Random Soapbox for Saturday 12/15/12

I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but ...

... here's what (I think) I know about the gun debate.  And don't turn away and pre-judge this post or presume my position just because of the list on this table (circa five years ago, and credited to the Brady Campaign).  When I add an image, I want it to tell a story -- and I think this does provide a sense of scope and scale to the debate.

By the way, I fully support that we are still a nation in (shock) and mourning and that focus and attention should be placed on those who lost their lives and those who lost everything for which they live in Connecticut but must somehow go on.  I get that -- and I'm not for groups (on either side) that chose to use this tragedy to advance their own agendas while the dead bodies were still warm.  That's despicable to me.

But note that I said groups -- because on the individual level, we all must process this in our way with our own coping mechanisms and through the lenses of our own personal lives.  And that is perfectly fine to me -- which should be of no surprise, as what follows is a memoriliazation of just the struggle that I've had in the last 24 hours.

Full disclaimer -- I don't own a gun.

I'm not a hunter, which also means I don't own any bright orange gear nor I have I spent any time in a tree stand.  To thine own self be true, and all -- so I need to admit that when I see a spider in the apartment, I name him or her and get happy that there will be fewer flies with which I will have to deal.  I relocate millipedes to the back porch or usher them nicely back down the drain from whence they came so that they can return to the world in which they are most comfortable.  Lobster tanks still make me uncomfortable.  I've said it before in a different context, but I will be forced to vegetarianism in any post-apocalyptic scenario where I'm responsible for my own food supply.

Of course, all that said, don't get it twisted.  I fully embrace my forebears' carnviorsitic tendencies.  I've chawed through quite a collection of chacuterie in my lifetime.  My birthday meal each year is a steak (bone-in if possible, and, when it comes to ounces, always in the double digits please).  I fight back when restaurants suggest bacon OR sausage as sides instead of bacon AND sausage.  I may be personally accountable for the annihilation of multiple barnyards of animals.  I say all this because I just wanted to fully disclose lest someone call me out for hypocrisy.  Bottom line -- I don't begrudge those who do hunt, and I think that hunters should have access to reasonable weapons.  [Although I will say that CW's Arrow and The Walking Dead's Daryl make me think that I would look much sexier killing things with a crossbow instead of a rifle.]

And I don't feel the need to have a gun for self-defense in the apartment.  Truth be told, I have a baseball bat and a butcher block of mostly sharp knives for those purposes.  And a bottle of Raid under the sink and a tea kettle on the stove and memories of the pivotal scene in Extremities should I need to get dramatically creative in dealing with an interloper.  In the outside world, I have my smart ass mouth, which, ironically, my closest friends think will one day be the cause of my being shot, but which, so far, has worked to my benefit.

For you see, I've actually had a gun pulled on me twice.  (And more irony -- both times were when I lived in Harrisburg PA and not in the crime-filled Chicago.)  Luckily for me, both situations involved apprentice criminals -- the first time in the parking lot of a bar that I had left when I ran out of money (and their "guns" might have been fingers poked in jackets, that's how comically inept they were) and the second while walking the dog with a friend past the governor's mansion (that scenario included an actual sawed off shotgun).  In the first, I simply laughed and told the mini-gangsters that I had no money -- as if I had, I would still be in the bar drinking and wouldn't have left alone before closing time -- and got into my car (with hands shaking as I tried to get my key in the hole to unlock the door) and drove away, leaving them confused by my application of logic to the scenario.  The second was certainly a little scarier (and that was even though I had Demon, the 80+ lb American Staffordshire pit bull with me at the time), but the attempted robbery was going down on a one way street, so I ran the opposite way with dog and friend in tow (and, again, created confusion as the wannabe criminals weren't sure if they should put their car in reverse to back up down the one-way street in order to consummate the crime).  I took that evasive action only after having memorized the license plate number, which I immediately provided to the police upon arriving back home and which was used to arrest the kids (my experience was their third or fourth mugging, but it was the first and only one that went awry).

