Most of you know I was born in a really small town in the country. What you might now know is that this means I pretty much grew up surrounded by guns. My dad like all of the other men in my family was an avid hunter. He used to clean his rifles at the dining room table. I still remember the long skinny pole that went down the chamber to clean it as well as the smell of the dark oily stuff he put on it (yes, that’s my technical term, “dark oily stuff.”). I spent hours with my brother running through the brush that was taller than we were with the tip of the gun resting on my dad’s shoulder serving as our guide. I loved it. I should also mention that we ate everything he shot. I know the taste of fresh game well. It’s one that you don’t forget. I had a healthy respect for guns and nearly everyone I knew owned one. Life in the country almost always requires it. It’s not just for hunting purposes, but when you live in the country there are critters big and small both of which might require the use of a weapon to attend to.
I’m comfortable around guns. I know my way around guns. Most of you know I’ve also had a bit of a shall we say- troubled life as well. Someone else having a gun has actually saved my life on more than one occasion.
When I moved down south to go to graduate school, I took an apartment by myself in a pretty rough part of town. I’ve never had the luxury of wealth so I had to make my financial aid dollars stretch which meant I lived in an apartment where drug raids happened next door, people were beat to the point of unconsciousness in the parking lot, and gunshots were a common occurrence. I was a single, white female living alone. It was only a few weeks before I’d secured a gun of my own to keep my safe. And yes, it kept me safe.
So, when everyone immediately jumped to gun control in regard to the horrible tragedy in Newtown, I rolled my eyes at Yancy and said- “C-mon, it’s not that simple.” And I don’t think it’s that simple. The escalating severity and frequency of these mass shootings is disturbing and points to a huge problem that I believe is rooted in systematic failures within our current society centering around much larger issues. There is a huge failure in our mental health system that gun control can’t even begin to touch. We are facing serious demise as a society which these events only seem to showcase. I think the evidence of this continues to be demonstrated with the media’s sensationalism of the event and society’s hypnotic obsession with it.
I shared all of this with Yancy a few nights ago and he had a great response. He said, “You’re totally right. But, let’s face it, the guns make it easier. Let’s not make it so easy.”
And he’s right. I don’t think that the government needs to take away everyone’s guns. The truth is that sometimes guns are needed. Have you ever tried to peacefully negotiate with a big black bear who wandered up onto your deck? I’m just saying. With that being said, there’s got to be ways to safeguard and control access to guns.
Whenever someone is checked into a psychiatric facility, you go through a huge search. Every single piece of anything that could possibly be considered a weapon to hurt one’s self with or somebody else is taken away. In fact, you even lose your shoe laces when you are checked in. Does this mean that nobody ever commits suicide in a psychiatric facility? No. Does this mean that nobody ever hurts another person in a psychiatric facility? No.
But what it does mean is that it is a lot harder to do when you don’t have the means.
Thanks for making this point. As far as the mental health aspect, this particular family could have hired the best psychiatric treatment available. We can’t blame ‘the system’ for this one. It’s the guns that enabled him to do this. I have nothing against hunting, but I do need to point out that plenty of hunters in Montana get mauled with guns in hand. Bears can be on you before you’re ready to fire.
Thanks, Mama Bear. At the point where the incident occurred, he certainly was beyond help. However, I’m fairly certain there were lots of indicators years prior to this that may have been overlooked.
I just can’t get involved in a gun argument, I just don’t have the strength! But I am interested in hearing your opinion on this http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-22/nra-defiant-as-america-mourns-newtown-victims/4441070
Thanks, Miranda. I’ll check it out and let you know.
I really appreciate your pov on this one. I think the conversation needs to be as much about making it more difficult for the people who should not have access to get access as it should be about mental health. Frankly the mental health discussion is LONG overdue. I know that in the black community getting therapy has been taboo for years. It’s just now getting to the point where people see counseling as a good thing as opposed to looking at it airing their dirty laundry. And when it comes to children it’s even more difficult. Getting them the help they need vs some need to have their children seen as perfect or normal. A friend of mine waited years to get her son help though he displayed signs of Autism very early on. She denied anything was wrong until her parents told her that her son’s teachers were not trying to hold her son back but trying to help him. Sorry so long…Our children deserve the best care we can give them. And if that includes involving a mental health professional we should be doing everything we can to get them that help.
Thanks, Rene. I agree. Something has to be done about mental health and getting people the services that they need.
While I completely agree, I live in Canada and the fact is that we don’t have these occurrences and we don’t have the fears that cause many Americans to safeguard themselves with guns. While I will say that our attitude to mental health is much the same, there is also a lot of covered options for care here which may contribute to accessibility of mental health services; we also have more stringent procedures for keeping guns. As you said, there are several issues that need to be addressed here, and the fact is that less time needs to be spent on debating which is more important.
We have more gun control but I also think our view of guns and the right to bear arms is drastically different here in Canada. It’s not as likely that a mentally ill person would be able to obtain a gun licence. My dad is an accountant and he has been asked to sign a gun license for someone he knows that hunts. I have never tried to get a gun license but I’m assuming we have to have more than a background check since my dad was asked to sign. I think that all the issues go hand in hand. Instead of debating them they should all be looked at.
The problem is that many of these mass shootings took place with guns that were purchased legally, with mentally competent owners, but were shot by someone other than said owner. What I’d love to see is more biometric technology built into guns that ensure that only the proper owner is capable of shooting it. This way, responsible people can retain their guns, and it is less likely that someone who is troubled will steal a gun and do unspeakable things with it.
The knee-jerk reaction to remove all guns, I fear, will leave people less capable of protecting themselves than ever before. I don’t like guns, I don’t want to own one. But I like knowing that there are good people out there who are trained and qualified and have the guts to protect others in a bad situation.
Violina, I think you’re way off base with biometric tech. I go out shooting with my neighbors and use their guns. I take my family (yes, my kids too) shooting with my guns. Nobody has gotten hurt on these outings. Why should I not be able to teach my children gun safety or gift a shotgun to my husband? Why should I not be able to develop proficiency on a gun that I can’t afford to own?
Beautifully stated. It seems that gun advocates are completely unwilling to compromise on anything at all. I do think that gun control probably would not have stopped Adam Lanza, as he was in possession of guns that were legally acquired, but that doesn’t mean we should throw the baby out with the bath water. Statistically speaking, where gun control laws exist, there are fewer gun deaths per capita. Wish we didn’t all have to be divided on so many issues. We all want the same things, in this case, for kids to be safe.
ITA, Tara. See above on my comment re: biometric technology. That, to me, is the most promising kind of gun control that we should be exploring.
How refreshing that you have addressed the single most important factor: the underlying problem which allows these incidents to occur. Yes, people can own guns and NEVER consider hurting others with them (of course!) This point seems to be lost in so many of the arguments going on right now, that simply by arming someone you are also giving them the idea or the motivation to hurt others. The key does seem to be mental illness, temporary or on-going, and you are right: society does play a role. These killers do not live in a vaccuum, although I would never lay all the blame on society, since most people would never commit crimes like this, even given a chance. So taking guns away wouldn’t solve the problem of the ‘sick mind’ of various individuals, it would just leave people unable to hunt, defend their home against wild animals, etc.
On the other hand, your husband’s point is well made as well, that guns make it too easy for violence to be unstoppable and widespread due to their nature, they really do make it ‘too easy’ for a killer to do a lot of harm with little effort and from a distance.
Thank you for your insight.