Our Skewed Politics on Gun Ownership Are a Deadly Joke
The National Rifle Association and lawmakers who pander to it bear much of the blame for our ridiculous gun laws, but it’s up to ordinary Americans to fix the problem.
A man wears his handgun in a holster as he pushes his baby in a stroller at the National Rifle Association convention in Louisville, Ky., in May. Attendees were permitted to carry firearms under Kentucky's open-carry law. (Mark Humphrey / AP)
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The Secret Service, which ostensibly knows a thing or two about keeping people safe, has trumped the state’s gun laws and banned guns inside the convention. Strangely, the same lawmakers who side with the National Rifle Association’s all-guns-all-the-time position are deferring to the Secret Service. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has an “A” grade from the NRA, seemed to agree that banning guns from the RNC was a good idea, saying, “The Secret Service is very important in these decisions, as is security around the entire convention.” Sen. Ted Cruz, also an ardent defender of gun supremacy, agreed, saying, “You would certainly want to get the recommendation from Secret Service—how to maintain security for everyone.”
What does the Secret Service know about the correlation between guns and violence that the gun-rights crowd and NRA doesn’t? Perhaps the Secret Service can make similar recommendations of firearms bans for schools, colleges, churches, cafes, restaurants and, well, maybe even whole cities, as they have for the political conventions. Maybe then we could all experience the security and safety that Republican delegates will enjoy in a gun-free environment at the Cleveland convention.
The dissonance in the arguments around violence and guns stems from a bang-up job by the NRA in shaping our discourse. Take the group’s response to the Orlando shootings. Within days of the massacre, NRA News released a shameless (and frankly laughable) video featuring a bearded, Neanderthal-like former Navy SEAL named Dom Raso, with muscles bulging under his T-shirt as he sang the praises of the AR-15 rifle. The Orlando shooter had used a similar rifle, called the SIG Sauer rifle, whose manufacturer sponsors the NRA’s online videos. Raso spoke with force and conviction, using strong words like “guarantee” and “fortified.” He claimed, “The only way for us to stay free was by having whatever guns the bad guys have,” and ended with a literal call to arms: “Arm yourself, get the proper training, be aware of your surroundings at all times.” He and the NRA live in a video-game fantasy world of paranoia and fear that ignores the reality of how much more dangerous it is to be surrounded by guns than not.
Perhaps it is a big joke that gun manufacturers and their lobbyists are playing on us as they laugh all the way to the bank. In fact, it is hard to tell reality from satire. The left-leaning political theater duo The Yes Men recently held a fake news conference announcing a fictional NRA-sponsored program in which people could buy a gun and have a similar one donated to a poor person in an “underprivileged neighborhood” (i.e., “black”), just like the sales gimmick used by TOMS shoes. So convincing was the sendup that Snopes had to post a disclaimer. The Yes Men’s joke fell flat because there is almost nothing too ludicrous to attribute to the NRA anymore that wouldn’t sound like it really came from them. The group has proved the idea that if you say something often enough, with enough force of conviction, eventually enough people will begin believing it.
It is no wonder that lawmakers don’t hear the contradictions in their words when asked about security at their political convention. Even the public is confused. Polls show that, when asked in broad strokes about the right to bear arms, a majority of Americans strongly support the idea. Yet when asked about specific, strict gun-control measures, the public overwhelmingly supports restrictions on who can buy guns, what type of guns they can buy, how they are to be screened, how long they have to wait, etc. The Huffington Post captured this confusion well, saying, “The term ‘gun control’ seems to be a politicized phrase that encourages a partisan response. Yet when polls ask about precise measures, Americans show overwhelming support for certain restrictions.”
The NRA isn’t the only entity to blame for perverting our values on guns. Elected officials who accept money from the group and dutifully vote according to its tenets are equally to blame. Ultimately, we Americans also bear responsibility for throwing off the shackles of ideas that are based on lies, fear and the promotion of violence in the name of rights, liberty and happiness.
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