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Holocaust museum shooting--'just say no' to the gun lobby
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It happened again, this time at the U.S. Holocaust Museum. One more crazy person unleashed gun madness. Over the past few years we’ve witnessed this insanity on college campuses, in houses of worship and now, in all places, the U.S. Holocaust Museum. The reputed 88 year old white supremacist who apparently intended to gun down people in the museum was thwarted, thankfully, by Steven Tyrone Johns, an heroic security guard. 
Gun lovers typically argue that when a perpetrator encounters an armed person--the perpetrator will either back down or get shot. The way to stop gun violence is with guns. We can prevent gun violence so long as sane and rational people are properly armed. So, crazy people care--or even notice?
Isn't there a deeper question? What can we do to stop or at least slow down the insanity of gun violence that is reaching epidemic proportions in this country other than making it easier to own a gun? What would a national strategy to prevent gun violence look like?
According to the party line of the NRA and many gun owners, the way out of the quagmire of insane gun violence is to arm sane and sensible adults.
Here’s the logic: the more people that have guns and are able to defend themselves, the less likely it is that crazy people will terrorize innocent folks. As recently as last week a Kentucky pastor, Ken Pagano in Louisville, Kentucky said, “without a deep seated belief in God or firearms this country would not be here today.”
Pastor Pagano has invited his church members to pack heat at a special service. Calling for an “open carry service” on June 27th he said that people should come with their guns—unloaded—as a symbol of the right of Americans to keep and bear arms.
Okay. People have a right to keep and bear arms. But aren't there limits to this logic? I confess my bias. If Jesus wouldn’t pack a pistol in church isn’t it hypocritical to tell church members to come to church with gun in holster or in hand?
Here’s what I really don't understand.
Whenever I say gun ownership should be more tightly controlled—gun advocates react not with reason but rage. Consistently I am told that my dislike of guns simply reflects stupidity and cowardice. They say, people have a right to defend themselves and me, not being a gun lover is proof that I don't believe in self defense. Like Pastor Pagano they argue that guns are what made this country great.
Granted, guns have defended this country. But it's guns that make us great? Wow.
Okay, maybe I am a coward. But if I’m a coward, so was Mahatma Gandhi.
Early on in the campaign to free India from British colonialism Gandhi decided to venture into the northwest frontier province of India. He had heard there were freedom fighters in the northwest. They were really tough guys. They were people who lived by the law, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”.
His friends and confidants did everything within their power to keep him from going. They thought it was suicide for him to go. They said, “these are really violent people. Fighting is all they know. They will laugh at you and who knows what else.” But Gandhi said "I must go." His friends said, “You can’t go these people are real fighters”. Gandhi answered, “I am a real fighter, but I want to teach them how to fight without violence.”
After a long journey he sat upon a green hill clad only in his loin cloth, surrounded by a skeptical, scowling crowd of hardened fighters. All these men stood around him holding tightly to their riffles. As he sat looking at them, he smiled. There was a great silence and then, out of the mouth of this little dark brown stick figure came the words: “Well, are you afraid? You look to me like you are afraid.” Impatiently they shifted around. “I think you are afraid” He said. “Why else would you be carrying guns if you weren’t afraid?” They stared at him, a little stunned. No one had ever dared to speak to them like this before.
But he wouldn’t stop, “You see” he said, “I have no fear; this is why I am unarmed. This,” he said, “is what ahimsa (do no harm) means.” Standing there after a while, the leader Abdul Kahn said, “no fear, huh”. Tell me about this no fear”. “Ahimsa,” Gandhi said, “is perfect love. To extend this love even to those you hate is what makes you fearless; it’s what makes you strong.”
Gandhi wasn’t arguing for some pie-in-the-sky ideal of no need for self defense. In part, he was saying that our collective self defense requires us to think differently about what it means to be secure. Thinking differently in our culture may mean saying that even if people have a right to keep and bear arms, we must begin to figure out ways to limit (not prevent) gun ownership.
Many gun owners have an irrational fear of life without weapons.
Why, for example, do gun enthusiasts steadfastly oppose the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence? Even if you believe the 2nd Amendment ensures the right of individual gun ownership, aren't there reasonable limits? Isn't just plain common sense that we need stronger gun laws?
Sooner or later we as people must realize that national security is not simply a matter of being armed. Are there no reasonable limitations to the right of gun ownership? Can't we do something to better regulate who buys guns? It would seem that the gun lobby doesn't think so.
Read the headlines. Gun violence is a growing plague.
Isn’t it time for the fearless and sensible citizens of this country to tell our lawmakers and the National Rifle Association that we as a people refuse to find our national security in weapons that kill?
Isn’t it time for Americans who are not controlled by their fears to stand up in defiance to a gun lobby that consistently and irrationally argues against gun control?
Self defense is not only about individual rights but ensuring our collective sense of security.
More and more weapons mean less security.
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