To begin, I am going to make a list of statements:
1. I am not against gun ownership.
2. I am visually impaired.
3. I have been threatened with a gun with a gun visible.
4. I have been threatened with gun violence with no gun visible.
5. A firearm was discharged in my direction but the vehicle I was in was the target.
6. I have handled, manipulated and fired several different firearms.
So, why is a visually impaired person writing about guns? It’s simple really. I’m writing about guns because that is what Americans do. There are enough guns in the United States of America that every single person in this country could be equipped with one. I have personally known people who own upwards of 40 guns. Then again, I have known some people who have owned that many guitars. Most of the people I have known have less than a half dozen.
Over the years, I have watched guns slowly move from a tool used for hunting or varmint control to something that any “red blooded American” must have to “protect themselves and their family”. We are so terrible regarding firearms that we protect ourselves from things that are not likely to ever arise. Remember Zombie Apocalypse ammo that literally flew off the shelves a several years back as though regular bullets wouldn’t be able to do the job just as well.
Okay, some people like to collect commemorative plates, stamps and what else. I get that.
Who says that the zombies weren’t the ones buying up the ammunition? Maybe it is particularly effective against non-zombies. Maybe it is just as effective as your standard ammunition.
Either way, I will get back to my point.
I asked the question to myself the other day, “How many people who demand the right to own guns have ever actually been threatened by one?” I’m talking civilians and people who have never worked in law enforcement. I imagine that the number of civilian, non-law enforcement, gun owners who have ever been threatened by gun violence is quite low.
There is this lie about protection that has been wrapped around guns and then wrapped up in the American flag. Yes, I called it a lie. I call it a lie for several reasons:
1. For a gun to protect someone, the gun must be present, operational, loaded and the operator must be competent at the use of the weapon at the time of the threat.
2. Carrying a firearm is not safe for the person who carries the weapon.
3. Firing a weapon is not safe for the operator, the target, or anyone else who ends up in the path of the bullet if the target is missed or the projectile exits the target.
To start, people who feel the need to have firearms for protection feel that they have to have them in any place where they feel unsafe, which for some is almost everywhere. In addition, the weapon, like all other complex tools, needs to be maintained properly, loaded and ready for use at all times. Then, for the weapon to be effective, the operator must be able to retrieve and operate the weapon quickly, accurately and with good judgement. If any of this breaks down then the weapon becomes less effective at protecting anyone, including the operator.
On the second point, who are gun owners protecting themselves from? Other gun owners. People who carry guns are high value targets to other people with guns because they are the most obvious threat. The argument that people need guns to protect themselves from other people with guns motivates other people to buy guns to protect themselves from people who have guns.
The last point is something that does not get talked about enough, except perhaps in stories or spaceships where firing a weapon could possibly end the story for everyone. What happens to the bullet if it misses or passes through the target? Sad to say that I know at least one person who never considered that when he, like many, would shoot up in the air in celebration. He stopped doing this when he heard the story of someone who was killed from celebratory gunfire. Not enough people seem to care where the bullet goes if it misses the target. Bullets can travel great distances, pass through walls and even some floors. I know who cares, the innocent people who are shot even though they are no threat. It has happened from celebratory gunfire, gang violence, police standoffs and of course military actions.
I had a neighbor admit to me that once he was not as careful as he should have been with his firearm and one day when he was reloading, he accidentally fired the pistol into the floor of his apartment. His boss, and friend, lived in the apartment below him and the bullet was found lodged in the mattress of his bed. If he had been laying in bed, the man might have been injured or even killed.
I can easily imagine a situation where a father, believing there is an intruder in his bedroom, pulls out and fires a weapon in his bedroom only to discover that there was no intruder. Furthermore, the bullet travels through the wall into the next bedroom to strike a child.
After all that, I get to the hundreds of thousands of people in this country that can not or should not own a firearm because of physical or mental disability. Several years ago, I was working with a group of fellow radio operators at a police department. The subject of guns came up so I mentioned that I am visually impaired and because of that I should not keep a firearm for self defense. I asked a rhetorical question, “How am I supposed to feel safe when I am the only one without a gun?” I then asked the more practical question about how I was supposed to protect myself against a criminal with a gun. The response I received would have been laughable if it was not so sad. The gun advocate replied, “Another person with a gun can protect you from the person with a gun.”
As I mentioned above, I have been threatened with a firearm or threatened with gun violence. Exactly none of those times was there anyone with a gun present to protect me.
How am I, and he hundreds of thousands of other disabled people like me who do not own a gun, supposed to feel safe when we are outnumbered by people, and don’t forget the zombies, with guns.