Guns for Everyone!

As you probably heard, there was another one of those shootings today, this one at Johns Hopkins University hospital, and this one also with hostage-taking.

Add this to the growing list that includes The Discovery Channel, Ft. Hood, Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University. (And a church; and the TV news mentioned four similar incidents at hospitals.) The list is getting so long that it's hard to recall them all.

People in other countries are saying, "Those crazy Americans and their guns." Yes, we are crazy, and guns are too prevalent in America. Shootings like these seldom occur in other countries.

Extreme gunowners' rights advocates want every American to have a gun in his house, so that he will be "protected" in the event of a home invasion. And they want everybody to openly carry a hand gun.

The logic, "Well, the bad guys have guns, so I need one, too, to protect myself," simply means an arms race.

When homeowners have guns in their homes, a variety of accidents can happen. Just a couple days ago, here in Chicago, a boy shot his brother with a rifle; and supposedly the gun had been properly locked up in a cabinet. There have of course been other, similar accidents. All those guns ready to be aimed and fired at intruders and burglars: they're going to be mistakenly fired at spouses, parents, children.

And these shootings like the one today show that our easily-obtained guns are too often finding their way into the hands of those with mental problems. Anyone with some irrational grudge or rage, anyone with delusions, can get a gun and go and shoot whoever it is he perceives as causing his problems.

Again to look at Americans with an outsider's view: We have a Wild West mentality. It is macho to have a gun.

In fact I literally blame Hollywood Western movies for this: They glamorized the gunslinger, gun-toter, gunfighter. John Wayne and other heroes of Westerns became the American ideal of masculinity. Someone said that John Wayne redefined the masculine in America.

So, no wonder every gang member and every other punk in America wants a gun. When guns are easy to obtain and easy to own, it's more likely they're going to be used. We here in Chicago are having a problem that has been escalating to extreme, shocking proportions: Hundreds of people a year are killed in drive-by shootings and other gang-related violence. Often it's young, innocent children who get caught in the crossfire. The residents of certain areas are literally killing one another. Imagine what it's like to live in one of those areas and to live with your life in danger every day. Supposedly only soldiers in wartime have to live like that.

Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein