Guns in schools and in society

Like most Americans, I was saddened by yesterday's shootings at Virginia Tech. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

And this latest tragedy makes me think about guns, and how readily available they are in the U.S.

I have some friends who own guns for sport or for self-defense. And twenty years ago I spent an afternoon at a rifle range with a boyfriend who wanted to try it once. At the time, I didn't see the appeal. I still don't. I'm just not comfortable around guns.

But many people are, and by law they're allowed to pursue their love of guns.

But with guns comes responsibility. And too many people use them irresponsibly. Too many people use them to kill. After all, that's what they were made for.

Jane Smiley has an interesting piece about the gun issue today in the Huffington Post, in which she relates gun enthusiasm to the right-wing mindset in general. An interesting perspective. Here is an excerpt:

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Some years ago, I was talking to a man about guns. At the time, I didn't really know anyone with guns (still don't), but he did. He had had guns himself. He said, "I gave my gun away, because when I had it, every time something happened that made me mad, my mind would start circling around that gun, and I would be thinking about using it.

So I got rid of it and I'm glad I did." Right up front I will say that I am opposed to casual gun ownership, but I also realize that Americans will always have guns. Period. It's a national fetish. But the mental state my interlocutor was describing years ago is the price we have to pay, along with, of course, the accidental deaths of children and other unprepared and careless people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and in proximity to the wrong gun. What I would like is for the gun-toting right wing to admit that there is a price we pay, that senseless accidental deaths and traumas are a national cost and that it's not so clear that it's worth it, but hey, we pay it anyway because so many guns are in the hands of so many people that there would never be any getting rid of them. I would like the right wing to admit that guns are not "good" and that the right to bear arms is not an absolute virtue and that the deaths in the US caused by guns are at least as problematic, philosophically, as abortion. But I'm not holding my breath.

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