The Garishness of the Gun Culture and A Challenge to the NRA

--Merriam Webster definition of "garishness": 1 : clothed in vivid colors;  2a: excessively or disturbingly vivid, b: offensively or distressingly bright : glaring; 3: tastelessly showy: flashy. What is there to say about the unspeakable shooting of 20 children?  What is there to say about the 6 adults who died to protect innocent children? What kind of a society are we becoming in America when concerns of teachers and school districts turn to questions like, "Are our schools safe enough?  Should we allow teachers to have guns?  Do we need to make our campuses as secure as prisons?" This is madness, true madness.  And just like the frog in the pot that is heated slowly rather than quickly boiled, the certainty is that the American culture is headed for madness.  And therefore I address my words to the NRA. Surrogates of the NRA continue to frame any issue related to stricter guns laws as an attack on the Second Amendment.  The specious argument that to address the freedom to purchase an assault weapon or a multi-round magazine for a semi-automatic gun negates the protections granted under the Constitution is an "emperor has no clothes" argument.  Enrobed in the Second Amendment, the NRA asserts a presumed sacrosanct protection of all weapons, irrespective of the lethality of guns to innocent civilians.  And most tragically, even the death of innocent little ones.  While the nation is rightly contending with the incomprehensible slaying of school children, it is time to peel off the ghastly camouflage that the NRA has placed over the Second Amendment.  

The Second Amendment reads, "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". The Second Amendment states, "A well regulated Militia", which is determinative to the purpose of for whom and why arms are necessary.  The intent of the Fathers was to ensure that any threat to the nation would be met with an armed defense.  The defense of the nation was at the heart of this Amendment.  The maintenance of a militia was for the good of the nation and the preservation of American society. --Merriam Webster definition of "militia": 1a: part of the organized armed forces of a country liable to call only in an emergency; 1b: a body of citizens organized for military service;  2a: the whole body of able-bodied male citizens declared by law as being subject to military service. 

It is germame to acknowledge that the Constitutionally protected right to bear arms was established to secure a durable government at a time when the United States was a new and fragile nation. At the time the Constitution was written the defense of the nation was a work in progress and the strength of a central government was only emerging.  President Washington, who was a proponent and defender of a strong federal government, called upon state militias to preserve the power of a central government.  The President led a militia army of 13,000 provided by the governors of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania to suppress the "Whiskey Rebellion" in 1794.  In the absence of a federally supported army, the president turned to the armed militias for the protection of the nation.  Today our country has a fully armed military and the use of military type assault weapons in a civil society is unwarranted. The Founding Fathers themselves could never have anticipated the types of weapons that are so easily available today.  They could have never imagined the over-sensationalized array of weapons that are available online, at gun shows, and in sporting stores.  And  I will even go so far as to say that the multitude of weapons in 2012 that have been used to mercilessly take the lives of citizens in movie theaters, at places of worship, and in schools would be ENTIRELY CONTRARY to the intent of the Second Amendment.

GUNS ARE NOT TOYS, NOT SEXY, AND NOT PROTECTED UNDER THE CONSTITUTION AS A GAME OR A WEAPON WHEN USED AGAINST CIVILIANS

 Guns are not sexy.  Guns are not cool.  You are not cool just because you can fire a gun. Guns do not make you a man.  Nor do they unquestionably make a woman safe.  This is all hype and the public has bought it.  The garishness of the gun industry is offensive and it is time for the American public to step up to their responsibility by pressuring government officials to get to the work of  restricting types of weapons and establishing enforceable criteria for background checks.  It is time.  Why?  Simply because it is un-American to allow children to be gunned down. 

CONSIDER YOUR MAN CARD REISSUED.[/caption] With respect to how the gun laws must be reviewed and re-crafted in the aftermath of the loss at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Mayor Bloomberg and Senator Dianne Feinstein have taken a public and powerful stance.  Their leadership is what the country needs at this time.  But the fight against a gun lobby that has taken hold of Congressional leadership will require the participation of the citizenry.  Without the full support of the voting public, the challenge to pass new legislation that bans assault weapons will be too great.  Why?  Because politicians have become so intertwined with the gun lobbies that their re-election interests outweigh the self-serving interests of the gun industry.  It remains to the citizens to exercise their power and remind elected officials that their primary responsibility is to oversee the good of the nation, not special interest groups. President Obama has created a gun violence task force for the purposes of identifying solutions to gun violence in America.  To be sure, the solutions will reflect the multi-faceted realities of today's society.  However, the availability of rapid fire, multi-round magazine weapons for use against citizens is a corrosive aspect of the increasingly frequent public shootings. The culture of permissive gun-use and the association of guns as a means to resolve human problems, is at the center of this debate.  The culture of expressing oneself with a gun as a tool of emotional power is provocative in the mind of an emotionally injured or mentally ill person.  The culture of making guns cool or a game is incendiary when a person is in the throes of mental suffering and emotional darkness. It is precisely because the firing of a gun is a means to express power that it holds attraction for those who feel most powerless.  This nexus is at the core of the gun-control debate.

