Guns Fought the Law and the Guns Won

The two organizationsmost responsible for the gun violence on American streets today, the Gun Owners of America (GOA) and their partner, the National Rifle Association (NRA), have much to celebrate these days.

America has more guns than people and thanks to their willing partners in Congress, state legislators and municipal governments, laws have been fashioned to allow gun owners to shoot whomever whenever for whatever. This is the freedom conservatives long sought—the power to kill and maim with your firearm of choice without consequence.

Just the last week, freedom-loving gun owners have exercised their right under such state laws as “stand-your-ground” and “conceal-and-carry” in a variety of ways that must warm the hearts of the GOA, NRA and every guns-for-everyone politician and gun-fetishist everywhere.

We had an 84-year-old gun owner shoot and nearly kill a teenager for knocking on his door; a gun owner shoot and wound two cheerleaders for mistakenly getting into his car; and a gun owner shoot and wound a 6-year-old and her family because a basketball rolled into his yard.

These were just some of the shooting for the week of April 16, which, having become like any week in America, also included plenty of mass shootings, illegal discharge of guns, gun violence to settle disputes, etc.

Earlier in the month, a mass shooting at a private school in Tennessee took teenage and adult lives. How many? Why ask? Body counts are always increasing, and lawmakers in that state certainly didn’t care.

They took action to ensure freedom for gun owners (and thus less freedom for non-gun owners and future victims) by passing more gun laws to make more guns available to anyone without any restrictions. Oh, a red flag law failed to muster support because it would temporarily keep guns out of the hands of gun owners with such high-risk behaviors as shooting everyone in sight to address mental and emotional problems. Lawmakers saw that as violating a freedom-loving gun owner's Second Amendment rights.

They also voted to kick out two Black lawmakers because the two young men had the temerity to demand more gun safety measures after the school slaughter and because they are Black. Cooler heads prevailed in the districts they served and they were re-instated.

Civility is dead, stupidity reigns. America belongs to the freedom-loving gun owners who believe that around every corner, in every heart and mind, someone – in particular someone who is Black, Hispanic or Asian – is out to get them. As the 84-year-old Kansas City gun owner who shot the Black teenager without any provocation other than to glimpse his skin color believes, shoot first, and then shoot again. If you feel like bothering, ask questions later.

For more than 50 years, the GOA and NRA and the gun industrial complex have spread the fear that without a gun you as an American are in danger, every second of every minute of every hour of every day. Own a gun. Own many guns. Keep several in your home, in your car, in your boat, your camper, your kid’s lunch box. At any moment, someone is going to get you!

Forget thoughts and prayers, America. Guns now rule, and for those who don’t agree, tough. Shut up and get a gun or just shut up.

And if you get a gun, don’t worry about unloading it and locking it up in a safe place at home (Hell, someone could break-in at any moment and get you!). If your 6-year-old happens to take it to school and shoot his teacher, well, that’s America, where the GOA and NRA wants every kid from the time their born to get a gun. Just be proud that he aimed correctly.

Yes, America, we are a gun republic, many of our congressional members have even replaced their flag lapel pin with an AR-15 lapel pin to show their loyalty to the gun, under God.

America is steeped in the John Wayne and movie Western mythology that the gun won the West (It didn’t. It was the federal government and a powerful military with a genocidal policy) and that men and guns are what make men, men.

Two hunters once told me this when I told them I had no interest in guns. What an idiot I must have seemed to them as they informed me about stirrings they feel when fall comes, the birds fly south, and hunting licenses arrive in the mail. They were almost disbelieving when I shared that I never experienced such longing, which made me question my white manhood.

It’s just not the conservatives and Republicans and Democrats and the GOA and the NRA and the gun industrial complex at fault for gun violence. It’s not even the fault of Americans who hate guns but own one because they are fearful of the other gun owners.

Hell, in a gun republic like ours, gun violence is the daily rhythm, no one is ever at fault, other than the victims who were not armed at the moment of their demise. Tough, but, hey, the GOA and NRA warned you to get a gun because someone would get you.

We are a democracy – in our gun republic that ideal is slipping fast – and if we truly want an America without gun violence as many civilized and developed nations enjoy, then we have to change the conversation that the GOA and NRA have dominated and we need to make the serious sacrifice of banning guns. It’s not impossible to ban guns, just hard.

Until that happens, the only people who will be making sacrifices are those who are killed and wounded every day by guns.