Until now, I’ve resisted writing about Sandy Hook.
gun violence is a symptom
What can I possibly write in the wake of the unimaginable pain of the families involved? We may empathize, but we’re far removed from the shroud of grief that covers them. On the other hand, the reason this shooting has elicited such strong reactions across America is because it’s so relatable. As parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors, and friends, we love and care about the children in our lives. We know children at tender ages like six and seven, eager to go to school and learn. We know that if it can happen to Sandy Hook, it can happen to us.
Do I want armed guards in our schools? No, of course I don’t want that. As a school administrator told me, we don’t want to communicate to students that they should be afraid to go to school. If someone is determined to do evil—and the shooting at Sandy Hook was evil—there may be very little we can do to stop that person. An armed guard may help. In 2010, armed resource officer Carolyn Gudger saved the principal’s life and probably others at Sullivan Central High School. However, the incidents we remember are the ones where killers slipped through (or shot through) doors, guards, and security systems. We mourn Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech and Columbine the way we mourn 9/11. Our precautions failed us. Those intent on killing succeeded.
Excessive gun control is also problematic. Whereas armed guards institutionalize fear when there should be freedom to learn, rewriting the Second Amendment impedes the freedom of responsible citizens to bear arms. The Second Amendment empowers us, a self-governed people, to defend ourselves against physical threats, including an oppressive government, should the need ever arise. The spirit of the Second Amendment doesn’t intend to arm criminals or people bent on violence; it intends to protect against them.
Responsible gun owners respect life. They take care to prevent guns from being used to hurt others. They buy guns legally and keep them locked away. They hunt game or shoot targets, not people. They follow the rules. Criminals and people bent on violence don’t follow the rules. They get weapons on the streets. They steal guns, sometimes from their parents. Proposed measures like more stringent background and mental health checks, restricting the sale of certain types of weapons, and setting up a gun database all sound like great ideas. In reality, these measures may be ineffective to keep guns away from the people most likely to use them for violence.
Gun violence is a symptom of a larger, systemic problem. Phrases like “gun culture” have resurfaced since Sandy Hook and “rape culture” with the horrific reports of recent attacks. It’s more accurate to say we’ve created a “death culture” or a “violence culture,” one where human life is cheap and expendable. A few sobering statistics about American children:
expendable?
- Twenty-one percent of American children live in poverty.
- In 2011, an estimated 681,000 American children were victims of abuse or neglect and 1,570 children died due to maltreatment.
- There were 61,472 reported incidents of child sexual abuse in 2011. It’s estimated one in five American girls and one in 10 American boys will be victims of child sexual abuse.
- Child pornography on the internet may generate as much as $50 billion per year. Nearly half of confirmed child sexual abuse URLs are hosted in North America.
- Nearly 800,000 American children are missing each year, or an average of 2,185 children reported missing each day.
- Human trafficking is our second fastest growing criminal industry, behind drug trafficking, and almost half of the cases involve children.
- The typical American child will view more than 200,000 acts of violence on television, including more than 16,000 murders before age 18. That’s not counting the violence they will see in movies, act out on video games, and hear in songs.
- In 2011, 1,187 American children 18 years of age or younger were murdered.
- More than one million American children are aborted legally each year.
We wonder how could a troubled young man ever dream of the evil he carried out against Sandy Hook? Look long and hard at the society we’ve created and tell me, how could he not?
photo credit: mr.smashy via photopin cc
photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography via photopin cc
It really tires me to hear that criminals steal guns when these shooters are simply using guns they obviously have access to. Adam Lanza had no firearm permit because permits are not required in CT. His mother trained him on the guns. She was found dead in her bed and not with her finger on a gun safe. Lanza also had no source of income. So — all of the ammo in the house was purchased by his mother, a law-abiding gun owner. She was allowed to keep hundreds of rounds of ammunition in her home and she did. His protective gear was purchased by his mother. It’s all legal. She broke no laws. Her gun was not stolen. It was simply used by someone she had given ongoing access to it.
