gracchusdixit

In the wake of the latest and most terrible mass shooting in our history, we are once again witnessing a shadow play that we have seen many times before.  Those, who are justifiably outraged by the slaughter in Las Vegas, are crying out for “common sense gun control”.  Those, who stubbornly believe that even the slightest attempt to control guns is blasphemy, retort that “now is not the time to politicize a tragedy”.  Both send their perfunctory “thoughts and prayers” to the victims and their families, as if thoughts and prayers could somehow bring back the dead and erase all memory of the tragedy itself.

We all know how this sadly predictable shadow play is going to end.  The motives of the killer will be psychoanalyzed in excruciating detail.  The excuse will be made that he was in no way typical of “law abiding” gun owners.  We will be told for the thousandth time that “guns don’t kill; people do”.  Meaningful action will be deferred until the public’s fury eventually subsides.  Republicans and a few timid Democrats from gun-friendly states will then avow their unflinching fidelity to the Second Amendment.  And, in the end, the NRA will get its way.  It always does.

I do not propose to add another word to the thousands that have already been written  about this deplorable farce.  I have something else to say.

It is that “common sense gun control” is a contradiction in terms and a complete waste of time—because there is nothing even remotely sensible about owning guns in the first place.

Anyone who claims that he needs a gun to protect himself against burglars or break-ins is living in a fantasy world conjured up by the gun lobby.  Crimes against property are lower than they’ve been in decades.  The odds of the average American suffering a “home invasion” are close to zero.

Anyone who asserts that he needs a gun to protect himself against “bad guys with guns” has watched too many Bruce Willis movies.  More than half the gun-related deaths in this country are suicides; a majority of the rest occur within families—all too often, perpetrated by violent husbands who turn their weapons against their own spouses or children.

Any gun-owner who claims to be a “sportsman” should ask himself what “sport” there  is in slaughtering animals that have not the slightest chance of escape or survival when they face tormentors larded up with the technology of modern warfare.  Guns aren’t the equivalent of baseball bats, tennis racquets, or hockey sticks.  They are instruments of death, and their only purpose is to draw blood.  Where is the “sport” in that?

It is time to recognize that our nation’s love affair with guns is beyond being senseless—it is a sickness, with deep roots in our past and our psyche.  If this sickness were limited to our private behavior within our own borders, it would be bad enough.  But it extends to our behavior on the world stage.

On a planet with a population of nearly eight billion, there are roughy 875 million privately owned firearms.  Americans add up to merely five percent of that population, but they own 40 percent of the weapons.  Exactly the same ratio applies to our share of global military spending.  This may be coincidental, of course.  But if it is, the coincidence is chilling.

Since the end of the Second World War, we have used our military power—our weapons—to wage dozens of undeclared wars on almost every continent of the globe.  We have instigated dozens of illegal coups d’état to topple democratically elected governments that refused to kowtow to our interests.  Far from decrying such crimes, our public culture worships those who commit them.  Any man, woman, or donkey who dons a uniform and picks up a weapon is automatically declared a “hero”.

In truth, many of the most revered “heroes” in our national mythology were little more than violent, gun-toting thugs.  Andrew Jackson, the “hero” of the Battle of New Orleans, was a killer and a racist.  Teddy Roosevelt, the “hero” of the Battle of San Juan Hill, was an unapologetic imperialist, who loved nothing better than staring down the barrel of a gun and killing every hapless creature in sight.  The “heroes” who died at the Alamo did not fight to free themselves from Mexican tyranny; they fought to prevent their slaves being freed by a Mexican government that outlawed slavery three decades before the Emancipation Proclamation.  If these so-called “heroes” were alive today, they would undoubtedly be card-carrying members of the NRA.  The line from “Old Hickory” to Donald Trump runs dead straight.

Americans are constantly told that ours is a morally “exceptional” nation, an example for the rest of the world to admire and emulate.  This is a fairy tale.  If we are exceptional, it is because we have an exceptionally aggressive and violent history.

Our country was created by conquest, exploitation, extermination, and theft—all carried out at gunpoint.  The labor of millions of black Africans, dragged to these shores in chains, was extracted by white Americans carrying guns.  The lands and lives of millions of Native Americans were stolen by white Americans carrying guns. The freedoms of countless Puerto Ricans, Hawaiians, and Filipinos were crushed by white Americans carrying guns.

All the hifalutin talk about Second Amendment freedom and self-defense, all the fear-mongering about crime and “bad guys,” all the conspiracy theories about the federal government “coming for our guns” is designed to paper over what amounts to a pathological obsession.  Americans idolize their guns, because guns make them feel powerful.  Many cling to their guns, because they are pathetically insecure about their manhood or their place in the world.   Some are addicted to their guns, because they are violent and unstable bullies, who shouldn’t be allowed to get behind the wheel of a car, let alone own a firearm.

No “common sense” measures will ever rid the country of this sickness.  The only cure is to shed our illusions, see the sickness for what it actually is, and rip it out.  Until that day comes, the next Las Vegas is just around the corner.