The Newtown tragedy isn’t the real reason The Outlook is analyzing Aragon’s security. It’s not the real reason why politicians are filing gun-control ideas, or why the NRA is descending on all the major news networks. The fundamental cause behind all the uproar isn’t gun control, or mental health, or school safety. It’s fear.
We’re afraid. In the wake of Sandy Hook, all of us have stepped back to examine our culture, our government, and our families’ safety. But what we’ve neglected to do is to step back and examine ourselves. Because with all the issues in America, all the divisions, there is one issue where we remain united: we all want to keep our families safe.
But for some reason, that simple urge—the desire to keep our loved one’s safe—has turned into a national argument. Gun owners and proponents of gun control have been thrust to the forefront of the national consciousness as President Obama proposes his plan to address gun violence. And as the issue becomes more and more divisive, each side continues to refuse any attempt at perspective.
Most gun owners just want the comfort of knowing that they can protect themselves and their loved ones if it ever becomes necessary. The majority of gun owners in the country are responsible and rational; they just feel the need to take precautions to guarantee their safety.
Proponents of gun control also want to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. They want to rest assured that there is no man out there with the capability of killing 20 people in a matter of minutes. But they’re not calling for the government to round up everyone’s guns, or institute some sort of pseudo-fascist crackdown. They just want the government to take some precautions to guarantee its citizens safety.
So why then is there so much animosity between two groups of rational, reasonable Americans?
It’s because of fear. Fear has become a corruptive force in our society. It is the source of so many of our fiercest arguments, and the reason why we’ve continually abandoned compromise.
Gun control proponents—President Obama among them—have been demonized as tyrannical usurpers of the constitution. As Sean Hannity said on Fox news on January 11th, “The president and his newly formed gun task force continue to plug away at taking away your guns.”
But that’s not the case. There are no proposals from the White House “plugging away” at government-confiscation of guns. What has been proposed is a ban of military-style assault rifles and high-capacity clips and magazines.
In response to their talk with Vice President Joe Biden about such a ban, the NRA released a statement saying, “We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment…”
At this point, I personally began to reflect on the issue at hand. And I came to a conclusion.
I don’t want to live in a country—or a society—where people believe they need an assault rifle to keep their children safe. That sort of paranoia seems dangerous.
I think it is not only ridiculous, but also dangerous to believe that you will at one point need a military-grade weapon to defend your life.
But there’s the argument about tyranny: that having these weapons is a defense against the government.
I believe that arming yourself for a confrontation with the US military is just another example of paranoia. Again, I don’t believe we live in a country where there is even the slightest possibility of that being necessary. This isn’t North Korea; we actually have a legitimate government in place. And much of that government’s legitimacy rests on the fact that there is not an uprising every time change is necessary. As seen in the Whisky Rebellion in the early days of the Union, the Founding Fathers never intended citizens to enforce their rights through violence. That’s what democracy is for. We have a rebellion every four years; but instead of AK-47s, we use voting booths. They’re easier, and the clean up isn’t as messy.
But I’m not just another liberal gun-control proponent. I know many responsible gun owners. And if gun control advocates are demonized, it’s nothing compared to how gun owners have been portrayed. Gun owners are plagued by much of society’s largely inaccurate image of them as militia-wackos, armed to the teeth. And, again, this image is the product of fear.
It’s crazy to suggest that no guns whatsoever should be legal (so crazy that no one is actually suggesting it, Mr. Hannity). The right to bear arms is in fact in the constitution. We don’t need an Orwellian society to prevent gun violence. We just need some common sense.
But apparently that’s what our current society lacks. We’re riled up. We’re afraid of a president who sits in an empty chair and plots to take our guns as Clint Eastwood gestures towards his invisible body. We’re afraid of gun-nuts arming themselves to the teeth and preparing for the collapse of civilization. We’re so afraid, we’ve begun to make up dangers plaguing our society.
As FDR famously said, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” All of us, as Americans, need to take a collective deep breath. Because the paranoia we create can become as destructive as the things we fear in the first place. As we re-start the long arguments on gun-control, and mental health, and school safety, let’s just remember that we’re all working for the same thing. We all want to be free and we all want to be safe. No one is pro-tyranny. No one is pro-gun violence. So let’s just be reasonable. If we’re going to let ourselves be afraid, the least we can do is not be afraid of each other.
