Guns in America

            I used to hear distant gunfire at night in Honduras, but I have only been in a public space once where there was a shooting.  I was attending an open-air music festival in Denver’s Civic Center Park.  It was shortly after the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and a sunny spring day: there were clouds of smoke hanging over the crowd as tie-died hippies stumbled around giggling, grinning, hugging each other, proud to be part of this historic occasion of enjoying their recreational choice without fear of jail time.  There were hundreds of people and no disharmony or conflict—it was a celebration of life, love, music and sunshine.

            Around 5 PM I heard the “bam, bam, bam, bam” of 4 gunshots from across the park and everything paradoxically went into slow motion while everyone moved faster.  People ran each other over screaming and darting for barricades, the street, and any sort of cover.  There was nothing behind us but a big open field and I felt totally exposed, knowing at any point I could be hit.  A girl fell to the ground in the stampede and I helped her up and put my arm around her for a couple steps before we separated into the chaos.

            Luckily no one ended up dying that day, but I remember as I rushed away having visions in my head of all the horrible mass shootings in the news.  When the gunshots rang out it wasn’t shocking at all, it was just “One of those fuckers chose here and us, thinking its all a videogame.  This time its our lives.”  And I reflected on how little it mattered that hundreds of people in the park chose peace.  It only took one freak with a gun to make a choice for us.  I saw visions of bloody grass, of the bodies I had hugged and danced with moments before stacking up on top of each other.  Then my mind jumped to the aftermath, and pictured the media members coming and trying to make it about themselves; I pictured people blaming the marijuana legalization movement or saying all these hippies deserved to die because we were sinners.  I pictured the Westboro Baptist church members and all the other parasites who suck attention out of tragedy, the soulless monsters who would say or do anything just to outrage people and draw attention.  I pictured all the bastards who would be cheerleaders for guns saying that more guns was the answer, cheering for something and unable to comprehend how utterly powerless it makes so many millions of people.

            I got in one of those never ending debates about gun control on Facebook awhile ago.  I have avoided the topic sense but I believe its past time for anyone with a conscious to speak out.  My Facebook friend pointed out that I can’t have an opinion on gun control without having used a gun myself to understand the thrill of shooting one.  First, would he feel comfortable telling his kids to avoid heroin without having tried it first?  If this argument came up again I would counter that no one can be pro gun unless they have been in a public place when a shooting occurs, to know the feeling of utter powerlessness, knowing that nothing you have done in your life matters, that the bullet doesn’t care either way who you are or where you come from, that some asshole has total power to decide when your life ends.  Have all these US politicians who support more guns felt that feeling themselves?  Do they have any power of empathy to read about gun deaths and imagine themselves being there, shot down like ducks in a shooting gallery?

            Of course, mine was a momentary scare and I still can’t even comprehend the horror of sitting in a bathroom stall or the corner of a classroom as the blood of strangers and friends floods the area.  I can’t comprehend the fear of knowing your time is coming, nor the pain of losing friends, family, children, parents to an anonymous tyrant.  But this scare does give me a perspective on the sheer idiocy of the “good guy with a gun” myth, propagated by those who make moneys off gun sales and perpetuated by those who see life as a videogame or action movie.  Its shocking to hear so many members of the US government repeating the idea that if everyone in that crowd had a gun it would somehow have led to a better outcome.  In the seconds of those gunshots there was sheer chaos, a blur of movement in every direction and an overwhelming sense of overpowering fear.  If everyone had tried to be Bruce Willis in Die Hard it would have been an absolute bloodbath, everyone shooting one another with no idea of who was who.

            They still sell this argument with no evidence, with no statistics that prove that American good guys stop bad guys with guns, and in spite of hundreds of cases of children dying each year in gun accidents.  How many accidents would there have been in the park that day if each member of the crowd was armed with an assault rifle and blasted away in a blur after the initial 4 gunshots?

            The fact is these people see life as an action movie, see themselves as Han Solo shooting down 20 stormtrooper “bad guys” who conveniently have worse aim then the good guys.  But the obvious reality is that guns don’t discriminate between bad guys and good guys.  Guns gives anyone who decides they want to have power the ability to take it over others, for any agenda whatsoever.  It doesn’t matter what argument you can make in favor of your right to live, in favor of your goodness, against any ideology; when you’re in a village and an Islamic State soldier with a rifle decides its your time to go its not important if you are good, bad, or peaceful: its all totally irrelevant against an anonymous killing machine that plays God and takes your life in a second.

