Bang Bang

I read a new book called Rawhide Down by Del Quentin Wilber last week. It’s the story of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley. It’s a fascinating book, revealing lots of things about the Secret Service, the inner-workings of the White House, the response of the medical team at George Washington University Hospital and, of course, Reagan’s health through the crisis and how close he came to dying. He was shot at 2:27pm and was in the ER by 2:30. Anything longer than that most probably would have been fatal. If you are like me and love American history, Rawhide Down is a quick and interesting read.

Monday night of last week Gretchen and I watched the special about Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her recovery from an assassination attempt. Watching her was simultaneously heartbreaking and inspiring and brought back a lot of memories for us of the months of rehabilitation after Gretchen’s stroke in 1985. I’ve written more about Gabrielle Giffords (and Gretchen) in an Advent-related piece that will run in a couple of places this coming Sunday and Monday, and which I will link this blog to.

After reading the book about Reagan being shot and seeing the video of Gabrielle Giffords, I’m led to ask one very simple question: why are handguns legal in the United States? (I know, I know, you’re going to answer “because of the Constitution,” and I’ll address that later in this post.) Actually, this question has been on my mind since my son Jesse “won” a couple of handgun safety classes in an auction. (My son is 22-years-old and has moved to the point where I have opinions but no authority about what he does.) He came home with several shot up targets and some booklets from the National Rifle Association. One of the booklets was about the “principles of pistol concealment.” For lack of better words, the NRA and their “principles of pistol concealment” scare the hell out of me.

I have no beef with the NRA advocating for rifles. But pistols? Maybe I’m short-sighted to make a distinction between handguns and rifles, but I’m more or less okay with rifles. You can’t carry a rifle in your pocket. You need a rifle to hunt, and I have no argument with hunting. I eat meat. I’ve enjoyed wild game before. It’s handgun ownership I question. As far as I know, you don’t carry a handgun into the woods to go deer hunting. Handguns exist to shoot humans with.

John Hinckley was caught in an airport with three guns a few weeks before he shot Reagan. No problem, he gave those guns up and just went and bought more. I know we have tougher gun control laws now, including the “Brady Bill,” named in honor of Jim Brady, Reagan’s Press Secretary, who was also shot that day in 1981. Because of those laws, someone like Hinckley would have to wait longer to get a gun these days. But eventually he would get them. The guy who shot Gabrielle Giffords got his, along with the shooters at Columbine and Virginia Tech and every other place you can think of that has been touched by gun violence. I simply think we should have the ultimate gun control law: ban handgun ownership.

Now about the Constitution. Here’s what the second amendment says:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Interpreting the Constitution keeps judges in business because its meaning is not always clear. Enough time has passed since it was written so that interpreting the Constitution is sort of like interpreting the Bible. We have to work on understanding the intent and context of the authors. Do you think that James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, et al, ever imagined the array of modern weaponry we possess today? What was their context? Was it not “Grab your musket and help repel the British”? Today’s world is so much different. I cannot see how banning handgun ownership would harm the security of a free state. As a matter of fact, I think banning handgun ownership would help the security of a free state. From personal experience, I can say that it works in Europe. Europeans do not tolerate the level of carnage Americans have become numb to.

When we went to see Paul McCartney last summer, we had to pass through metal detectors to get into the concert. Since you don’t have to go through metal detectors to see the Detroit Tigers play in the same stadium, I knew the metal detectors were part of what McCartney requires to do a show. And immediately I thought of John Lennon. Paul does not want his life to end the way John’s did. That’s understandable. And, to loosely paraphrase John, I’m imaging a world where there are no handguns. You may say I’m a dreamer, but my guess is I’m not the only one.