Bridging the Impasse: The American Conversation on Gun Violence

I still remember the day gun violence struck my family.  I had come home from being out, perhaps at kindergarten. My father was home from the store early.  He was an assistant manager at a local dry goods and groceries chain owned by my mother’s extended family.  In general he worked an easy schedule for grocery; in by 8, home by 5:30. The downtown neighborhood his store was what we called “rough”; he had nice, daylight hours. He was never home for lunch, so it was clearly exceptional that day when he was home in the early afternoon.  I still recall the big white gauze bandage on his skull.  He had been pistol whipped with a Saturday Night Special, the downtown hood’s handgun of choice, during a robbery.  At that point my father decided management was not worth it; he retired 30+ years later from the company working 80 hour weeks most of his career between working days at the main warehouse, and then nights at that same store.  The emotional and financial impact of that incident on my family will forever be beyond measure.

Northeast Florida was and is an exemplar of gun culture.  Custom gun racks regularly adorn the rear windows of pickup trucks.  Hunting is a way of life there as it is in many regions of the United States; even now many locals regularly augment their freezers with seasonal game.  Shotguns and rifles abound. A significant military population including active and reserve units, retirees and a major Florida National Guard camp in the region only adds to the general acceptance of firearms.  Shooting clubs and ranges have healthy attendance, and classes in shooting and gun safety are held regularly.   High Schools with Junior ROTC programs give students the opportunity to qualify on .45’s and M-16’s.  In my senior year as a cadet lieutenant I scored expert in rifle and marksman in pistol under the watchful eyes of active duty Army instructors and my Army J.R.O.T.C. advisers.

Growing up around them, it seemed in general the acceptance of these firearms was based on the idea that they were owned and used responsibly.  Strict laws for licenses were a given.  So too the laws about the discharge of firearms were enforced to protect people from hunter’s rounds entering their homes.  Guns had important functions: they were for hunting, professional and recreational marksmanship, or personal protection.  Guns that were designed to appeal to criminals were roundly criticized.  Hometown rock & roll outlaw heroes Lynyrd Skynyrd sang a serious truth about the pistol used against my father in their song Mr. Saturday Night Special:

It’s a Saturday Night Special
Got a barrel that's blue and cold
Ain't no good for nothin'
But put a man six feet in a hole

Clearly the gun culture prevalent in the region understood that guns not meant for hunting, sport shooting, and personal protection were a menace to society.  It was understood that their presence undermined the important and legitimate roles guns can fulfill for private citizens.  Responsible gun owners wanted those instruments of violence unavailable because they were inimical to their interests as gun owners and enthusiasts.  Law enforcement similarly wanted these and military style weapons generally unavailable as well.  After all, when did shooting deer or boar really require rapid-fire weapons with high volume ammunition clips?

Gun ownership implied responsible ownership then, and it does today. The tension between the need for accessibility for personal protection, and the safe storage of privately owned guns are a major concern.  Accidental shootings among children are common news items.  Mental health professionals also point out the nexus between these guns and suicide.  In a 2005 New England Journal of Medicine, two Harvard researchers determined that an average of 46 Americans per day committed suicide with a firearm, accounting for 53% of all completed suicides. Gun suicide during this period accounted for 40% more deaths than gun homicide.  Move forward to 2013.  According to a February 14^tharticle published by The New York Times, the same research out of Harvard shows, “Nearly 20,000 of the 30,000 deaths from guns in the United States in 2010 were suicides, according to the most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national suicide rate has climbed by 12 percent since 2003, and suicide is the third-leading cause of death for teenagers.” The article goes on to note that according to the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, suicidal acts with guns are fatal in 85 percent of cases, while those with pills are fatal in just 2 percent of cases. 

These and other incidences underscore the need to have a meaningful public conversation—not a debate with winners and losers but a civil, civic, conversation—about the public interest regarding gun violence and the 2^nd Amendment. We need to reclaim the ability to disagree in our civic discourse without being disagreeable and hold our elected officials accountable likewise. Let’s consider a possible pair of starting points:

  While Newtown and Aurora and “the countless other communities” get the sound-bite in the State of the Union Address, more statistically significant are incidents like Webster, NY when a mentally ill ex-convict lured first responders to a fire into an ambush the morning of Christmas Eve.  One wonders at the similarity of this week’s shooting when a mentally-ill graduate student at the University of Maryland attacked his roommates at their off-campus apartment in College Park.  A real and important focus needs to be placed on restricting access to firearms by those suffering from mental illness.  

 We need to reclaim the level-headedness of prior times and apply a meaningful full background check for those seeking permits and licenses.  There needs to be discussion that bridges our impasse about the value of gun safety classes and insurance that are required for licenses no differently than drivers licenses do currently.  I can’t drive a motorcycle or a Class A without special licensing; perhaps similar distinctions should be made for high capacity magazines or other specialty firearms.

The Talmud (Eruvin 13b) relates that an ancient rabbinic debate raged for three years.  Finally, a heavenly voice announced that both positions reflected God’s Will, but one perspective was affirmed as policy.  The sages suggest the position that won did so because its proponents were gracious and humble, able to explicate their opponent’s view as well as their own, and even positing the validity of that other perspective in advance of their own.  The wisdom of the ancient Jewish sages offers a compelling voice to contemporary America.  I pray that we find the bridge beyond impasse, and spare countless families the pain wrought by gun violence in our country on a daily basis.

This blog entry is dedicated to the memory Webster, NY firefighters Tomasz Kaczowka and Mike Chiapperini, along with all first responders—fire, EMT and police officers—fallen to gun violence in Line of Duty Deaths.