Tell Me Why

OK, so you are the proud owner of an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. I don’t think you’re evil. I just don’t understand why this is so important in your life. So you have to help me out a little here.

Maybe you’re a collector. That I get. I was in the news business and used to listen to police scanner radios at work. It then became a hobby with me, and when the latest radio came out, I was the first to get it. I didn’t own every radio made, but I was good at picking out the classic ones, which I still have. They are not just decoration. It’s important to me that each one functions. So if you own a gun, I can see that it’s more than just something for a display case – it has to work.

Maybe you just like testing the limits of the gun, what it can do, how accurate it is. Maybe it’s target practice, hitting a bull’s eye, or maybe mowing down empty cans or bottles on a stone fence. Maybe it’s your release, your way of relaxing.

Maybe you’re a hunter. I won’t think ill of you if you’re hunting un-endangered animals, maybe to help thin out a herd or get rid of real pests. It’s not something I would do, but I’m not you. I wasn’t raised with it, maybe you were. You do have to ‘splain to me, however, why you need an AR-15 for that purpose, I don’t see the sport in it, and it doesn’t seem fair to the animal somehow.

I’m having a little more trouble with the other potential reasons. Perhaps you own the gun because it makes you feel safer and gives you the assurance that you can protect yourself and your family. Fine, but against what, exactly? Somebody breaking into your house with evil intent? Wouldn’t a simple handgun work for that? Do you envision multiple people breaking in, is that it? Or do you need it for the time after the earthquake when the ravenous hordes threaten you? So how many hordes must you hold off? 

Do you have the weapon just in case your government goes bad and it might want to disarm and enslave you? Or some other government’s army invades the country, and as a patriot, you have to defend your homeland? I like war movies too…but, really?

It’s some of the personal reasons that worry me the most. Do you secretly think of yourself as weak, and the gun makes you feel more powerful? Do you want to be respected, and perhaps even a little bit feared, like nobody better f*** with you? Or, do you just want to be noticed and remembered, make a splash, so the world will know you were here, that you counted for something?

Maybe all this is none of my damn business. OK. But if you don’t want to answer these questions for me, at least answer them honestly for yourself, and please think long and hard about why your answers make sense.

The Moral Cliff

We’ve been spending a lot of time talking about the fiscal cliff, but the Newtown shooting has revealed a moral one. Now is the time to consider reasonable gun regulation. “Reasonable” is a dangerous word, but I’m willing to bet that the majority of Americans know what that means in this case.

As I’ve said many times, we accept regulations in many areas of life. Traffic laws are a great example. They affect most of us, and typically, they are clearly understood. And experience makes them reasonable. If there were a traffic signal or stop sign at every intersection, there would be gridlock. But there would also be gridlock if there were no controls at all. Effective regulation actually makes traffic flow better. You can’t leave this one up to human nature. Liberty is a very lofty concept, but we agree to give up some of it to improve the functions of daily life.

I am not opposed to the right to bear arms, but it should be plain that there is no reasonable need for civilians in the United States to own functioning automatic or semi-automatic weapons, or huge magazines that allow scores of bullets to be fired. And background checks should be required at all gun-sale venues, including gun shows. If we could work on just these issues, we’d be solving a lot of the problem.

Some feel that one of the answers lies in improving security at places like schools. But while Newtown has resulted in great psychological trauma for children, turning elementary schools into armed camps will have effects too. It’s about balance.

In the Old West, it was reasonable for almost everyone to own a gun, because there was a reasonable fear that individuals would be called upon often to defend themselves. This isn’t the Wild West anymore, unless we allow it to be.

I’m tired of hearing that we can’t move this ball forward because the gun lobby is too strong and that members of Congress have to take money from it because they need to get reelected, and that’s just the way life is. But it doesn’t have to be that way all the time. At some point, if you’ll forgive the metaphor mix, the dog is going to have to decide that the tail isn’t going to wag it anymore.