I was not raised with guns, they're not a part of my culture, and my dad was never a hunter when he brought us up. I did hear stories about his hunting as a young boy in the aftermath of the depression to feed his family. His mom was a widow and they were very poor. I will not list all of the unsavory things they consumed. He also hunted mink a very long time ago to sell to Sears Roebuck for cash. My dad laughed when he told us these stories, but they were serious to me, even as a child. They've kept me humble about life, and I often think about them when I try to contemplate just what the deal is with gun ownership for people. Because of his stories I never really understood what would compel people who didn't need to to go out and hunt, but I do know that this is my perception. There are other families who have hunting as part of a tradition. It's just not my thing.
I guess for my dad it was important that his kids did not have to feel food anxiety. He worked many hours and unlike my dad, as children, we simply opened the refrigerator to get to what we needed to eat. Maybe he was so set on this that he never thought we'd need to use a gun as a tool, because we never had one in our home. Once he grew up and married in the 50's, he got rid of his gun and hunting habit. My dad never hunted for "sport". Sometimes I think it is because he felt such tremendous pressure when he was out there trying to shoot a rabbit, or a squirrel, or a snake (I know) when he was a small boy sent out to the woods. My father knew what poor was, he knew what survival was. I think he saw it as a personal accomplishment, a milestone, that he could put the gun down.
Side-note to self: Please remember this more when you and grandkids lament that you had to pay for your own college educations.
And so my siblings and I lead a pretty suburban life in lower middle-class America. I would not say we lived in the safest place in America, there were bad sections of town. Our parents taught us to avoid trouble and to be smart about making ourselves vulnerable to crime. Today I live and work just outside of a city that is named every year as one of the top five most violent cities in the country. I pretty much just follow the common sense rules my parents taught us and have added a newer understanding of gangs and how they operate to my repertoire. I've raised my kids with the same understandings. The eldest are adults now. So basically, we have three generations in my family that are living without guns, the latter two never had them in their realities at all, and my dad only had a rifle for survival.
When I hear all of this ruckus about having to have a gun to defend onesself, I find myself utterly mystified. I do understand I must be coming from a very, very different place. I've only seen guns on television, in museums, or on uniformed people. What do I know?
My grandmother, who was born in 1868, used to tell me stories about being terrified with her turn on "watch" in the lawless mountain settlement her family lived in. She was so relieved when a town grew around her, when roads were paved, when police kept citizens safe. Putting down his rifle as a child, and taking to working in a factory was perceived by my father, and his family, as a sign of prosperity, of moving forward. Have we forgotten this perspective in this society?
I don't understand how gun ownership got so completely turned around. My father believed he was moving up in the world, and his children moving forward into a better place. For my entire life I felt protected by the law. I wondered if this new zeal for guns had to do with a rise in crime across the country, so I looked it up, and the fact is that the crime rate has gone down.:
According to the FBI, which culls from information volunteered by some 14,000 law enforcement jurisdictions from Oahu to Key West, violent crimes dropped in all four major US regions: 4.7 percent in the West, 4.9 percent in the Midwest (a region where the murder rate actually rose slightly), 4.5 percent in the South, and 0.8 percent in the Northeast. The national murder rate dropped by 1.9 percent.
http://www.csmonitor.com/...
And so I thought, well maybe people will say this is because citizens are armed and can protect themselves. But that is not included in this list.:
Because the pattern "transcends cities and US regions, we can safely say crime is down," says James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston. "We are indeed a safer nation than 20 years ago."
He and others give four main reasons for the decline:
Increased incarceration, including longer sentences, that keeps more criminals off the streets.
Improved law enforcement strategies, including advances in computer analysis and innovative technology.
The waning of the crack cocaine epidemic that soared from 1984 to 1990, which made cocaine cheaply available in cities across the US.
The graying of America characterized by the fastest-growing segment of the US population – baby boomers – passing the age of 50.
http://www.csmonitor.com/...
In light of this, I have a hard time understanding the e-mails my husband keeps receiving from his dad, who lives in Mississippi, in which there are cautionary messages about Obama and Liberals trying to take guns away, the latest actually included directions about how to turn a nail gun into a weapon in the event this happens.
A must have in every home in America !
For everyone who would rather not have a gun in the house!
In view of the recent Supreme Court ruling, sales of this new product may skyrocket.
Washington thinks they are going to take away our guns, so check this out. I like it!
NAIL GUNS! AND, you don't even have to REGISTER them or have LICENSES for them!
AND, you don't have to worry about them being CONCEALED!
Just a LOT of good stuff to do with THIS!
Once in awhile something so totally cool comes out that even a guy who doesn't normally even know what he'd like for Father's Day or Christmas would immediately ask for it:
Thank you, De-Walt!!!
(photo is here in e-mail)
New Nail Gun, made by De-Walt
It can drive a 16-D nail through a 2x4 at 200 yards.
This makes construction a breeze, you can sit in your lawn chair and build a fence.
Hundred round magazine.
