I don't normally go political with this blog, but in the face of this weekend of deadly shootings in the US, I need to say something.
Why won't Americans make wise decisions about guns, ones where we don't assume we need guns because we don't trust others not to have guns? The ones where we realize that our chances of getting shot at the Walmart may become as likely as getting shot in a home invasion?
My suspicion, one which others share, is that guns are too thoroughly woven into American mythology and thus in American consciousness for us to disarm easily. Our existence started with a guerilla war of colonists against the mother country. We took land from its rightful owners through firepower, we fought wild animals on our journey westward, hunted our own food ... Guns are as much a part of the mythology as log cabins and wagon trains.
I don't think it's inevitable that we give up on gun control completely. We should ban weapons designed to deliver a barrage of bullets in a very short time -- our ancestors didn't have those. They're not needed for hunting. They have been banned before, and deaths from guns decreased by 40%. Since that ban expired, deaths from guns increased by about 240%. The only reasons people want them is for status, for fun (it is fun blowing things up), and for killing people.
We could require gun owners to lock their guns up when not in use, with stiff penalties. Granted, no penalty is as stiff as the death of children from playing with an unattended gun, but these deaths don't seem to prompt families into locking up their guns.
We should require background checks -- not just for mental illness, but felonies, domestic violence, reports of violent ideation. These should be reciprocal from state to state or federally managed. I understand that gun owners are afraid to be put on a "list", but there should be a responsibility gun owners take when taking on a lethal weapon that can be used for multiple deaths quickly.
Most of all, however, we need a new mythology in the US, one which supports ingenuity, creativity, adaptability, and community. These qualities are represented in our history -- settlers needed to rely on each other to survive, vibrant and colorful communities developed across the country, we learn and adapt from our trespasses in the past against those not like us (at least I hope so). We have to find a way to make the American Dream accessible to everyone, so that guns are seen as superfluous to our identity.
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