Before I say any of this, I want you to know where I'm coming from.
I grew up in Vermont. People hunt there. I owned a BB gun before I was old enough to reach the pedals on the riding lawn mower. My grandfather, a responsible gun owner, congratulated me when I earned my orange card at eleven years old. I got bruises from a muzzle-loader kick on my scrawny little shoulder because I didn't pocket it correctly my first time firing one. In my early twenties, an ex-boyfriend laid a cute little Beretta on my kitchen table and asked if I might want to buy it. He'd set it aside because 'it matched my purse.' And though I declined, I considered that a totally normal interaction.
So when I tell you that American gun rights are a failed experiment, that's where I'm coming from. I was raised to think that gun ownership was not only a right to be exercised, but was casual, even universally natural.
I've had a big change of heart since then.
The Second Amendment was a damn good idea. The idea was that citizens needed to protect themselves from a potential government gone bad, and so, those citizens should be equipped to revolt if necessary. Back when the army had muzzle-loaders, and the citizenry had muzzle-loaders, this worked just fine. If the government defied the will of the people, the people outnumbered them and could take over. Unfortunately, this idea did not stand the test of time, because it didn't allow for the advancement of military technology.
This is the Second Amendment.
The first half is now completely inapplicable, because any well-regulated militia trying to enforce the security of the free state would be armed with, at best, high-powered rifles, while even the local police may have a tank. If you want to rebel against the US Government, you should consider that they've past nuclear bombs and gone all the way to drones. A military force doesn't even have to leave base to wipe a 'well regulated militia' off the face of the earth.
So, it's bunk. The reasoning in the Second Amendment, cherished by American gun-lovers everywhere, is bunk.
And now we have to talk about what Americans actually do with guns.
I'm sure you've seen the statistics. I'll recap some of those, too, but I'm going to start with some of my personal experiences, because no matter how empathetic you are, the numbers are just numbers to you. Human brains aren't designed to feel for thousands of deaths at a time. But they are designed to process stories, and I'm going to tell you some true ones.
When I was in high school, I dated someone whose friend felt that I was 'taking time away from him.' The friend and I had other issues; we were in a self-defense class together, and while he was big, I was fast, and he didn't like losing sparring matches. Already annoyed with me, and deprived of time with his friend, this boy went home, got a gun, and returned to the school parking lot with it. The only reason that I wasn't shot is that I told a school secretary that he had threatened me and was waiting. She kept me in the office and called the police. The boy was removed from school after that, though I don't know what happened to him. We were both sixteen.
Years later, I saw two men arguing outside a bar. Hoping to joke them out of having a fistfight, knowing that the appearance of a woman sometimes defuses these situations, I stepped between them. One man pulled a handgun out of his jacket. Suddenly faced with an angry, drunk, armed stranger, I ran.
The only time I ever stopped for gas in Hartford, Connecticut, the gas station was being robbed. The man fired two shots in the air as he fled, thankfully away from my car. I wondered where the bullets would come down.
These are not fun stories. They're scary. It's unnecessary and ridiculous that they could even happen. And these are just my stories.
I've never even been shot.
Now imagine the stories of people who have.
Yesterday, a young woman was shot while signing autographs after her concert.
Today, during Pride Month, a mass shooting took place at a gay bar in Orlando.
Tomorrow, there will probably be another one.
This is what America does with guns.
Why? I have my theories.
As far as I can tell, the first factor is that we've combined a culture of toxic masculinity with ballistic weaponry. (If you wonder why I specify masculinity, maybe you need to take a second look at who these shooters are.) We teach men to feel entitled to power, to women's bodies, to getting their way, and then they don't get what they feel entitled to, gun violence is the example in front of them to follow. Going back to black and white movies, there are portrayals, even 'comedic' portrayals, of men shooting their nagging wife or noisy neighbor. We shine giant spotlights on mass shooters in the news, and regardless of what judgement we pass on them, there is power in that for them. Media teaches us that a strong male protagonist always has a gun. Guns are a boy's best friend, and mixed in with all the other toxic nonsense we teach about what it means to be a man, that is dangerous. That's not a hypothetical. We're proving it.
The second factor, essentially, is that we're not careful. We restrict carcinogens, we legally enforce seat belts and helmets, but we have grossly insufficient care for this common implement, a gun, the explicit purpose of which is to end a life. There was one shooting BY A TODDLER for every month on the calendar last year. No matter what middle-ground restrictions we think we have in place, anyone can buy a gun here. We manufacture gun safes, but still people do things like hide firearms in the couch. Because we're casual about guns. Which is a mistake. A deadly mistake.
Are there more factors? Of course there are. These are just the ones that seem most striking to me. Whatever you consider to be the main reason, the conclusion has to be the same: America can't be trusted with guns.
It's an extremely unpopular thing to say.
But I can draw no other conclusion, and I won't pretend that I can.
P.S. If you're interested in broadening your education on this subject, please read about how other countries handle gun control. The United States is an anomaly. We can do better.