We have some laws about guns. But they do nothing to protect my child from hers.
Responsible gun owners lock up weapons they are not actively using. Responsible gun owners do not need to purchase high-capacity magazines and store them at home. But those are simply ideas, guidelines, best practices. They are not laws. Gun safety — basic gun safety — is not a law in most states. It’s just a good idea.
The Supreme Court has ruled that we may have reasonable restrictions on gun ownership. They have ruled for traditional gun rights, such as self-defense within the home and hunting / shooting — not for a right to build an arsenal that can resist the U.S. government. That is what the Second Amendment currently means, whether you like it or not.
I want my child to be safe from irresponsible gun-owners, like Nancy Lanza. I am don’t want to lecture people about their parenting or what kinds of video games their children watch. I don’t want to lecture people who are divorced or who don’t seem to spend enough time at home. Nancy Lanza didn’t work. She spent all of her time and all of her energy on Adam. But she also taught him to shoot. She also bought him guns. She also kept an arsenal at home.
I can’t control the parenting. The parenting is not, ultimately, my business. Things that pose a direct threat to my children are my business.
The choice to own a gun and keep it at home creates a danger for me. It is your responsibility to mitigate that danger and contain it, not to bully me about your rights. If you can’t take that responsibility seriously — the responsibility to protect your neighbors from your gun falling into the wrong hands, including wrong hands in your family — don’t expect my respect or support.
Owning a gun is a big responsibility. Owning a big gun is an even bigger responsibility. Keeping that big gun at home where anyone in your family might use it is the biggest responsibility of all. And yet all I hear about is rights, rights, rights. As though your right to fight Hitler trumps my child’s right to enter second grade.
I don’t want to hear vague thoughts about our culture of violence. I want to hear about what you, as gun owners, are doing to make sure there are no more Nancy Lanzas. She was not a criminal — she was one of you. She was law-abiding. She loved shooting, she loved her guns, and she shared that love with her child. If she was part of a culture of irresponsibility and violence — it is your culture, not mine. She is your problem to solve, not mine.
Of course, I want a more peaceful world with more peaceful hearts. But as long as people’s hearts are full of anger, I do not want the anger of Adam Lanza to kill my children at 50 rounds per minute. America is far more religious than Europe and yet our violence rate is much higher. And you can hardly suggest that gun publications and gun shows promote a more peaceful world with their images of danger, violence, and death.
Christianity opposes violence. Jesus turned the other cheek. Yet gun owners prepare to meet violence with violence every single day. Obviously, Nancy Lanza did not think her faith would protect her. She did not rely on God, but rather on her arsenal. So I don’t think more gun-owning Christians will protect my child.
The current system requires that I trust people like Nancy Lanza with protecting my child’s life because her right to own any gun trumps my right to ensure that she behave responsibly. I am simply tired of trusting her. Instead, I want to force her to behave responsibly. I can’t rely on her good judgment to keep my child safe, because her good judgment obviously failed in this case.
So yes, work on that more peaceful world. I will be working in the world we currently live in to make sure that gun safety becomes a law instead of just a nice idea.
SDK, thanks for your impassioned comment. This is such an emotional topic. Please know I am–we all are–as troubled by it as you are.
I find it interesting that you make the assumption I own a gun and call the Nancy Lanzas of the world “my problem to solve,” not yours. SDK, the problem of violence in America is one for all of us to work together to solve. It’s not an “us” and “them” issue. We’re all responsible because we’ve all allowed and created an the atmosphere in our country that fails to protect human life and hold it sacred.