Someone invades your home, just nail his ass.
When there are the high-profile killings, like the tragedy today, I am beyond words, I cannot comprehend events like this. I cannot help myself though, I immediately think of those e-mails. I know at the root of Sikh shooting, like the Batman shooting, there is insanity. I know the guns are a means to acting on insane impulses for these people. And yet somehow when these things happen people are becoming more protective and advocating for more guns. I freely admit I do not have the necessary life experiences to understand this kind of thinking. My logic dismisses it, but I am feeling that it isn't enough for me to merely say, "Well, those people that think they need more guns are just nuts," anymore.
I don't have an answer, so I'm sorry to disappoint if you've read this far. I am accustomed to looking at problems in society from a psychological standpoint. Even though I'm not a psychologist I've spent most of my life trying to understand why people behave in certain ways due to family circumstances and my profession as a special educator. So I wondered what in the world is making so many people feel so threatened and have found some writing that may answer some of my questions, I thought I'd share.
First, I wondered if people that had guns had a different fundamental understanding of life than I do and simply feel completely threatened. It really feels that way when I read these rants that come from a red state into my blue state household. It is difficult to be fair-minded toward relatives who send blabber like this:
Subject: Fw: At Last A Christian Speaks Out
Thank you, Lord for this man
Should Christians Support President Obama?
This man was on Dr. Charles Stanley's program "In Touch" as a guest speaker.
Forward or discard....it's your choice...but PLEASE read before you do!
Dr. David Barton is more of a historian than a Biblical speaker, but very famous for his knowledge of historical facts as well as Biblical truths.
Dr. David Barton - on Obama
Respect the Office? Yes.
Respect the Man in the Office? No, I am sorry to say.
I have noted that many elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans, called upon America to unite behind Obama.
Well, I want to make it clear to all who will listen that I AM NOT uniting behind Obama!
I will respect the Office which he holds, and I will acknowledge his abilities as an orator and wordsmith and pray for him, BUT that is it.
I have begun today to see what I can do to make sure that he is a one-term President!
Why am I doing this?
It is because:
- I do not share Obama's vision or value system for America;
- I do not share his Abortion beliefs;
- I do not share his radical Marxist's concept of re-distributing wealth;
- I do not share his stated views on raising taxes on those who make$150,000+ (the ceiling has been changed three times since August);
- I do not share his view that America is Arrogant;
- I do not share his view that America is not a Christian Nation;
- I do not share his view that the military should be reduced by 25%;
- I do not share his view of amnesty and giving more to illegals than our American Citizens who need help;
- I do not share his views on homosexuality and his definition of marriage;
- I do not share his views that Radical Islam is our friend and Israel is our enemy who should give up any land;
- I do not share his spiritual beliefs (at least the ones he has made public);
- I do not share his beliefs on how to re-work the healthcare system in America;
- I do not share his Strategic views of the Middle East; and
- I certainly do not share his plan to sit down with terrorist regimes such as Iran.
Bottom line: my America is vastly different from Obama's, and I have a higher obligation to my Country and my GOD to do what is Right!
For eight (8) years, the Liberals in our Society, led by numerous entertainers who would have no platform and no real credibility but for their celebrity status, have attacked President Bush, his family, and his spiritual beliefs!
They have not moved toward the center in their beliefs and their philosophies, and they never came together nor compromised their personal beliefs for the betterment of our Country!
They have portrayed my America as a land where everything is tolerated except being intolerant!
They have been a vocal and irreverent minority for years!
They have mocked and attacked the very core values so important to the founding and growth of our Country!
They have made every effort to remove the name of GOD or Jesus Christ from our Society!
They have challenged capital punishment, the right to bear firearms, and the most basic principles of our criminal code!
They have attacked one of the most fundamental of all Freedoms, the right of free speech!
Unite behind Obama? Never!
I am sure many of you who read this think that I am going overboard, but I refuse to retreat one more inch in favor of those whom I believe are the embodiment of Evil!
PRESIDENT BUSH made many mistakes during his Presidency, and I am not sure how history will judge him. However, I believe that he weighed his decisions in light of the long established Judeo-Christian principles of our Founding Fathers!!!
Majority rules in America, and I will honor the concept; however, I will fight with all of my power to be a voice in opposition to Obama and his "goals for America ..."
I am going to be a thorn in the side of those who, if left unchecked, will destroy our Country! Any more compromise is more defeat!
I pray that the results of this election will wake up many who have sat on the sidelines and allowed the Socialist-Marxist anti-GOD crowd to slowly change so much of what has been good in America!
GOD bless you and GOD bless our Country!
Thanks for your time, may you and yours be safe.
"In GOD We Trust"
I honestly can't even imagine the lifetime of hate programming that must have happened in order for kids to grow to adults with these ideas, with this level of fear and ignorance. What a sad waste of parenting time. It is hard for my husband and I, we ignore and ignore these repeated messages. We've asked for them to stop, but these requests are ignored by close relatives, and it comes down to cutting off family members or just shaking heads in silence. Still, on the gun issue I try to understand. Are they really that insecure about law enforcement in their state? How can it be that we can walk through one of the most violent cities in the nation and be OK without a gun, but they can't drive to the Kroger without theirs?
