-- Clint Eastwood
Reading: by social activist and educator Geoffrey Canada, who is head of the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City, from Fist Stick Knife Gun (p. 99)
Young people are fascinated by guns. For many today, and especially for boys in our inner cities, the handgun is an integral part of their growing–up experience. It is as important for many of them to know the difference between a Tech 9 and an Uzi as it was for my peers to know the difference between a Chevrolet and a Buick.
And once a young person gets his or her hands on a gun there is a very strong temptation to shoot it. Once you’ve handled a gun you recognize it simply as a tool. And not many of us get a new tool and put it away unused. Human nature seems to dictate we use them right away, even if we tire of our electric drill, espresso machine, or stationary bicycle soon after purchasing it. So the temptation is almost irresistible for children to shoot off guns in their possession. They want to see what it feels like. What it sounds like. How much damage does it do? How quickly can you fire it? Where can you hide it? How quickly can you draw, aim, and shoot?
Reading: from an article by Ray Rivera and Peter Applebome entitled “Sandy Hook Parents’ Testimony to Legislature Reflects Divide on Guns” which appeared last week in The New York Times (January 28, 2013)
…Mark Mattioli, whose son James, 6, was also killed at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, said: “I believe in a few simple gun laws. I think we have more than enough on the books. We should hold people individually accountable for their actions.”
Mr. Mattioli said he also thought some liberals were using the attack in Newtown to spread fear on gun issues.
“The problem is not gun laws,” he added. “The problem is a lack of civility.”
…Outside the building, people braved frigid temperatures and driving snow while waiting to pass through metal detectors, part of the heightened security measures for the hearing. Women from groups like March for Change and One Million Moms for Gun Control, which are calling for stricter gun laws, stood far outnumbered by gun rights supporters, most of them men.
Reading: by Carl Sandberg a poem entitled “A Revolver” (With the debate over gun control heating up, a retired volunteer at a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign made a timely find. Ernie Gullerud, a former professor of social work at the university, came upon a previously unpublished poem by Carl Sandburg titled "A Revolver," which addresses the issue of guns and violence. Chicago Tribune, Jan. 21, 2013)
Here is a revolver.
It has an amazing language all its own.
It delivers unmistakable ultimatums.
It is the last word.
A simple, little human forefinger can tell a terrible story with it.
Hunger, fear, revenge, robbery hide behind it.
It is the claw of the jungle made quick and powerful.
It is the club of the savage turned to magnificent precision.
It is more rapid than any judge or court of law.
It is less subtle and treacherous than any one lawyer or ten.
When it has spoken, the case can not be appealed to the supreme court, nor any mandamus nor any injunction nor any stay of execution in and interfere with the original purpose.
And nothing in human philosophy persists more strangely than the old belief that God is always on the side of those who have the most revolvers.
Good Guns
A Sermon Delivered on Feburary 3, 2013
By
The Reverend Axel H. Gehrmann
I remember when the movie “The Matrix” first was shown in movie theaters. It was the spring of 1999. Elaine and I had moved to Urbana/Champaign just a few years earlier. Our kids, Noah and Sophia, were preschoolers.
“The Matrix” is part action/adventure, part science fiction/fantasy. The central conceit of the movie is that the world in which we live, everything we see and smell, everything we touch and taste, is not real. Everything is an illusion. The world we think is real is actually nothing more than a very elaborate computer program, a virtual reality into which each of us has been placed. We are all players in a big computer game, and we don’t even know it.
The story of “The Matrix” revolves around a mild-mannered computer geek named Thomas Anderson, who becomes a savior of sorts. His eyes are opened to the real world, beyond the illusion. And he learns how to transcend the rules that govern the computer world – the world that looks like everything we take for granted - and he battles the evil machines that have actually enslaved humanity. He learns how to beat them at their own game.
“The Matrix” was quite a pop culture phenomenon. It fused Buddhist ideas of impermanence with Christian ideas of a savior and salvation, with youthful fascination of computer technology, as well as the cool, stylized violence of action movies.
