Ban the Guns, Strengthen Democracy

There are two different forces arrayed against gun control in the current debate—the forces of opposition and the forces of obfuscation. The forces of opposition are those whose allegiance to gun ownership brooks neither compromise nor debate. The forces of obfuscation are a more challenging opponent. Their stance is not a fealty to gun ownership per se, nor a mindless chanting of the fantastical slogans of opposition to government tyranny, neither are they simple supporters of easy and universal access to guns. They think gun owners should be trained, perhaps even licensed. Guns should be regulated. However, they stand on the peak of an Olympus of their own making from where they can discern that the territory is far more complicated than you know (you on the right, you on the left) and therefore none of your solutions are really helpful. Most mass killings were not carried out by people with rifles. Most of the gun violence in this country does not involve the types of weapons that the current and proposed laws would regulate or ban.

More importantly, nobody who is writing in support of gun control actually knows of what they speak. The editorial writers and pundits make rookie mistakes when speaking of weapons and ammunition. It’s enough to make you laugh out loud. Then, there is the fact that in the midst of a violent assault by a man armed with a gun it is better to be armed than unarmed; teaching people to defend themselves with furniture or their laptops is tragically absurd. Finally, those on the gun control side of the aisle need to admit that there are actually bad and violent people in this country and a person should defend themselves and their family. Ultimately, the obfuscator’s final argument (and ” target=”_blank”>two hundred seventy million guns of various kinds in private hands already. Banning certain categories of firearms will not do anything about crimes committed with firearms that do not fit those criteria—and the gun lobbyists spend a lot of time applying pressure to massage those definitions. There are bad people, and in the middle of a violent situation many people might think that it would be better if they had a gun—if not, the odds are that the stronger bad people would always win. There is no solution, and therefore in the current situation as we find it (having created it) we should abandon all attempts at flimsy regulations and perhaps just try to train people on the weapons that they already have. With the density of gun ownership as it is, disarming is reckless. There is then no solution, so we should, reluctantly perhaps abandon the fight to control gun violence.

This approach, however, inadvertently points to the beginning of the solution—a solution that Harris, for one, does not want, nor does he think is possible.

First, taking care of business. It seems to be a necessary part of the rhetoric nowadays to have to claim knowledge of and use of guns to gain some sort of credibility. Here goes. I have carried and fired, at various points in my life, an M1, an M14, an Uzi, an M16 (both fixed stock and collapsible stock), and a 9mm Beretta pistol that I actually owned. As long as we are on the subject, I was also a tank gunner pulling the trigger on a 105mm gun. For what its worth, I was a pretty good marksman with both the M16 and the 105mm. It is, actually, not worth very much.

The problem of gun violence (which is a subset of a larger problem of violence) in our country is not dependent on knowing the arcane details of weaponry. It matters not a whit whether you know the difference between the AR15 and the M16 if you are really trying to solve the problem. It matters a lot if you are trying to keep as many guns as possible in play. If you want to evade any and all gun laws it is important to be able to argue about the number of rounds a semi-automatic gun can shoot in a minute. If you are trying to clamp down on guns, control the number of weapons that are in the hands of people this does not really matter.

The only solution, as Harris knows, is to ban all guns. This might even require the repeal of the second amendment to the constitution. And so, in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I do want to take your guns away. All of them. Every last one.

At the same time, I do not think this will be accomplished this year or perhaps even this decade. We must however, ” target=”_blank”>here.

My book Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism is available