The NRA will be quick to cite statistics claiming that such laws have little bearing on the murder rate in the nation's cities.  Yet there is an unclear relationship to availability of guns and the use of them as a problem-solving answer for a segment of society.  And even more significant has been the overt attempt on the part of the gun industry to promote gun ownership. The gun industry has been at the forefront of American commercialization.  In a culture that welcomes the commercialization of "all things", the marketing of guns has been tailored with a false narrative of the Second Amendment and a guarantee of protection from harm.  The marketing campaigns have been for higher sales, not protection of the nation. The messages that guns are fun toys is conveyed through an ever-increasing availability of bright colors and personalized details.  Magazine ads posing women in bikinis next to long guns send the message that "guns are a sexy."  But guns are not sexy.

Gun are dangerous and are a lethal responsibility.  Guns are not a toy.  While the gun industry can claim it could not have projected that its advertising would lead to the misuse of guns, it must now face up to the present conditions in American society.  Guns are being misused and the gun lobby along with the NRA have a share in the cultural casualness of guns. It Really Is Simple In my college classrooms I ask students to use pens when they write.  Pens are permitted and expected to be available in the classroom.  But what if a student altered a pen so that it projected black ink?  What if I was splashed by the ink?  A response would be to ban those pens that splash ink.  And such actions would be regarded as disrespectful to a college instructor.  Then what if the outcry from the students, their families, friends and supporters all retorted, "But pens are allowed in the classroom!" "Not all students will splash the black ink, so you cannot ban them entirely.  It isn't fair."

Any reasonable person recognizes how ridiculous this argument would be. There would be no question that the student acting in a manner that is unacceptable.  Our society would not tolerate a student splashing black ink on a college instructor.  Thus, pens are allowed but the misuse of a pen results in a clear response that such behavior is not tolerated. The gun argument is also that clear.  It has been mired in money and adolescent rhetoric.  Gun owners have been fed a marketing campaign that hypes their right to purchase an assault weapon.   The argument being, "Just because there are pens available that splash black ink doesn't mean all students will do it."   This is not the protection of the Second Amendment, it is abject self-interest. Such an argument represents a sector of society who values its toys above the safety and security of the nation as a whole. The security of the nation as a whole does not depend on the availability of assault weapons in society today as there exists a federally funded militia-the four branches of the military.  Nor does the safety of all citizens depend on the banning of all guns, any more than the banning of all ink pens would serve the school system after a few students splashed an instructor.  The response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook is not to ban all guns, just as banning all ink pens would not be a reasonable response in the classroom.  The ban needs to be on any weapon, instrument, tool, drug, or other substance that brings disruption and mayhem to society.  And for those weapons that are purchased, there must be the enforcement of strict background checks to ensure -– to the extent possible – that those who purchase guns will do so responsibly. With the removal of assault weapons, and the enforcement of strict background checks there can be a return to a more responsible gun culture in America. 2013- The NRA and the Signs of Change Organizations, civilizations, nation-states all survive by reading the signs of change.  The NRA can survive as a contributing member of society only by reading the signs in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting. There is blowback.  The announcement that the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management is selling its investment in Freedom Group, the gunmaker of the type of rifle used at the Sandy Hook school is a clear message.  The California Teachers Association members spoke quickly against their retirement system deriving any financial gain from the maker of a gun used in the Connecticut shooting.  The growing number of Senators who have previously held the line for the NRA signaling a willingness to change existing laws is still another sign.

The NRA is not the protector of the Constitution and its specious claim on the Second Amendment is a false narrative.  This is a time of change and the challenge for the NRA to take a proactive step for the good of all.  The challenge for the NRA is to take a responsible position on the sale of assault weapons and multi-round magazines or drums.  The NRA needs to re-brand its image in society as one of partnership with both gun owners and non-gun owners.  The NRA must establish a more responsible place for its role in politics and society through creating a comprehensive media campaign (television, radio, print).  The media campaign must include education, training, and enactment of background checks for all gun sales whether in a store, online, or at a gun show.  And the educational component must include the following:

• A gun is dangerous.  It is not a toy or a game
• A gun is an adult responsibility not to be taken lightly
• Children are to be protected from guns as a priority in society
• A  retreat from the marketing strategy that guns are  sexy; pull the ads of the women in bikini's with guns.
• An acknowledgment that emotional pain and loneliness are valid human experiences; however a gun will not solve these problems.  finding someone to talk to is better than picking up a gun.
• The establishment of an  800 number for any one in the country who feels like using a gun to solve a problem.

And citizens must continue to demand further change, for without the actions of citizens, the lure of financial support for political campaigns will tune the ears our legislatures to the gun lobby.

As loudly as the NRA proclaims freedom under the Second Amendment, the freedom of all in American society is a Constitutional right.  To be sure, removing assault weapons and multi-round magazines from society does not solve the problems of mental illness, emotional suffering, or safety in our world.  But in working to create a more responsible gun ownership culture and a less adolescent image of the lethality of a gun, the NRA can help turn back the growing threat of innocent deaths. If a person from another country perpetrated the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook, the outcry would be that it was an act of terrorism.  Many in Congress would be calling for increased security measures as an immediate response.  Yet because the person in possession of that Bushmaster AR-15 on was an American, it is called an unfortunate incident caused by mental illness.  One is a terrorist, and one is a mentally ill person. Yet, the result is the same.  There are 20 children and 6 adults who were taken from their families after a young man shot his way into an elementary school, armed with 4 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.  Something needs to change.  ***The United Way has started the Sandy Hook School Support Fund to provide help with funeral expenses, counseling and other services. Donations: Sandy Hook School Support Fund, c/o Newtown Savings Bank, 39 Main St., Newtown, Conn. 06470. More information: https://newtown.uwwesternct.org.

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