Guns, Fear, & Diversity: The Great American Experiment
by Delma Thomas-Jackson III | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
In light of the most recent school shooting in Newtown Connecticut, I have come to the conclusion that the best solutions for America's woes are at this point, almost impossible to achieve.
As usual, I find myself standing in an unusual place. My inner Otto Von Bismark, (Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman who dominated European affairs from the 1860s to his dismissal in 1890), is screaming for solutions that reflect realpolitik and pragmatism. Common sense dictates that fewer guns mean fewer gun deaths. America practically oozes UZI's. If you are legally qualified to purchase a firearm, there is no shortage of shops that will happily sell them to you. If you are legally unqualified to purchase a firearm, there is no shortage of "street vendors" that will happily sell them to you. Whether you’re a law abiding citizen or not, getting your hands on a pistol (or a .223 Bushmaster for that matter), is not hard to do in this country. Why? Easy access, Silly. You can't swing a dead cat around here without inadvertently knocking over a gun and turning the safety to off.
According to the Washington Post, "There are 270 million guns owned by American citizens... The second-ranking country, India, a country over three times our population, has 46 million." Just to put that another way, for every 100 American citizens, almost 89 (88.8 as of 2007), of them are carrying a firearm. This stat does not mean that a lot of kids are carrying. It means a lot of private citizens are carrying and a relatively large number of them are stockpiling.
According to the Washington Post, the 3 states with the most gun ownership are Wyoming, Alaska, and Montana – not exactly bastions of urban warfare. This is more like Davy Crockett territory. It's easy for us urban folk to forget that much of America is still wilderness and some of our fellow citizens choose to make their lives in such places. Keeping a firearm in these environments is not necessarily an empty statement to the government about 2nd Amendment rights and cold dead hands. It's a way of life. Antiquated? Arguably. Their right? Certainly.
In urban communities like my home town of Flint Michigan, gun violence is an all too common occurrence. I have personally been a direct victim, innocent bystander, and perpetrator of gun violence all between the ages of 12-18. Guns have always been a part of my life. My father and I occasionally go to the range. I have been playing violent video games since I was very young. I have enjoyed more action adventure movies than any other genre. While I am no longer a fan of what has been dubbed, "gangster rap", it was at one time, the soundtrack of my life.
What do America's gun totting urbanites have in common with the gun totting citizens of Arkansas, Wyoming, and Montana (and let's not forget the gun totting suburbanites that live on the periphery of America's urbanites)? We all appreciate the role of the gun in American history and contemporary culture. Gun manufacturers produce so many guns because we the people, demand it. When we are not actually using them, we are virtually using them while wearing head gear and barking out flanking orders on our game consoles. In diverse public spaces, we walk around in perpetual fear of each other and wonder who among us will use them next. This in turn, leads many of us to go out and purchase more guns. When we are doing none of these, we are watching other people use guns on TV. As a nation, we LOVE our guns.
And why wouldn't we? You would be hard pressed to find an American hero that didn't have a gun in their hands. Go ahead, name 10, publicly recognized, American heroes that didn't need a gun to get the job done. You can do it. But I bet you need at least 5 minutes and Google. American history IS the history of firearms. British global colonization was possible because of naval cannons and firearms. Without the gun, Native American's would have kept their territories (including Mexico), against invading Europeans. Manifest Destiny would have never been a notion. Africans would have never been kidnapped in mass. Asian markets would have never been secured. America as we know it would not exist.
To be thankful to be an American, is to be thankful for the gun and the people who were willing to use them against fellow humans to at first conquer and then defend these territories. There is no side stepping this. If we are going to talk about moving forward, the past must be acknowledged. This now sovereign nation was built by brute force and an inability or unwillingness to recognize inalienable rights as a universal notion meant to be applied globally.
The American experiment involved arming one group of men to conquer another group of people and take over their territory. Once land ownership was established, another group of men and women were forced here to work that land for centuries under the threat of death. As centuries of free labor sufficiently built a thriving agricultural economy, a burgeoning industrial economy became possible and attracted a whole other group of global citizens. Americas diversity was the result of the forced exodus of Native peoples (including Mexicans), the forced slavery of African peoples, and the exploitation of millions of Europeans and Asians.
No other country is as diverse as the US. Likewise, no other country has the paranoia of a place whose diversity was built largely on exploitation, murder, and theft by both private citizens and government efforts. When people point to the gun violence statistics in other countries as proof that something is "different" and "wrong" about the US, I often point to the relative homogeneous nature of many countries that enjoy relative peace. No other place on earth has had so many types of people so quickly smashed into a relatively small space under such drastic and violent circumstances.
As an African American who has studied closely the historical relationship between the US government and select members of the African Diaspora, I can honestly say that as long as this government is armed, I want to have the right to be armed as well. Sorry Obama, but I can't trust the feds as far as I can throw them. History has taught me to be mistrusting of the government (i.e. MLK, The Black Panther Party, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, etc…). It is no coincidence that many citizens for multiple reasons feel the same way. Some could argue that America is afraid of itself - that we the people are afraid of each other - that we are afraid of our own government. And when we look to our heroes for answers (both historical and contemporary), the response is always the same: when in doubt, shoot it out.
With all of this hanging over our heads, I sometimes wonder if maybe the answer is not more laws about who can and can't own weapons. Maybe the answers aren't that easy. Maybe the answer involves a shift in culture from one of mutual fear to mutual trust and support. For better or for worse, that sort of shift cannot be regulated.
My inner Bismarck is telling me that as long as I perceive an over-reaching, fearful government and a populace that finds great entertainment in excess violence while boasting 89 guns for every 100 citizens, I must arm myself. My inner Deepak Chopra is telling me that all the guns in the world won't heal the fear that leads us to demand so many guns and so much violence in the first place. The government can take the guns from the citizens, but it can't take their fear and love of violence from their hearts. America must commit itself to healing the divides that made America possible. Of course it must. Irony is never too far from tragedy.
Peace and blessings to the victims of all global conflicts - from Syria to the US and everywhere in between.
*As I am finishing up, I just read that gun sales are up nationwide. Some buyers express greater concern over personal protection, while others express concern over greater government restrictions on gun ownership.*
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Delma Thomas-Jackson is a native of Flint Michigan. He is a social justice advocate, facilitator, and director of The Sankofa Project for Social Justice. He is a regular lecturer at the University of Michigan-Flint and a grad student in the department of Liberal Arts. You can reach Delma on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/delma.thomasjacksonor follow him on Twitter at: @deakon111
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