The horrible shooting yesterday in Newtown, Connecticut has, understandably, elicited very strong reactions from people around the country, and likely around the world. Along with the outrage, sadness, shock, and disgust, people have been quick to make all manner of pronouncements about what the shooting says about our society. This happens every time there is a major incidence of gun violence in America, and the debate is always the same, with some people speaking of the need for gun legislation reform, and others howling that "guns don't kill people, people kill people," and pressing the panic button that some form of totalitarian effort to take everybody's guns away from them is just around the corner. Inevitably, though, after a few days or weeks have passed, everybody moves on, and nothing changes.
What isn't being said enough, however, is that the debate over gun control laws is only one small piece of the puzzle. What's broken here is not just our relationship to guns, but our entire society. Those of us who were brazen enough to suggest on the day of the shooting that it's beyond time to look at our gun laws have been blasted, accused of "opportunism," of using the bodies of the dead children to advance some political agenda, presumably that faux-libertarian trope of the tyrannical liberal seeking to strip the masses of their liberty, just for the hell of it. What does it say about us that we can't even have a CONVERSATION about how we handle gun ownership in this country without people getting hysterical and pulling out the tired "from my cold dead hands" shtick?
Let me just start by telling those who get so outraged that this should even be a discussion to calm the fuck down - nobody is trying to take away your handgun. Nobody. Get over that nonsense, grow up, and allow for one minute the possibility that there is a reasonable discussion to be had about the responsibility that comes with gun ownership, and the responsibility of the government to protect its people. Or do your rights to unfettered, unconditional access to any weapon you like, under any circumstances, trump the rights of children to feel safe in their schools, shoppers to feel safe in the mall, families to feel safe going to the movies, and worshipers to feel safe in their temples and churches?
Under current law, it's far too easy for guns to fall into the hands of those whom nobody would like to see have them. The argument that there is no way to guarantee that those people won't get them even with stronger regulation is no argument at all. Just because something isn't 100% effective doesn't mean it isn't worth doing. Many gun advocates even make the absurd argument that acts like the Newtown massacre could have been prevented if MORE people had guns. There is absolutely no evidence to support this. There is not a single recorded incident of a mass killing that was stopped or prevented by a private citizen armed with a handgun, and reason suggests that such a private citizen would likely do more harm than good if so armed.
The mindset that any gun regulation is tantamount to stripping of 2nd Amendment rights is the same one that sees any sort of regulation on the financial industry as virtual socialism, and an affront to the very notion of free enterprise. It's a form of absolutism, and an inability to see the world in anything but stark contrasts of black and white, with no shades of gray in-between. And it's both wrong-headed and dangerous.
But this unwillingness to enter into a conversation, or allow for the possibility of a sensible middle ground, is symptomatic of the larger issue I mentioned above - that our society as a whole is broken. There is clearly something terribly wrong with a society in which this many atrocious acts can occur, with such soul-deadening regularity. Guns themselves are not the problem, and access to them is only one piece of the puzzle (though an important piece). Acts like what we witnessed in Newtown are the work of sick minds, and in order to understand how to prevent such acts requires the willingness to look at the system in which such minds develop. How can we do a better job of recognizing the warning signs of such sickness, and addressing them when we see them? In the national discussion about health care, far too little has been about mental health, and in fact mental health services are among the most difficult and costly to obtain, as well as the most stigmatized.
If we are truly going to deal with gun violence in America, we have to be willing to look at all of these issues, and not only discuss them, but act upon them. Gun control and access to mental health are both key, but so are the underlying social conditions that create the environment in which such violence occurs. Our radically divided political landscape has engendered hostility and resentment, and a resistance to compromise and civility that exceeds anything I've seen, including during the politically charged late 60's and early 70's.(I know it's shocking that I'm old enough to remember those days, but I do.) Our economy is more imbalanced than at any time since the 1920's. Economic opportunity and the "American dream" seem more and more an impossible dream to America's youth. And, perhaps as important as anything else, our technological advances have driven us into methods of communication that keep us at once totally wired in, twenty-four hours a day, and yet utterly isolated, speaking to each other through a series of e-mails, facebook posts, and tweets rather than face to face.
I was recently at a play with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, and we were fortunate enough to have seats in the front row of the balcony at a large theatre here in Los Angeles. During intermission, I looked down into the orchestra section, and couldn't help noticing that nobody was talking to each other. Row after row, all I saw were the illuminated faces of people's "smart" phones, as they texted, tweeted, e-mailed, and checked in. And just last night, at a family holiday party, I looked across the room at a grandfather and two of his granddaughters, all three sitting on a sofa, each with their phones in their hands, tapping away. How can we expect to have a normal sense of community when we can't even sit with our own family and TALK without "multi-tasking."
So let's get real here, admit we have real problems, with real consequences, stop demonizing each other for wanting to address them, let go of the fear that anybody is trying to take anything away from you, and go about looking for ways to make our society better, stronger, more civil, less violent, and more in balance. Nature abhors a vacuum, but it loves balance, and that's something of which we currently have precious little.
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