You’re right–responsible gun owners keep their guns locked away when not in use. I think I mentioned that in my post, too. We can fault Nancy Lanza for being irresponsible, but I don’t think she deserves all the blame. Her son stole the guns from her. Those weren’t his guns; they were hers. The larger, more disturbing points here, I think, are 1) he believed stealing from his mom (or anyone!) was okay and 2) the thought to shoot school children (or anyone!) entered his mind in the first place. That’s what makes me angry and sad. And that has nothing to do with rights. It has everything to do with our depraved human nature, our disrespect for human life, and our culture’s willingness to not only accept violence against humans but to celebrate it.
I don’t think legislating reasonable “gun safety” is necessarily a bad idea. I think there is room for common ground here; but we must be careful not to be excessive and punish people who haven’t broken the law or infringe on the rights afforded by our Constitution. I don’t get the impression from most gun control advocates that they are very concerned with that part of the equation. Maybe you’re different. Share with me your idea of reasonable “gun safety” and how to promote it while taking care not to trample the Second Amendment.
By the way, I don’t own a gun and neither does my husband. Like you, we don’t have firearms in our home. I don’t want to own a gun ever, but I can’t rule it out at this point. I wish I could, but like you I have to consider “the world we currently live in” and how best to protect my family.
Insufficient time to read all previous comments. Your essay was well intended and well written. Do you feel a “but” coming?
Knee jerk reaction on my part, when someone throws numbers at me I calculate – or I would try to. Please note: this is independent of subject material. Your statistics are state of the art, which sounds nice, but effectively says incomplete at best and misleading at worst. A better way to say what I am feeling is that any single stat you mention might be a good place to start a real investigation. An easy red flag to spot is when someone, anyone, assigns a number to something they cannot count. It would be far more honest to disclose the method by which they estimate.
Another knee jerk reaction (which I believe MOST of us have in common) is that when something is clearly broken, and people are hurting, we want to fix something. Let me make an example – I make my choice based not upon the severity in particular. It is not the most flagrant offender, just what I think easiest to express, maybe.
People focus on violence in video games, movies, media in general. They focus on establishing a connection between violence viewed and acts of violence. Not that this is a total waste of effort, but I believe it would be a better effort to try to understand why violence has an appeal at all. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I have never seen it. I will never see it. I use it because the name is so descriptive. What is the fascination with such?
I have an inkling of something that runs deeper. The old Rural vs Urban war. ( yeah, “war” is over the top. but my brain fogged over when I tried to find a better one. )
Liberty is inversely proportional to Population Density. Or what might convey more clearly to others, the more closely people live to each other, the more effort it must be to simply get along. Or, good fences make good neighbors.
Jesus is the answer at the heart of things, at the heart of me. I need to be better, to be more. Then I can better assist others. When a person believes they can fix themselves, pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, the person degenerates. Talking to myself, I can just say “entropy” and the concept is complete. The Godless have no objective standard, no authority higher than themselves (or the tyrant you did not choose) and no leverage on becoming the best they can be. “What you are meant to be” implies intent from outside yourself – a creator.
St, Paul, first part of his letter to the Romans, gives his belief of what happens to people who fail to acknowledge God. You can read it for yourself, or not. I think he nailed it.
So, gun control. They invent ways of doing evil. The ideas being forwarded are feckless to reduce gun violence, but potent to restrict the law abiding – and those of the depraved mind crowd are UNABLE to see it. Pray for them .
Peace.
Roy, I completely agree with you! Let me break down my response to your points:
As for the stats, if you click on the orange words you will open windows to where I got these numbers. I tried to get to original sources; in some cases it was more difficult to find where and how the estimates were reached. Personally, I think the estimates for the number of children who die from abuse and maltreatment is low–and so do many “experts” in child welfare. For the sake of brevity in the post, I focused on violence against children (though violence against adults is plentiful) and depended upon readers clicking on the links to read more. I think we agree violence in America creates a scary, dismal, and disheartening environment especially for our children.
