Posted tagged ‘gun control’

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Trainspotted – What Just Makes Me Kind of Nervous

December 17, 2012

20121217-110903.jpg

I find it nearly impossible to write anything in the wake of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.   I avoid TV news, but every time I  look at the paper, or read news online (many times a day), grief is renewed.

But here is one story that occurred to me this evening – and please note in reading it that I have huge respect for first responders, police (most of the time), soldiers.

It happened on a cold night approximately eleven years ago, shortly after 9/11, when my daughters and I were seeing one of their close friends (then in his early teens) onto the New York City subway system after a dinner in Chinatown.

Just as we got to the head of the Canal Street subway stairs, a school bus pulled up beside us filled with GIs.  Mainly men, some women–all wearing camo, bullet-proof vests, and carrying at their chests very large  (presumably semi-automatic) firing arms.  In a close-cropped line, they quickly trotted down the bus steps and then, just in front of us (we stood back), down the subway steps.

There were actually two school buses, i.e. a lot of soldiers.  A lot of big guns.

I asked one young woman as she swung by us – “what’s happened?  What are you hear for?”

The answer came without a trot-break–“we’re here to protect you.”

I thanked her.  And with a series of  nervous (and slightly guilty) looks at each other, the kids and I decided that this was not a good subway station for their friend, and walked up to the next station on the line though it was (a) several blocks further from his destination; and (ii) required us to walk along the side of a very dark and slightly menacing street park.

We did not avoid that station because I dislike GIs.  (I actually rather like all the young U.S. soldiers I’ve ever met.)

What I did not, and do not, like is the idea of myself (or anyone I care for) being on a subway car with someone carrying a large semi-automatic gun, much less two or three or more people carrying such guns.

I don’t even like that situation when the gun-toter is someone anxious to “protect” me.

Call me silly.

 

 

(P.S. For all NYC’s problems it has relatively strong gun control compared to the country as a whole.  Of course, it is difficult for New York to keep illegal guns from being imported from other states due to lack of greater regulation around the country.  Nonetheless, I’m sure the laws we have make some difference.)

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Public Bravery/Kings/Gun Craziness

January 16, 2011

In the wake of the Tucson shootings and Obama’s inspirational memorial speech, and now on the eve of Martin Luther King’s birthday, it is hard not to think of the bravery required to put one’s self in the public eye, much less to take a stand.

Just after writing that sentence, I read about Colin Firth winning a Golden Globe for The King’s Speech, which brings up another kind of public bravery.  I don’t mean overcoming the stutter so much, as George VI’s role in World War II, particularly his remaining in London during the Blitz, where he and the Queen Elizabeth–the Queen Mother–narrowly missed death by a bomb on Buckingham Palace.  “I am glad we were bombed,” Queen Elizabeth reportedly declared, “we can now look the East End [previously heavily bombed] in the face.”

I’m not here comparing the bravery of the different Kings, only noting that the requirement of bravery in public life is not a new phenomenon.

I will note, however, that it took the air force of an entire nation (Nazi Germany) to attack King George VI, while in the U.S., a lone gunman seems to suffice.

It’s a truism to say that Americans love their guns.

Just before writing all those sentences above, I read about the Massachusetts’ acquittal of a gun fair organizer on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of an 8 year old from accidentally shooting himself in the head with an Uzi machine gun.  The defendant Police Chief Edward Fleury’s firearms training company had co-sponsored the annual Machine Gun Shoot and FireArms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman’s Club, near Springfield, Massachusetts.   The 8 year old boy was shooting only under the supervision of another boy — an unlicensed fifteen year old.  (Apparently, his father who had taken him to the fair and was videoing the incident was also there.)  The Uzi machine gun kicked back when the 8 year old fired it, shooting him in the head.   The event’s ad read “It’s all legal & fun–No permits or licenses required!!”

The ad also said:  “You will be accompanied to the firing line with a Certified Instructor to guide you.”

Neither of these statements turned out to be true.  (It is thankfully not actually legal to arrange for an 8 year old to fire a machine gun in Massachusetts.)

These facts did not seem to overly influence the jury, however.  Accidents happen.

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Guns and Necklaces

January 11, 2011

Protective ring?

We live in a world full of fear, and of fearful prospects.

(Everyone says it, so it must be true, right?)

Certainly, we know an awful lot about fearful events these days.  I was just in Florida within hearing distance of my parents’ TV (half a mile away might be within hearing distance), and it seemed, even before the Giffords’ shooting, that there was an emergency breaking news story of violent crime–possible bomb here, shooting there–every few minutes.

In the face of fear, or perhaps in order to face fear, it’s pretty natural to look for a mechanism of control, some tool by which we can protect ourselves.  For many, that mechanism is a gun.

For others–i.e. me–that mechanism is a particular necklace.  No, I don’t want to choke anyone–I just make a point of wearing it every day.  You may not know it but that necklace has protected New York City from terrorist attack for over nine years now.

It is made of hollow silver balls, strewn together on a silver chain.  (It has a sentimental background relayed in another post.)  Its magical protections are unique, but, as I discovered on a recent trip to Taxco, Mexico, relatively similar looking necklaces are available by the storefront-full, albeit the ones in Taxco are brightly shiny while mine is clouded with tarnish/power.

