OK. I have held my tongue for years of this, but I no longer can. I don’t know where the voices of all the moderates have gone, but that’s another post. I am tired. So tired of all the yelling and taking of sides. I have lost faith in people, our government, the system and the possibility that anything will ever change.
Still, in all my sense of futility, I do have an opinion. This is, after all, happening to all of us – to our country.
My opinion is: I think we should be able to talk about this.
Seriously. We, a people who have suffered through more mass shootings (defined as four or more individuals injured by a single shooter and controlled for domestic violence) in 2015 than there have been days of the year, should be able to talk about this.
But whenever something horrible happens, people quickly start drawing lines in the sand and taking sides. No meaningful issue is this simple.
When someone like me starts talking about commonsense gun legislation, others start saying “They’re not getting my guns!” Literally. I tried to make a comment about safe firearm storage to an immediate family member this past summer, and this person literally burst out with “They’re not gonna take my guns!”
The thing is, nobody said that. Nobody ever says that except people seeking political power or money by fear mongering. And even if they did, there are checks and balances in our system that keep anything that sort of thing from even being possible. The commonsense firearm legislation I have seen has nothing whatsoever to do with removing guns from the hands of law-abiding citizens.
Instead, some of the following things have been proposed and have failed:
* Safe storage legislation (too expensive, too intrusive, too hard to enforce)
* Extreme Risk protective orders (Legislation designed to temporarily remove a person’s access to guns during a time of intense emotional disturbance or first psychotic episode where family members or law enforcement have evidence the person poses a serious threat to themselves or others.)
This law, if in place, would have removed the OR shooter’s guns from him and would have prevented these ten tragic, meaningless, and preventable deaths. Such legislation has been proposed time and again, including in my own state earlier this year, but typically fails. In WA, the bill had the support of the majority of the legislature in theory, but still couldn’t pass. Where it did pass in California, gun rights activists scream bloody murder over what they view as restrictions to their rights, all the while saying that we should address the ‘mental health issues.’ This leaves me shaking my head because we’re talking about helping a person suffering with mental health issues by keeping firearms from them while they have a chance to stabilize.
* Closing of loopholes related to gun shows or internet purchases. Seriously this should be so obvious it hurts. This is simply a matter of states universally enforcing laws that are already in place. This hardly seems an encroachment on anyone’s rights, but is always met with heavy pushback because of the dollar amounts involved. Seriously, let’s enforce our existing state laws universally. That’s what state right are all about.
* Allowing the CDC to study gun deaths just as they do automobile deaths and allowing them to make their recommendations. We don’t need to be afraid of facts, yet this continues to be disallowed.
* Law Enforcement gun buyback options for those who *want* such a thing. Nothing forced – I’m not talking about taking anyone’s guns – but there are plenty of people, even some I know, who wind up inheriting a firearm and not knowing what to do about it. This gets unwanted weapons out of the hands of an under-educated group and out of circulation where they can be picked up by those who might do harm.
These are the kinds of things we’re talking about. And I support them. And I believe that most moderate individuals support similar ideas. We all want to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and disturbed individuals. And we all know that this will never be achievable. But it can get better. Every gun that is (truly) safely stored is a gun that a child will not accidentally shoot her sibling with. Education plays a *huge* part, but it isn’t enough by itself. Every gun removed from circulation by those who voluntarily choose this option is one that won’t be stolen in a burglary. Every gun sale prevented to an unauthorized individual through the enforcement of existing state laws and the closing of exceptions to those laws is a gun that won’t be used by that person to commit a crime. And this is not theoretical – right here in my own state we passed an initiative earlier this year which very simply requires that private sales and transfers —including those at gun shows or on the internet— go through the same background check process as sales through a licensed gun dealer. Just days after going into effect, this law blocked the sale of a firearm to a prohibited purchaser at a Spokane gun show. This individual had an active arrest warrant, but only weeks before would have been sold a firearm no questions asked.
This is an emotional issue, no doubt about it. But lots of other high-stakes issues are also emotional (School quality, highway safety, infrastructure spending, corporate tax rates, access to college, ad. nauseam) but they aren’t politicized in the same way. For some reason, this issue, along with the ‘A’ word, have become so politicized that we can’t even see straight. We don’t talk to each other like human beings. It’s ‘us’ versus ‘them’ and ‘they’ want to take what we have! And it’s not true – it really isn’t. We’re all human beings who care about our civil liberties, who care about our families and who care about public safety. I wish we could drop the overtones of political power and talk about individual issues rationally. Unfortunately, slippery slope logic prevails as it so often does with emotional topics.
What truly troubles me about this is that we aren’t talking with or listening to each other. People are drawing up sides and proclaiming at one another. I feel like I am expected to take up ranks on this – either I stand with some undefined ‘them’ who want to take all the guns or I stand with real Americans who support the 2nd amendment by opposing any gun legislation at all. And … I don’t fit. And I don’t believe that most Americans do either. Anyone who really knows me knows that I am not anti-gun. I’m not. But if we’ve ever talked about it, you’ll know that I think that locked, secure storage should be compulsory and that anyone wanting to own a gun should be able to pass a basic background check.
Call me crazy, but I don’t think that takes me to the extreme left where my voice should be disregarded as just another anti-american liberal who wants to take your guns. Likewise, I don’t think that my friends and family members who are gun rights activists are crazy gun-toting right-wing extremists who would be dismissed out of hand. I think we can have it both ways. I think we can have gun rights for law abiding citizens, and also have a safer country *without* removing a single legally-obtained firearm from any individual who is not prohibited from owning it. I don’t want to take your guns. I don’t want ‘them’ to take mine. I just want to be able to talk to one another. Because preventable deaths are occurring.
That’s what I think.
Howling at the Moon 