As for Jesus, the verse you allude to Romans 1:30 (and really all of Romans 1) came to mind when writing this. I agree with you that the only way to curb our appetite for violence is to change our very human natures. And the only way for that to happen is through salvation in Christ. Yesterday I wrote a little more about this on everyday epistle, including sharing a verse from a different chapter of Romans (!). Here’s the link to that post: http://bit.ly/XnziyJ
And while we’re in Romans, I cannot resist sharing Paul’s courageous declaration from Romans 1:16-17: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Keep on keeping on.
Fantastic Aimee.
Thank you, Alisa. And thanks for sharing with your network.
Aimee,
Yet again, we have found common ground. We can agree that this violence culture hurts us all. Thank you for raising the discourse.
Lisen
You too, Lisen!
Pingback: Plowshares and Swords
Wise, balanced treatment, Aimee. The finger-pointing at gun owners has been and continues to be shallow, inaccurate, and ignorant bandwagon sensationalism. Unfortunately, we don’t have many moderate leaders who have the nation’s respect enough to tell this truth. Hence, the media, prostituted to the left just a tad, will pit themselves against the NRA’s just-a-tad-to-the-right leadership. America has a heart problem, a greed problem, and a me-first problem. How can we restore the values of this nation? By making home home again. Instead of protecting ourselves from the world, go out and change the world, starting with our own homes. No excuses. Maya Angelou said, “The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” What if he home is messed up? Let’s send the needed help. Let’s try legislating and rewarding and focusing on the building of the home. Frederick Douglass wrote 150 years ago, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.… At least in the long run it is. Taking time to properly raise children – teach them right from wrong, why right is better than wrong, and how to do right not wrong – is far easier than repairing broken men. Broken men who were never taught as children how to be strong because parents found it easier not to teach them then. Let’s take the hard path now, for our future will be easier (and better) for it.”
That’s not too right or too left, is it?
I could not agree more. “Let’s take the hard path now…” Thank you so much for your comment!
The greatest tool that we have as parents to combat horrific situations is to teach our children compassion for one another and respect for all individuals. A universal love and compassion for others creates a new “norm” for society. It isn’t about the gun, it is about the individual that uses the gun—it is about the society who perpetuates violence and disrespect for life. If we teach our children to love and respect, then we will build a new “normal”—one that is based on compassion and good will.
I am terribly saddened by the current trend to “restrict” and “regulate”. This will not cure the problem. The problem, as Aimee explains, is about much more than the availability of guns. We need to focus on recreating the proper respect for life and make compassion toward others a “habit” in our everyday lives. We need to teach our children that “the right thing is not always the easy thing”, and that each action that they choose to display has a consequence.
I pray that we, as a country, will dig deep and realize that there is no easy fix for this cultural problem. That each one of us will do our part to take responsibility to foster a new culture that is based on compassion and teamwork. That is the type of world that I want my children to grow up in.
Thank you Aimee for sharing.
Anne
Thank you for reading and commenting. “It isn’t about the gun, it is about the individual that uses the gun—it is about the society who perpetuates violence and disrespect for life.” Well said, Anne.
Pingback: Jeremy Spoke | everyday epistle by Aimee Whetstine
Another bullseye, Aimee… “Criminals and people bent on violence don’t follow the rules. They get weapons on the streets. They steal guns, sometimes from their parents.” The latter was the case in the Newtown tragedy. His mother had them legally; he stole them from her. Why would we think he–and others like him–wouldn’t buy them on the black market if his mother had not been allowed to have her own? What will we do when the only population with weapons consists of criminals and government officials? (And some would argue that those two categories are not mutually exclusive…)
“The Second Amendment empowers us, a self-governed people, to defend ourselves against physical threats, including an oppressive government, should the need ever arise.” Exactly. Our entire government system was created to form checks and balances so that one power–judicial, legislative, executive–does not rise above the others, creating a new tyranny. The Second Amendment is a key component of those checks and balances between the people and its government, should the balance of the original trio begin to tip. (And it already shows signs of this happening. VP Joe Biden has just hinted last night that the President could use “executive orders” to push gun control laws through–a power that President Obama seems to getting all too comfortable using.)