Of Guns, The NRA and the 2nd Amendment, Fear and Loathing

They could buy guns in Walmart today

The Clutter Family: Slain at Home

Any discussion of guns quickly degenerates into the expression of gut feelings over dispassionate examination.

News from the latest, but certainly not the last, school shooting  (this one in the state of Washington,)raises the issue again.

The Phantom is caught betwixt and between on this one.

On the one hand, it does appear probable that if we ceased the production and sales of guns tomorrow, there would still be millions, likely a billion guns out there in the USA, and guns can be buried in the backyard, hidden in houses, cars. They simply are never going to go away, not in our life time, not likely for the next 100 years.  So trying to deny maniacs guns by restricting sales is likely to be an imperfect solution at best. 

Chris Rock may have the best approach: Raise the price of ammunition. If some thug knows each bullet cost $500, he's not going to spray a classroom.

Beyond that, the Phantom once moved to a farm with his girlfriend. They had lived together in New York City and never felt unsafe, but on that farm, with nothing but ponds and fields and lonely unlit roads, well, it gave the Phantom pause. He went out and bought a bow and arrow set and instructed his girlfriend in its use, but, as she pointed out, she had grown up shooting skeet and could handle a gun, and if he wanted her to be safe, a gun might make more sense, although she refused to have a gun in the house. She had grown up with guns, and they were locked up in her house, and would not have been available to prevent a home invasion. For that, you'd need to wear one on your hip at all times. 

Her father was a lifetime member of the NRA and a career military man. He owned dozens of guns, and kept detailed logs about the characteristics of each, which pulled to the right and by how much at what distances.  But he also noted when soldiers were sent out to the rifle range, the number of live rounds they were given was carefully counted and they had better return with 12 shell casings if they had been given 12 rounds. The Army was this careful. And why? Because they didn't want some disgruntled grunt shooting his drill instructor.

So that killing machine, that organization based on guns, was very careful about controlling access to live ammunition and very controlling of guns.

Gail Collins points to an ad about guns in the some deep South state election, which shows a mother at home with her children and a shadow passes over the window and then a voice says don't vote for whomever, the candidate who will take away your guns, your best protection. This strikes Gail Collins as the politics of fear, which it most certainly is. 

But, having lived in rural areas, miles and a good hour away from any police, the Phantom understands where that fear comes from. There was that famous case of the Clutter family home invasion in Holcomb, Kansas, which became the basis for In Cold Blood.  People out in the hinterlands may feel vulnerable.

And this is not new:  Going back to The Last of the Mohicans, there is the family which was massacred by Indians, and when the daughter of the commander of the local garrison looks at their bodies she asks in shock why anyone would live so far out, so exposed, having only their own guns to defend them, when their adversaries could simply mass more guns and overwhelm them. 

And, in the case of the Clutters, in Kansas, there was that more common thing--surprise. Are you going to go to the door holding a gun every time there is a knock?

Having said all this, there is one essential truth which the NRA denies. Here is the 2nd Amendment, in its entirety, all 27 words:  "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Now, making allowances for this having been written by 18th century men in whigs, it is still abundantly clear, the right granted is to a group, not to individuals, and the purpose is to secure the State, not to guarantee security of individuals within their houses.  That justices Scalia/Alito/Thomas/Roberts/Kennedy choose to wear blinders, does not make a right to personal firearm so. Some day a new court will have the courage to speak the truth and say: No, the Constitution does not guarantee every citizen the right to own a gun. Local law may allow it. It may be granted by the federal government, but the Constitution, that thing on which we cannot vote, that highest law of the land, does not guarantee it.

The fact is, the psychology of guns comes down to fear and loathing. The fear is the vulnerability in isolated circumstances, rural America.  The loathing is the little man, the man who senses he is a loser, a weakling, but he can feel big and powerful and fearsome if he straps on a gun. 

Until we can get past that Joe Sixpack inferiority complex, we'll have guns, and bullets and dead school kids.