One memorable and imaginative scene features the protagonist and his love-interest, both dressed all in black, wearing long coats and stylish sunglasses, shooting their way through the lobby of a fortified skyscraper. They move in slow-motion, to a pounding soundtrack, armed to their teeth with an assortment pistols, shotguns and automatic rifles.
In a hailstorm of bullets, dozens of uniformed “bad guys” are shot down, and the entire lobby destroyed. If ever there were a ranking of modern movies that glorify guns, this scene from “The Matrix” would surely be near the top of the list. And I confess, when I watched the movie, I really liked it.
Just a few weeks after “The Matrix” opened in movie theaters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered Columbine High School, near Littleton, Colorado. Dressed in long dark coats and heavily armed, they embarked on a killing spree, that left twelve students and one teacher dead. The two teenagers carried out the deadliest mass murder ever committed in an American high school, and then killed themselves.
Why did this happen? How could they do it? Mental health issues and depression, violent video games, victimization by high school bullies, and heavy metal music were among the possible causes considered in the news.
But the most controversial factor was the question of guns. Would stricter gun control laws have made a difference in averting the tragedy? Are guns the problem or the solution?
These questions are once again on our minds, in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. And in the weeks since then, it is seems every morning’s paper contains a new collection of stories about gun-related tragedies.
* * *
When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the two air rifles my father kept behind the door in his study, and the air pistol he kept in a little card board box. When I was nine, I remember how thrilling it was to go down into the basement with my father and three older brothers, and practice shooting at paper targets in our own homemade shooting range.
I was too small to hold and fire the rifles, so we set up a four-foot stepladder, with a pillow on top. On that pillow I could rest the rifle, hold its butt snug against my shoulder, peer through the sight, carefully take aim, and then squeeze the trigger.
It was dangerous, of course. But that was the best part. I remember how carefully my father drilled safety precautions into our heads: never to point a gun at a person, even if it wasn’t loaded. Never to put your finger on the trigger until you were perfectly still and aiming at your target.
The danger, the thrill, the satisfaction of hitting a bulls-eye, and perhaps, above all, my father’s presence, his close attention, and his approval when I did well, left quite an impression for me.
* * *
We all have different degrees of comfort when it comes to dealing with guns. We all make choices on how we handle the issues of guns and violence and safety and control.
So, for instance, in our home today, we don’t have any guns. I don’t own air rifles. And I didn’t spend quality time with my son and daughter when they were younger, teaching them the basics of marksmanship and gun safety. In fact, when our kids were young, Elaine and I were so opposed to the whole idea of kids and guns, that we never once got them toy rifles or plastic pistols. And to this day I have a deep dislike for so-called “first person shooter games”: computer games that have become more and more realistic in their portrayal of gun battles, in which you are encouraged to shoot and maim an endless stream of villains, terrorists or zombies.
* * *
“Guns don’t kill people, people do.” This is the well-known encapsulation of the argument against gun control. It is short, compelling, and to the point. And it is true. Without a person to pick it up and pull the trigger, a gun is simply a piece of metal.
Violent movies don’t turn people into criminals. Violent computer games don’t make all of our children recreate their virtual reality games in the real world. More gun laws don’t guarantee that violent crime will decline.
In this day and age of the information superhighway, with access to the internet and a few clicks of a keyboard, you can find an amazing amount of material that provides support for your opinion – whether you think we need more guns or less. But not everything you read is equally accurate.
When it comes to the question whether gun ownership contributes to violent crime or combats it – according to FactCheck.org, of the Annenberg Public Policy Center - the evidence is not conclusive. As it turns out, there is remarkably little reliable research in this area. Part of the reason there is little scientific evidence, one way or another, is that the National Rifle Association, the NRA, has spent millions of dollars in lobbying efforts to prevent this research. In 2011 the New York Times reported, “The amount of money available today for studying the impact of firearms is a fraction of what it was in the mid-1990s, and the number of scientists toiling in the field has dwindled to just a handful as a result.” Selling guns is a billion dollar business. And the gun industry has plenty of political clout. (Michael Luo, “N.R.A. Stymies Firearms Research, Scientists Say,” January 25, 2011)
There is much we don’t know. But what we do know is that the United States has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world. As our very own Peggy Patten wrote in last Sunday’s News-Gazette: “If more guns make us safer then the U.S. should be the safest country on the planet. Nothing could be further from the truth: we have more guns than any other developed country as well as more gun crime and more gun homicide.”
