I should be careful what I say about guns. We did, after all, just buy my dad a gun rack for his birthday. And three weeks ago, we did just blow a magpie’s nest to pieces using a shotgun. To someone living in the suburbs of Toronto, I might have a hint of red on my neck.
Growing up on a farm on the Prairies, we owned guns. If there was a critter to get rid of (magpies, skunks, gophers!), a gun came in handy. I admit, even sparrows were fair game – using a BB gun, mind you, where the round pellets could literally be seen leaving the barrel.
I moved up to a pellet gun as I got older. My dad has a .22 and a shot gun that he’s still hesitant to use but will go there if the magpies get too rowdy.
So let’s just say I’m not opposed to responsible gun use. Although I don’t hunt, I’m not opposed to hunting, especially if it keeps the urban geese population down (kind of joking).
What I don’t agree with is all-access gun culture, where people can own guns like accessories. One for the glove compartment, one for the night stand, one for the skinny jeans... There's no limit to what one can buy in the United States of America. Semi-automatic machine guns are marketed to everyday people and business is thriving – AR-15 sales increased 51% in 2020 alone.
Most Americans cite protection as the number one reason for buying a gun. I can see why. When almost anyone could be carrying a gun, when a mass shooting could happen anywhere at any time, when on average 133 Americans die every day of gun-related deaths, you might start to think you also should pack some heat.
It’s a positive feedback loop. After major mass shootings, there’s typically an uptick in the number of guns sold. After the tragic murder of 20 young children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, three million more guns were sold in the months that followed. Ironically, this led to an increase in accidental gun deaths, approximately 20 of them being children.
The pandemic year of 2021 broke a new record for gun-related deaths in the US, a 23% increase from 2019. Of the 48,830 deaths, 56% were suicides and 43% murders. This year is already on pace to set a record for mass shootings.
As society becomes less stable – augmented by increasing isolation and division – the more prone it is to violence. We’ve also experienced instability in Canada, but fortunately without the dire outcomes. Deadly violence is inevitable when there are more guns than people.
In the US, where anyone can own a gun for protection, society hasn’t gotten any safer. It’s become a tinderbox. For some people, it’s become instinctual to reach for one’s gun instead of taking the time to think. You’ve likely heard the news stories: This past April in Kansas City, a 16-year-old boy was shot point-blank when he went to the wrong house to pick up his brother. A few days later, two teenaged girls were shot in Texas after one of them accidentally entered the wrong car.
One might think these were anomalies, but my own experience with American rage suggests otherwise. About five years ago, in tranquil Maui of all places, I set off a human time bomb after a woman almost hit my then 10-year-old daughter at a crosswalk. Rather uncharacteristically of me, I hit her car’s back window with my hand to express my displeasure. (With a fuller understanding of the inherent risk of touching an American’s private property, I would have thought twice.) As we continued to walk along the sidewalk, she drove on the other side of the street, yelling at me from out of her window. While others around us wondered what in the world was going on, I kept looking straight ahead, pretending to be above it all (who was this woman yelling at, anyway?). Fortunately, she finally found a parking lot to yell from, stopping short of following us on foot.
Was she on drugs or was this just... normal? It's a behaviour that's become all too common. If she had access to a gun, I can only imagine the outcome.
But let’s not go there.
Let’s stay in Canada.
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