Yet another mass shooting and the question arises again: Why do we never get anywhere on gun control? Poll after poll and study after study show that the vast majority of Americans support common sense gun control and that gun control can and will work. Yet, even the simplest and easiest things, things that everyone should be able to agree on, still go nowhere, at both the state and federal level. Meanwhile, a powerful lobby that represents a small minority forces the rest of us to live with the deadly consequences of its radical agenda. The NRA claims legitimacy by saying it represents gun owners. Yet, if any polling is correct, it is very clear that their positions are far removed from what the majority of gun owners believe and want.
It isn’t just about mass shootings. The most common death by firearm is still suicide. Many of these deaths are also tragically preventable if the simple, common sense measure of mandating that guns be kept under lock and key is enacted. Most gun owners feel that this is a basic responsibility of gun ownership. The question then becomes how to deal with one group of people who have so much power that they are able to block measures that simply ask people to not behave in a way that the vast majority of us can recognize as irresponsible.
Ultimately, the inability of America to get common sense gun laws passed is a symptom of a greater disease. The majority of Americans no longer have control over their own government. They have lost it to a vocal, radical minority. There seems to be little hope of being able to take back our government anytime soon. But over the long term, defeating the gun lobby would score a victory for all citizens tired of special interests forcing all of us to live with the consequences of gridlock. There have been too many dead kids. Their deaths are preventable. The solutions are known and easy to implement. We know they work. We have seen them work in other countries. For a time we saw them work in our own country.
I, personally, have nothing against gun ownership. If people want to own guns for sport, hunting or personal protection they should be able to do so. Problems arise when guns become a powerful cultural symbol. Weapons should not be symbols; that is the central problem. The best example of this is how owning an AR-15 has become a way to make a statement about one’s political and socio-cultural identity. Herein lies the difficulty. When guns become a statement of identity it becomes impossible to discuss them in a rational, measured way and not descend into the culture wars.
Because of this, for all the demands to take action, action never comes. What we need is to be able to talk about guns not as a cultural symbol for a vocal minority, but as a practical reality the majority of us can agree on.
Progressive Without Apology 