Guns in America

            What we have today is a shortage of guns in America, not a surplus. So say the gun rights folks who argue that had more people been armed in Aurora or Columbine or Sandy Hook, fewer lives would have been lost. The assumptions that lie behind this assertion are rather low caliber:

1.       Good guys with guns could drop a lunatic before he could fulfill his mission;

2.       More guns reduce violence;

3.       If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.

            Each of these assertions, in turn, relies on the assumption of individual power, individual self-defense, individual independence, and individual self-reliance as having primacy over any notion of group action. The bottom line is always I, and I alone, must finally protect myself because government will never provide the same protection without severely limiting my freedom. On the other hand, more availability of guns in the public domain is going to increase the odds of those guns getting into the wrong hands and being abused. But never mind that irritating detail that might otherwise disturb the imperfect logic of owning a personal gun.     

            Let us, for example, take a look outside the realm of firearms and use the personal car (automobile) as an analogy. America has one of the lowest commitments to public transportation of any developed nation because of the personal freedom the personal car affords the individual. We can come and go as we want when we want. Even though we might complete our daily commute in half the time were we to utilize a more readily available public form of transportation, we choose the privacy of our personal vehicle over sitting on a bus or a train. Therefore, saving time is not the issue. It is the privacy and isolation that we are unwilling to compromise for greater efficiency of energy, money, and time use. Once again, our personal freedom is defined as the individual compartment we would rather ride to work in even if vastly superior public transportation could exist as it does in many European and Asian cultures.

            Therefore, in the context of our bizarre cultural mores that puts personal freedom from contact with our fellow Americans in traveling to and from work above any other sense of convenience such as cost, speed, or efficiency, is it no wonder that the personal firearm is seen as a “logical” extension of that notion of freedom?  Rich folks can hire a bodyguard to be their personal protector or policeman, but even that is inconvenient in that one has to manage the bodyguard and put up with his personal idiosyncrasies, so therefore why not just buy a gun and be self-reliant? After all, self-reliance is at the heart of the American ethos. Just look back at Emerson’s essay on the subject and you will be reminded of just how self-sufficient and therefore inefficient we truly are. Perhaps the notion of self-reliance prompted Emerson to write the statement in another essay: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

            Yes, ladies and gentlemen of the United States of America, you can look forward to more cars, more guns, and more ammunition with which to secure your personal self-reliance in the face of any and all threats to your personal freedom. You can also look forward to a more exciting shopping experience this Christmas season, even in that out-of-the-way antique store where you might find an exquisite decanter from which to pour your personal favorite whiskey so that you can isolate yourself even further from the rest of humanity in your own personal alcoholic fog:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt7FDTpzGvo.