            My dad wrote a book based on his doctoral dissertation exploration titled the Worldview of Redemptive Violence in the United States.  He argued that because of our history of victorious wars and the integration of these victories into our culture Americans believe that violence is a force for good and that good will prevail through force.  This worldview likely led us into Iraq and other wars, believing we could bomb and shoot enough bad guys to create a peaceful world.  More and more people are finally waking up to the idea that war and bombing hasn’t led the Middle East to peace.  Its time for every American to wake up to the idea that selling guns to anybody for any reason can’t possibly ever lead to a positive outcome, and in fact leads to a scarier and more dangerous world all the time.

            People who sell guns, and make their money in bloody conflict, and the soulless politicians they prop up propagate these myths.  And not only does the good guy with a gun myth sell guns to daydreaming action heroes, it also reinforces the mindset that the world is divided into good guys and bad guys and that we need to fear and protect ourselves from these bad guys.  For the gun industry a scarier, bloodier world is good for business and they will happily sell to both the good and the bad guys.  We saw this mindset revealed in its most obvious way after the Orlando tragedy when this coward Trump gloated on Twitter: “hahaha I’m right that you need to fear Muslims.  Be afraid, be distrustful, buy guns, fear those who are different”. Creating conflict is always a win for cowards who try to sell fear, as it has been through human history.  When Muslims shoot people the gun lobby can sell guns to the Muslim haters, who will then commit crimes against Muslims.  Then of course more Muslims will shoot more Christians and each side will buy more guns.  No matter which side you are on, more violence will serve to prop up the divisive extremists who see the world as a battleground.  Whether you are Trump selling fear of Muslims and Mexicans or ISIS selling hatred of non-Muslims, more death means more fear to export.  And the more guns they sell and the more they are used the more legitimate reasons Americans have to be fearful, playing right into their strategy.

            My Facebook friend wanted to believe that guns give power to the powerless.  He talked about how women can have power to prevent rape if they have guns, how we can protect ourselves from robbers, terrorists, etc, with them.  Yet what about the powerless in movie theaters, shopping malls, night clubs, schools made to not exist anymore because of a psycho with a gun?

            I now live in Hong Kong, in a society in which no one has guns, and yet of course it is neither lawless nor dominated by criminals.  How do we stop rapists and robbers without guns?  Its called community; groups of people finding ways to live peacefully, to talk things out and work them out.  The truth is that billions of people around the world use words, compromise, dialogue and understanding to prevent conflict.  To put conflict resolution in terms of “whoever shoots is right” and hope the good guys come out on top is to ensure utter chaos.

            And the fact that these dividers and fear mongers don’t want us to know is that 99.9999% of people are good, simple human beings just trying to get by.  They want you to believe that rapists and murderers are lurking around every corner and that we need bigger walls, stronger locks and more powerful guns to protect ourselves.

            And of course, as any news cycle will remind you, there are scary people out there.  Yet think of how ridiculous it is to think of them as pervasive next time you are in public and you see how many people follow the basic rules of society with no malicious intent towards others.  If you drive to work you depend on thousands of other people stopping at red lights, choosing to not ram their car into yours, choosing to share, cooperate and compromise.  You go to the grocery and just about everyone there will choose to not cut you in line, not run their carts into you, making simple gestures of cooperation that allow our society to function.  This is to say nothing of the millions of people around the world selflessly living their lives to serve others.  Someone may frown at you or cut you off in line on occasion if they’ve had a bad day, but what percentage of the people you interact with in an ordinary day actually want you to die a bloody death?  It seems so simple and obvious that its ridiculous in these examples, but billions and billions of people every day choose to go about their lives in a way that doesn’t harm others.  It’s the one in a million person in any culture who chooses to cause intense harm to strangers.  By manufacturing, selling and glorifying these weapons we give this one in a million angry soul the capability to shoot 50 people in their darkest hour, and we give ISIS the ability to terrorize entire villages and enslave the masses.  We don’t have to be afraid of the vast majority of people, and when we realize that we can focus on ways to stop the ones who really are scary, or help them work through their anger in a civilized way.

            I would like to end this with a quote from the comedian Bill Hicks:

And we can change (the world) anytime we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride: Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defense each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, NOT ONE HUMAN BEING EXCLUDED, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.

            Yes the world can be a scary place, but life is too short to spend in fear, and this cycle of violence that never ends.  It is long past the time to say no to fear, to have the courage to live with love and create a better world where guns aren’t necessary.