I was shocked to realize as I arrived at my office today that I had somehow forgotten to wear it.  I quickly looped a wool scarf around my unprotected bare neck so that the collective fates that overlook both me and New York City would not notice the absence of those clouded silver balls.

I don’t know much about guns, but my sense is that some people like the idea of carrying one for reasons similar to my insistence on my necklace:  just in case.

One big difference, of course, is that my necklace could not do too much damage to myself or others.  (It would hurt my feelings if I lost it, but that’s about it.)

Crazy people could wear necklaces like mine with no problem at all.

Another big difference– I really do know that my necklace is (probably) not essential to New York’s protection.  I don’t fool myself that having lots of guns…errrr….necklaces around is any true shield.

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More About Guns (And Personhood)

July 4, 2010

Elephant With Gun (Sorry, a Repeat on a Busy Day)

I’ve been thinking a lot about guns lately – not particularly because it’s the 4th of July –but because this blog has gotten recent thoughtful comments from someone who is much better informed about gun types and usage than I am.  Also, I’ve been staying in a house with someone who has an active interest in recreational shooting.

I am a non-apologetic supporter of fairly restrictive gun control.   I live in a city; I move in crowds, largely on public transportation.  But my antipathy for readily available guns does not just arise from the fact that I don’t want to get shot in a public space.  (I don’t.)

It doesn’t even arise from the fact that both me and my dog Pearl get totally freaked out by the crack of gunfire up here in the uncrowded countryside.  (We do.)

What really concerns me is madness both as a term for anger, and a term for craziness (they really do overlap.)

What concerns me even more is the combination of madness and power.

Guns are the metallic distillation of power; they pack, as it were, a very great deal of punch; brass knuckles raised to the nth degree.

I’m guessing that punch is one of the reasons recreational shooting is so popular; I’m guessing that it provides a taste of power, excitement, control, release, kickback; a discipline at which one can become skilled and also charged.

I do understand that.  Sometimes you feel like you are jumping out of your skin; sometimes even very cool humans have to physically let off steam.

I’m not saying that gun owners use guns in that way.  I just don’t have the experience to know.  The only time I ever fired a handgun I fell down.

But I do have experience of human nature; of how angry, crazed, mad, people can become, sometimes unexpectedly, sometimes less so.   I especially worry about how that type of anger, madness, may be abetted by a culture that supports a “tit for a tat” as a short-form equation of justice and also as an ultimate deterrent.

I know that hostility for guns may come more naturally to me than others.  I was raised by a mom who was a longtime pacifist; a dad who was an old school turn-the-other-cheek Christian.  More importantly perhaps, I I’ve been lucky enough to have had enough emotional support and societal favor that my ego is not continually on the line.   A sense of personal validity was, thankfully, instilled a long time ago.   As a result, it takes a fair amount of aggravation to make me feel truly “dissed;” even when I have that aggravation, I’m pretty good at just (eventually) swallowing it.

I am sure that most gun owners are not that different from me; that they don’t misuse their guns or assault weapons, view them as tools to support their personhood.

But the fact is that there are many people who do misuse guns; sometimes serially, sometimes just a terrible once.  The availability of a handgun or assault weapon can allow a breaking point to break a very great deal.

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Loaded Lawyer v. AK-47

May 6, 2010

Suspect with Loaded Lawyer

I’ve always found the age-old male/Freudian question “what do women want?”  irritating.   I don’t particularly like the way it lumps women together.  But what really annoys me is the undercurrent of exasperation–the idea that the answer to the question is just too irrational or illogical to be discoverable.

Even though I don’t care much for this formulation, but a variation seems appropriate for tonight’s post:  what do Congressional Republicans want?   What, especially, when it comes to reconciling issues of anti-terrorism and gun control?   Here’s a place where the undertone of illogic and irrationality seems appropriate.

(Sorry, to any of you who thought this post was going to be about women.  Or Freud.  You’re stuck with Lindsay Graham.)

On the one hand, the Republicans in Congress, as exemplified by Graham, are very upset at the idea of offering suspected terrorists access to lawyers (as in Miranda rights); on the other, they are perfectly willing to grant such suspects access to automatic weapons of all types and calibers.   As Gail Collins describes in a wonderful Op-Ed piece in the May 6 New York Times, “I think you’re going too far here,” said Graham, in opposition to a bill that would keep people on the F.B.I. terrorist watch list from buying guns and explosives.

Distrust of governmental intervention and power are a watchword with many congressional Republicans.   Except when it comes to torture.  Many urge the government to take on that power–as long as people who are water boarded have a right to purchase a handgun before submergence.

Part of the problem, of course, is limited imagination and memory.  Many can’t seem to conceive of someone who may be labeled “right-wing” being arrested for terrorist activities; they don’t seem to remember names like McVeigh and Hutaree.

What they do seem certain of (whether rightly or wrongly) is the power of the NRA.  Which, as Gail Collins notes, gives one answer to my question—what do Congressional Republicans want?  To get a 100% score in the NRA grading system.

Call me naïve.  Call me (those of you who know I’m an attorney) biased.   Even call me a woman who knows at least some of what she wants.   If I have to be confronted, I would rather face a terrorist armed with a lawyer, than an AK-47.

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