Partisanship within the United States is far too high. Even on issues where Democrats and Republicans, or liberals and conservatives are fairly close on the spectrum of the issue, the reactions to certain debates give the appearance that they are very far apart. Even though the Obama Administration, and Democrats down the line have made clear that they want to simply increase background checks to ensure that guns do not get in the hands of the wrong person, which, in my view, is common-sense legislation, conservatives hear that, or choose to conflate that, as a government attempt to steal the citizenry’s guns away.
This fear-mongering leads to an increase in the desire for guns. Now, I am under the opinion that a state that has a massive military and access to all of the guns in the world ought not have the power to ban guns to the mass public. Even if the idea of mass oppression and repression seems unlikely in America, the ability to ban all guns gives the government more power than they ought to have. However, I believe that citizens of any state ought to use the ability to own with caution and responsibility.
States such as Mississippi and Texas have passed open carry laws in churches and schools, respectively. Despite some incidents that would lead persons not familiar with the U.S. to believe otherwise, schools and places of worship are meant to be safe spaces, in that citizens ought to go here and not anticipate danger. Most citizens, students, pastors, teachers etc., other than those who own guns, have said they would feel less safe going to Church or to school if everyone was allowed to carry a gun.
The argument in favor of this type of legislation is that if an armed individual with malice intent enters the school or place of worship, there will plenty of people inside with the ability to prevent an attack. First, this is creating legislation to prevent the extreme scenario. Laws fill the purpose of being the best for the majority of citizens in the majority of circumstances. The aforementioned legislation serves to expand, or change, the purpose of law. Laws will no longer be about serving the general public, but rather about awarding a small but loud group of partisans who will do anything to get their way.
Secondly, when citizens are surrounded by guns all of the time it creates a culture of violence. That is, our society will begin to value violence and revenge over peace. This is especially true for children who are very malleable at a young age. Being around people who carry and worship guns will inevitably ensure that an entire generation is desensitized to guns, and therefore gun violence.The solution to the problem of mass shootings is not to arm everyone, but to ensure that we do not arm people who will hurt others. This is why background checks are so important. If gun manufacturers/dealers can take a look into the mental health history of an individual and determine from that that they are unfit to own a weapon, lives will necessarily be saved.
Finally, gun culture is going to create a citizenry that police themselves. There is a reason why we have a police force, to enforce the law. If there is not a few degrees of separation between law enforcement and citizens then laws will have no meaning. In other words, if the mechanism of enforcement is in the hands of everyone, then they can choose what to enforce and what not to enforce, therefore leading to some laws remaining within society and others being pushed out. In a world where stability of law is so important to our very existence, this could be bad news.
Ownership of a gun also changes the relationship that one has with oneself. Individuals are far less likely to contemplate murdering someone if they are not in possession of a murderous weapon than if they are.
The ability to kill is a responsibility that most people cannot handle. In fact, it takes law enforcement officials years of training before they can handle this responsibility, and even then some cannot. If individuals continue to increasingly possess this power then small conflicts that would normally be settled rather quickly, can turn deadly.
It is not government’s role to ban a weapon that is so readily available to the government. However, it is the citizen’s responsibility to keep this weapon out of the hands of the individuals who wish to use it for harm. If the culture war of guns continues, our society is heading down a very wrong path.