An international comparison published by the Washington Post offers specifics. For every 100 people, we have about 89 guns. That’s more than any other country in the world. We have 5% of the world’s population, but 35%-50% of the world’s guns. We have about three-times as many guns, per capita, as people who live in Canada or France. And we have more than twice the rate of gun-related homicides than Canada, and six times that of France.
Some people justify gun ownership as a protection against a government they fear might one day oppress them. If this fear were justified, one might imagine civilians trying to match the firepower of the government. But actually we do much more. According to the Congressional Research Service, police and military combined have a total of 4 million handguns and rifles. Regular citizens own 310 million. There are 80 times as many firearms in the homes of private citizens, than all our police stations and military bases combined.
Scientists are not able to prove a causal link between gun ownership and gun violence. But statistically the evidence is clear: where there are more guns there are more gun homicides. It may not be clear that guns cause violence – violence can be caused by drug use, domestic abuse, or mental illness – but it is perfectly clear that violent situations become more lethal when guns are present. As one researcher put it: “You can’t have a drive-by knifing.”
Many people who support gun ownership do so because they image guns will keep them safe. They imagine their guns will be used for self-defense. And yet, in fact, it is four times more likely that a gun will be used in an unintentional shooting death or injury. And rather than in self-defense, it is seven times more likely that a gun in the home will be used for a criminal assault or homicide. And it is eleven times more likely that the gun will be used to commit suicide.
How well do guns help us stay safe? According to the American Journal of Public Health, people in possession of a gun are actually four times more likely to be shot in an assault, than people without guns.
According to David Hemenway, of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, compared with other countries, our rate of violence and aggression is average. But our homicide rate is huge. Hemenway reminds us that on the same day that 20 children were shot and killed by a deranged man in Newtown, CT, a deranged man attacked elementary school children in Chenpeng Village, China. A man named Min Yingjun was intent on doing damage, but because he was wielding a knife, and not a gun, twenty-two Chinese children were injured, but not one of them was killed.
* * *
Geoffrey Canada writes,
“America has long had a love affair with violence and guns. It’s our history, we teach it to all of our young. The Revolution, the “taming of the West,” the Civil War, the world wars, and on and on. Guns, justice, righteousness, freedom, liberty – all tied to violence. Even when we try to teach about non-violence, we have to use the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., killed by the violent. I’m sorry America, but once you get past the rhetoric, what we really learn is that might does make right.” (p. viii)
Canada grew up on the rough streets of New York City. At an early age he learned about the dynamics of violence. And he learned how seductive guns are in an environment shaped by fear.
“Possessing a gun feels like the ultimate form of protection,” writes Canada. “On the streets of a big American city, having this kind of personal protection may even seem to some to make sense. But it doesn’t. I know from personal experience.” Guns only increase the odds that someone will get killed.
The best way to combat gun violence is not to get more guns. A better course of action is to rebuild our communities. In his efforts to provide a safe environment for children, he realized, you can’t save children without also saving families. And you can’t save families without rebuilding communities.
And this is exactly what he has helped do in Harlem, by providing safe recreational after-school programs until late at night and on weekends, that include education, drug counseling, mental health and cultural activities. Thanks to his efforts entire neighborhoods have been transformed.
* * *
This country is permeated by a culture of violence and fear. The causes are complex, and reach deep into our history. We have been raised on stories of heroes and villains who face off in violent confrontations, stories where the guy with the biggest guns, or the fastest draw will win. These stories are exciting and entertaining – but they are not true.
They are important stories, because they have shaped who we are. We need to pay attention to them. We need to listen critically. And above all, we need to remember, that the world they portray is an illusion. This illusion creates a culture of violence and fear.
Our task is to open our eyes to the real world. Our task is to create a different culture: a culture of compassion and care.
Of course God is not on the side of those who have the most guns. I believe God is on the side of those who love.
May we have the wisdom and the courage
To put down our dangerous tools of division and destruction,
And instead do our part to build communities of compassion and care.
Amen.
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