Life with Liz: Same old conversation
Here we are again. Having the same conversation. Sadly, at the tender ages of 7, 9 and 11, I no longer have to explain the term “mass shooting” to my kids, they know all too well what it means. What they’re more interested in is the where. I can see them mentally adding outdoor concerts and Las Vegas to the continually growing list of places that “aren’t safe.” At their ages, I couldn’t have told you what the term “active shooter” meant, but the three of them are well-versed and prepared to follow teachers’ directions in the event of one, thanks to the annual drills at school.
Gun control is something we talk about a lot in our house. I grew up in the country, on a farm. Guns were just there. A part of life. The shotgun stood at the ready, and was occasionally put to use as a wayward groundhog, fox or coyote got up to no good. The .22 came out when it was time to slaughter pigs. While my dad wasn’t a big hunter, he had the occasion to go out, and would frequently accompany friends or relatives who came to the farm to hunt.
The WH hunts. I say that in much the same way as I say that the WH breathes. Hunting defines him as much as his blue eyes, brown hair, and 6-foot-2-inch frame. While I have absolutely no desire to hunt myself, I can respect his passion for it. After losing more than one vehicle to a wayward Bambi, I can even say I have a small appreciation for the necessity of herd management.
The kids have been raised in a house where the WH’s trophies hang on the wall, venison is frequently served for dinner, and a good hunting story is always appreciated. They’ve also been raised in a house where there are very strict rules when it comes to handling firearms. My kids can be plenty sloppy about putting away their laundry, or skimping on the vacuuming, but when it comes to their firearms, there are absolutely no shortcuts. As the boys have gotten older, they have taken the hunter safety courses, as well as been schooled in the many dangers of weapons.
Both boys also participate in YHEC, or Youth Hunter Education Challenge. The primary goal of this program is education. The boys engage in various types of target shooting, with various weapons, including guns and bows and arrows, wildlife education, and above all hunter and shooting safety. They enjoy it, both the honing of their marksman skills, and the camaraderie of their team.
I explain all this because guns, and the gun culture, are in fact an integral part of who my family is, who my family always has been; and yet, for as much as they mean to my family, I know there is something wrong with our culture today. I know that something must change. I’ve heard all the responses, the standard “the bad guys will always find a way” and “guns don’t kill people, people do.” I agree. One only has to look at the 9/11 tragedy and the Boston Marathon bombing to see how carnage can be reaped without a single shot being fired. So, does that absolve us from having to try to prevent these situations?
As a student of history, I know people have been developing new and horrible ways to kill others since Cain first picked up that rock and slammed it down on Abel’s head. From Joseph-Ignace Guillotin to the Nazi Germany’s gas chambers to the Manhattan Project, man can use just about anything as a weapon. To me, it seems that if some people are determined to find a way to execute people at the drop of a hat, we should be equally determined to stop them.
Aside from the actual means of destruction, we have the matter of mental illness. Time and again, these senseless acts have been traced back to people who simply aren’t in their right mind. Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech. This is where the argument breaks down. There are supposed to be safeguards and rules in place to prevent people like this from getting their hands on weapons. But, clearly, they don’t work. How do we help these people, and protect ourselves from them at the same time?
What are we to do? Do we throw up our hands in despair? Do we say that this is the price of freedom, and cower in fear as we try to go about our daily business of going to school, to the mall, to a dance club, to a concert, waiting for the shots to rain down on us? Do we punish everyone for the misdeeds of the few? Do we sit on our hands and wait for someone to plan something bigger, to try to get his name in the record books as the worst mass shooter in U.S. history? Do we continue to watch gun and ammunition company stock rise after each of these shootings, as more people run out to stock up in the name of protection? People who have no experience with weapons? People who have not done the research that the WH does every time he decides to purchase a firearm? People who have not been schooled in how to handle weapons their entire lives?
I don’t have the answers. I wish I did, because I like to have answers to give my kids when they ask the hard questions. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. A situation where a single person can hole up and within minutes mow down almost 600 people is insane. The number of innocent, good lives lost just because someone was so angry and full of hate is insane. Walking around with a loaded weapon at the ready, ready for a toddler or a child to pick up and play with, is also insane.
It’s been said that the first step to solving a problem is admitting that you have a problem. We need to start having a real conversation and we need to start changing the way we are dealing with this, because this insanity clearly isn’t working.
Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.
