tired old slogan "Guns don't kill people, people kill people," is way more devastating to our case than we would like it to be.  Regulations of this or that type of gun are just not going to stop what we're going through.  Should certain types of guns be banned? Probably.  Is that going to stop the madness? Probably not.

So what does need to happen?

Well for one thing we need to break out of our bubbles, gun owners especially.  We're the ones who have the power and the insight to help address the reality of this problem.  Were the comments about silencers silly with regard to the Las Vegas shooter, sure, any fool knows silencers don't make guns silent, or even particularly quiet, however, why do we want them to be legal?  Do you need one at the range?  No, you need a pair of earplugs or earmuffs to keep the big bang from making you deaf.  The majority of people who do not own and do not care to own guns do not know enough about what legitimate use of firearms is all about to be able to make informed decisions about regulations, so when we stamp our feet and say, "NO!" to every regulation that comes along the pike, we who are effected by the regulations lose our place to shape those regulations in a way that makes sense.  We need to be clear in our own minds about how and why we use guns and embrace laws that seek to delineate how to do so safely. We wouldn't want a person who has never driven a car to make traffic laws, but we all acknowledge that we need traffic laws. We should take up the challenge of figuring out how to fix something that is obviously broken.

On the other side of the argument, the pro-regulation crowd needs to acknowledge that these mass murderers are not typical gun owners, in fact they're not typical human beings, they are broken people who have passed beyond a point where laws are going to make any difference to them. Trying to stop these tragedies by means of gun regulation is probably almost as absurd as the pro-gun crowd makes it seem. You cannot address extreme behavior via regulations.  The best teacher in the world, who has impeccable classroom discipline, is going to encounter a student who insists on defiance and misbehavior sometimes. Unless we figure out how to eliminate psychopaths and sociopaths, we can make all the rules about guns we want, people are still going to get hurt. Effective gun regulations would focus more on the absurd number of accidental deaths, particularly involving children who gain access to a firearm that is not properly secured.  Effective gun regulation would allow for better tracking of ownership and the ability to remove guns from situations where domestic violence or suicidal behavior has occurred.  Good laws would encourage cooperation rather than resistance from the generally good and responsible people I see at the range.

As with so many other issues from the environment to health care, we need a new heart and a new spirit.  The choices we are offered under the current system tend to be knee jerk reactions or complete stonewalling, and that belies a broken system that cannot adequately address the dangers that we face as a nation.. I believe that we are better than this.  Why do we choose to die?