When our guns became our gods

This post is probably going to offend some people. That isn't the point. Actually, I'm not really sure what the point is. Perhaps it is a need to express myself, perhaps I want people to consider a new perspective, perhaps I want change. What I am sure of though, is that I fear my own country. I do not fear America for myself, for my parents, for my cousins, but I fear it for my newborn niece, for generations to come, and for the children I will [not] be having. I am afraid because a place that I held as a haven of safety, of knowledge, of peace, became the site of a mass shooting on Thursday, June 5^th. One amongst many mass shootings to have taken place in the last few years, the shooting at Seattle Pacific University, my alma mater, has amplified my views on guns and has amplified my frustration with those who staunchly stand by gun rights, who seem to stand blindfolded before the evidence, holding a rifle in one hand and a copy of the second amendment in the other hand. I recognize that the majority of my readers are family and friends, who I know support gun rights. I will not pretend to understand your logic and the defense of an object, an object which symbolizes a. power, b. death, c. danger. I don't believe anyone should have that kind of authority over another person. Not the mentally ill, not the mentally sound, no one. When did we put our guns on a pedestal? When did they become our gods? When did we make ourselves gods by holding them in our hands and thereby proclaim that we have the power to take someone's life?

For some, the second amendment is proof enough that American citizens deserve the right to “keep and bear arms.” Sure, the constitution spells it out pretty clearly that our founding fathers supported gun rights. But when have dead white men holistically addressed the needs of America in all of her diversity? Those are the same dead white men who enslaved countless Africans. Those are the same dead white men who slaughtered Native Americans. Those are the same dead white men who told me that I didn't have the right to vote. But they were strong leaders! But they were Christians! But they were educated! If I ever met a nice looking white man who had charisma, who claimed strong faith, who had endless university degrees, yet killed and enslaved people of color then told me my voice didn't matter because I was born a woman...I'd run away just about as fast as I could. And I certainly wouldn't entrust him with the creation of a constitution and set of governing laws. The thing is, we've made deities of our founding fathers. And whatever you believe about the horrors of early American history, you have to recognize that our constitution and our laws have undergone reform throughout history. The second amendment was added to the Bill of Rights so that "a well regulated militia" could protect the security of the newly formed nation, not so that individuals could bear arms. What served a largely rural society in the 1700s is not serving our present age. So maybe it is okay to say the Second Amendment is out of date and that we need reform.

Social media exposes us to all sorts of stories and articles about anecdotal evidence regarding the importance of gun ownership. These are stories of people who stopped violent gunmen because they themselves had a gun in their home or had a concealed weapon (with license). But there is another story. The United States has the most guns per capita in the world. We win this title by a large margin. For every 100 people in the United States there are 88.8 guns. The country which ranks second has just 58.2 guns per 100 people. Not only do we have the highest rate of gun ownership, but also one of the highest rates of gun violence in world. According to a recent article by Humanosphere, the US has more gun-related homicides than Pakistan, and we fall just short of having more deaths than the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By the logic of those who strongly support gun rights, more guns should mean more people have the ability to protect themselves, and, therefore, gun-related crimes and deaths should decrease. But the evidence doesn't support this claim. Other developed countries that have stricter gun laws, such as Japan, the UK and Germany have monumentally lower gun-related death rates. In 2009, there were 9,500 gun-related homicides in the United States, while the UK had 63 and Germany had 381. Japan, a nation with some of the strictest gun laws, had just seven gun-related homicides. Seven. Even if you factor in population differences between these countries, it is obvious that the US vastly outweighs other developed nations in terms of gun violence. So, while the story of a man with a concealed weapon stopping a shooter makes for great reporting and bolsters the views of gun supporters, anecdotal evidence isn't evidence.

The other day someone wrote a Facebook post which stated “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” It is a truly simplistic way to view the world. To put people into a “bad” category and others into a “good” category. But what does that really mean? How do we decide who is “good” and who is “bad”. It is easy to label the gunmen of these mass shootings as evil, as “bad guys”. Certainly their actions were anything but good. But as we hear more and more about mass shootings and as we try to understand motive, the story most commonly told is of a person (a man, usually white) with serious mental and emotional conditions. Most of society doesn't understand what it means to have a psychiatric disorder, although most people at some point in their lives will experience clinical depression, a psychiatric condition. We don't openly discuss mental and emotional diagnoses, we don't have proper health care for these individuals, and we don't have a culture which supports them. Certainly none of this justifies the horrific acts of violence we've seen at SPU, in Aurora, in Newtown. Nothing can justify robbing someone of their life in this way. But are you a “bad guy” because you've been born with a psychiatric disorder that has never been properly treated? For those claiming faith, we should never label someone beyond redemption.

Even if the world were simple enough to label people “good” and others “bad”, it simply isn’t true that the only way to stop a gunman is with another gun. Certainly, given the right circumstances, it may be much easier, but by that philosophy, we would be living in the chaos of an “eye for an eye / tooth for a tooth,” world. It seems appropriate to quote Gandhi at this time, who stated, “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” While it is difficult to see hope in the wake of the tragedy that happened at SPU, I find hope in the fact that this gunman was stopped not with another gun, but with courage and a simple can of pepper spray. I have no doubt that people must learn how to protect themselves, but I don’t believe guns are the solution to that problem. Filling the world with more weapons has never made it a better place. 

When I first heard the news of the shooting at SPU, I was filled with confusion and shock. It didn’t seem possible that this tragedy had taken place at my University, in a building where I took classes, in a space where I had been able to focus on my education and not on the safety of my life. Not only was someone robbed of their life that day, but the SPU student body was robbed of their sense of peace and the safety SPU provided them. Even though I graduated three years ago, I too feel robbed of that peace. I can remember walking into Otto Miller Hall as a student with the weight of tests and papers on my shoulders, not the weight of violence and death. If this is how America is, then how can we ever trust sending our children out into the world? If this is how we have to think of schools and universities and institutions of learning, then how can we expect students to focus on their education when they must also be filled with fear? I’ve planned on having children my entire life, but now I'm not so sure. I’ve decided that if our nation doesn’t recognize the overwhelming need for gun reform, it just isn’t worth it. Why would I bring new life into this world and this country? A country filled with so much violence and tragedy that refuses to change because of a piece of paper added to our nation’s Bill of Rights in 1791.

I don’t have the audacity to think that you will read this and somehow transform from a conservative gun supporter to a progressive pacifist. What I do hope though, is that we can scrutinize our reasons for wanting guns and the evidence cited in support of pro-gun laws and policy. Let us remove our guns from their pedestals, let us no longer make them gods, and let us reclaim our humanity by realizing no one should have the right to decide whether another person will live or die.