Aside from the fact that guns have been passed from generation to generation in the family my husband comes from, there is also the fact that they are used continuously for recreation. On one visit, my shell-shocked liberal college kids were taken into the woods by the younger set of these relatives and shown one of their favorite past-times, shooting at refrigerators outside of their hunting camp. So I try very hard to cut a huge swath for cultural differences and being raised with guns as an everyday reality. However, I wonder how much this has to do with the idea of these people, who are financially wealthy and appear to live in idyllic towns, living in fear about their guns being taken from them.:
...in areas where people know tend to know their neighbors more intimately – small towns – there are indications that communal solidarity may have begun to slip. Indeed, the murder rate in towns with 10,000 or fewer inhabitants spiked in 2011, going up by 18 percent. At the same time, some experts note that may be a statistical anomaly, since the violent crime rate in small town America dropped by 23 percent just the year before, in 2010.
http://www.csmonitor.com/...
Is it possible that in smaller towns people are experiencing a new kind of paranoia?
I know that racism is behind much of the fear in the red states. I make no bones about it having had it, in all it's filth, in my face for many years now. It is the reason my children are allowed only a surface relationship with most of my husband's family. I have explored the underpinnings of this, and tried to undo, to no avail, the wasteland that informs those thoughts in them. The numbers of gun e-mails he has been receiving are up significantly since Obama took office, and I know this is no coincidence.
But the paranoia, this feels new. As others have noted today in response to the latest massacre, the MO of the NRA appears to be to encourage more gun ownership when people are murdered like this, and they are having a good response. Gun ownership is up, and we see a spike in people in small town America murdering one another. As it turns out, this can be very dangerous for all of us, beyond the obvious reasons. I fear the effects of this growing paranoia, which can include a kind of self-perpetuating violence. People who own guns are more apt to see guns around them (whether they are there or not):
I don’t own a gun. But if I did go around with one, I’d probably be very much on edge since I’ll quickly start to notice that a lot more people were packing heat too.
That’s what researchers at University of Notre Dame have concluded after conducting a study to determine whether the simple act of wielding a gun alters the way people see the world. Previous studies have already suggested that visual perception can be highly subjective, depending on your attributes. For instance, it’s been shown that people with broader shoulders tend to perceive doorways to be narrower, and softball players with higher batting averages perceive the ball to be bigger. However, can just picking up a gun suddenly make the world appear more violent?
http://www.smartplanet.com/...
The study concluded that yes, holding a gun makes you perceive a more violent world.
So the question is, as I feel it has been for many years now, how do we fight crazy? I used to think knowledge would set us free, but the truth is that there are huge groups of Americans who have been raised to mistrust knowledge, the intellectual elite, or whatever. One of my very first arguments with my then-new in-laws was about evolution. I was told, pointedly, that they didn't care about Science or History. There is no arguing according to the rules of logic. They hate me because they think my studies, the work of my life, the college-dreams my dad had for me when he was working in that factory for 40 years, make me somehow "un-American". I've lived with this awhile, and it's OK with me. So I don't have an answer for how to argue with people that see me this way.
I hear a lot these days about constitutional rights from people that feel that not being able to have the capability to kill many people at one time will somehow take away their "right to bear arms".
I am not a constitutional lawyer, and I have never held a gun. I am worried about the effect of this continued perception that we must arm ourselves against one another. My family asks, "How is it possible that we have been able to operate since 1941 without owning a gun and you are sending weekly e-mails about your illogical fear of not having one?"
I don't know the answers to the great debate on gun ownership. But I do think it's time that people like me start asking for our rights. The pursuit of happiness means a society in which we feel safe to walk the streets without a gun, concealed or not concealed. It means we don't have to worry that some whack-a-doo who thinks the world is going to end, or that a government uprising is near, or muslims/black/gay people are going to take over the country, or that he/she is in a movie, will wander into our movie theater or our place of worship and shoot the life out of people who don't feel the need to carry a gun.
We have a right to not live in a violent society. We have the right to say we don't live in one, despite the broken record media that is telling us we do. We have the right to say people who think we need to go through life ready to shoot one another are crazy.
We have the right to say we don't need guns and don't want them.
I don't know how much good this will do in convincing people who are lost in societal paranoia to keep from feeling they have to "defend" their rights, but I do think we are at a pivitol point where some rational thinking is in order. I see this push towards more guns as a kind of mental illness that will continue to self-perpetuate if not pushed back against.
My dad put down the gun when he no longer had to eat vermin to survive. He deserves his pride in providing for his posterity.
I deserve my faith in community, in neighbors, in the peaceful society he raised me to trust in.
I hope everyone that has managed to get by without having to carry a gun will speak out against what I see as madness. The time is now. It's no longer enough to just delete the e-mails.