Trying to get back to the point -- all this being said, I have shot a gun -- and I don't mean shooting the "potato gun" (or my friend's pistol with tracer bullets) out over the Cornwall quarry from the top of the rockpile (and unless you are with law enforcement and the statute of limitations has not yet run out, I may have done both of those activities at some distant time in my youth).  I'm referring to the fact that I've had an ex-marine sharpshooter take me to the firing range and the "back 40" and he taught me proper gun protocol with an ever-present eye toward safety and with a call to action for accuracy.  I quickly learned I'm not a good shot (and felt a little guilty for wasting his ammunition to reach that conclusion) which I blamed mostly on the fact that my prescriptive eyewear was designed to get me through the day and not to have the type of aim befitting a sniper.

But again (or finally) -- my point here is that I don't think there should be an enhanced degree of control that in any way interferes with his right to recreationally enjoy his safely kept collection of gunnery or which stops the hunters from enjoying their sport.

It pains me that this conversation is always so much about the extremes (methinks that's partly explained if one follows the money trail, as, again, it seems to be those groups that hijack the discussion and fan the flames and beat the drums on both sides).  I blame the pressure of the 24 hour news cycle to constantly comment and brilliant back room strategists who create talking points that people who don't have the skill set for independent thought and analysis repeat like programmed robot propagandizers.  The person who hasn't come to learn that life's full of shades of grey and that very little is black and white is the person who hasn't lived for experiencing multiple points of view and who has put him or herself inside of a self-centered bubble of like-mindedness that creates a sad artificial existence.

It is not correct to think that any movement on gun control, no matter the size, is an evisceration of the right to bear arms such that second amendment militias should be re-formed to protect the security of the state.  And that amendment from which I just quoted doesn't give you the right to recreationally fire bazookas in your backyard.  Conversely, all guns should not be melted down to give to artists to create peace statuary (although, I will admit it -- those are pretty powerful statements if you've seen any).

Furthermore, "gun control" is not one problem to be solved.  No one moves forward when the issues are conflated.  The urban gun lifestyle promoted by gang living needs its own unique solution and a generation of youth need conflict-resolution skills training.  Resources for mental health care need to be funded and then tweaked to be more focused on trying to ferret out this type of behavior before it leads to action.  Media coverage of these events needs to be overhauled to provide more of a buffer for those who consider copycat crimes based on the celebrity like attention paid to the nonstop "news"ing that is going on.  And yes, closing loopholes in the type of gun sales that have found ways to skirt the laws that already exist to legally purchase firearms in this country must be a priority.  Extreme weapons that have no other purpose but to be mass killing machines should only be in the hands of the military, and should not be waved around as an amendment provided birthright.

Reasonable men and women should be able to agree on reasonable measures to mitigate the risks that are relevant here.  And crash bam alakazaam, suddenly I'm a Ron Paul libertarian, but shouldn't it be more about personal accountability -- which also speaks to the western PA father who recently accidentally shot his son in the car seat or the famous athlete who doesn't know how to engage a safety and shoots himself in a leg.  If you don't know how to handle the weapon, you shouldn't own one.

Possibly the worst news of all -- some tragedies will never be able to be prevented.  Some acts of evil occur because evil exists.  And some accidents are just accidents.  So why the list in the accompanying image?  To be most clear, that's not in any way to minimize those who died in Connecticut (and, thanks to the 24 hour media coverage, I can add their names to this post tonight).  For it is without a doubt that the circumstances around this incident are horrific -- children in a school, young lives snuffed out without warning or meaning.  But when the time for mourning has passed, it will take leaders who can understand the entire breadth of the issue (the list in the image tells a story that speaks to the complexity of it) and leaders who can find a way to move forward on different resolutions for the varied problems that make it up.

In the midst of all of this darkness, I refuse to believe that the world is devoid of reasonable men and women.  And I hope that one or more of you reading this post (assuming you made it all the way to the end) belongs to that category and can effectuate the reasonable change that is needed.  And I join in the mourning that no one on this list below will have the opportunity to be that leader.  There are no words to appropriately address that travesty.  Just silent tears.

Let their deaths not be in vain.  Make a difference.  Do something.  Find the solution.  Save the world from itself.  For their sake if no one else's ...

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