By SHANE HUGHES
As a child, I spent every other weekend on 47 acres of wooded hills in Laurel, Indiana with my grandparents and three cousins. Loaded rifles and shotguns lined the walls of my grandfather’s office and lay haphazardly on the kitchen table or leaned against the railing of the back porch. My earliest memories involve my grandfather gently shaking me awake in the pre-dawn hours of the night, dressing in warm woodland camouflage overalls, and following my grandfather as he taught me how to track and stalk deer in autumn. It was these early years which taught me to respect guns of every kind.
As a teenager, I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. There I learned to disassemble and reassemble an M16A2 rifle in lightning quick time under the stressful presence and watchful eye of a drill instructor wearing a Smoky Bear campaign cover. I learned how to clean and care for my rifle by applying generous quantities of CLP and the judicious scrubbing of a cleaning brush similar to a hard-bristle toothbrush. I learned how to hit a man-sized silhouette target from 500 yards using only bare iron sights.
As a young man, I deployed to Fallujah, Iraq where I fought against a terrorist insurgency in 2006 and again in 2008. It was there I experienced the terrible consequences of guns – and other weapons of war – when people use them against one another.
Just before I left the Marine Corps in 2009, I experienced profound and intense anxiety issues. A friend recommended visiting a pistol range, where I unloaded my first magazine of 9mm rounds in a rage. Realizing I missed nearly every shot at a laughably easy range, I forced myself to control my breathing and steady myself, slowing down to aim each shot and pull the trigger with a slow, steady squeeze. All the rounds from the next magazine were grouped in a pattern no larger than a silver dollar. It was the first of many visits to the pistol range. These visits helped me achieve a state of calm I can only think to compare to the moment of zen people achieve through yoga. My anxiety issues disappeared completely after a few months.
It is because of all these experiences that I find myself in a unique position regarding the debate over the 2nd amendment and gun regulations in America; a debate with little to no middle ground between Republicans and Democrats. It is long past time that we put aside these titles we attach to ourselves and others, and try to reach a consensus of mutual understanding and respect for on another’s viewpoints.
There was little to no consensus, understanding or respect during the recent panel on gun violence held Oct. 27th, at the Wood County Public Library.
The first thing people need to understand is gun culture is deeply ingrained in many places in this country. Places like Laurel, Indiana or Bowling Green, Ohio. Many people respect guns and handle them with care, and feel they should not be punished because of the high profile instances of mass shootings highlighted in the national headlines. These people are not wrong. If they haven’t committed any crime which would prohibit them from lawfully possessing a gun, then their rights should not be unjustly impinged upon.
The question becomes one of balancing rights against public safety. Different people have different perspectives on this and it often depends on whether or not they grew up in a culture of guns. People who grew up outside of this culture need to respect it, and those who grew up inside this culture need to respect the very real concern people have for the safety of their loved ones.
Those of us who grew up with guns need to stop looking at every piece of proposed legislation on gun control as the first step in a slippery slope leading to an abolishment of the 2nd amendment. When we fail to hear out reasonable controls placed on gun ownership, we only increase the fervor of those who want to see even more stringent restrictions enforced. There are ways to increase public safety without impinging on the rights of gun owners.
One of these is through background checks. I have purchased guns in multiple states, including California, and I’ve never once felt like a background check hampered my right to own a weapon. If someone doesn’t want to get a background check before purchasing a gun, then I’m certain they shouldn’t get their hands on one. However, people also need to realize that even if every gun purchase or transfer results in a background check, there will still be gun violence. Background checks will never be able to catch everyone who shouldn’t purchase a gun.
Another is through minimum waiting periods. When I purchased my Remington 870 from a store in Indiana, I walked out in less than an hour. When I purchased my Springfield XD in California, it took 10 days after I purchased it before I was able to pick it up from the store. Did that 10 day wait period impinge on my 2nd amendment right? Of course not, it was a slight inconvenience at worst. Could that 10 day wait period save someone’s life? Possibly, if that person has time and distance from whatever emotions inspired them to commit a crime with the gun they purchased have worn off after 10 days. Here’s the real question though… Does the benefit of possibly saving someone’s life outweigh the inconvenience of a wait period? If the answer to that question is no, then we as a society need to reevaluate how we value life.
Over the summer, a man walked into a gay nightclub in Florida and committed the deadliest mass shooting in this county’s history. This sparked a furious debate over the 2nd amendment, specifically over whether or not someone on the terrorist watch list should have the right to buy a gun when they don’t have the right to fly as a passenger on a commercial airliner. This is the strangest debate over gun rights I’ve ever been exposed to and the most infuriating. Why are we bothering to fight terrorism overseas if we are going to allow terrorists to buy guns on our home turf and use those weapons against us? This type of insanity is the perfect example of inflexibility from gun rights advocates.
The only valid argument against this is that no judges are involved in the process of adding someone to the FBI terrorist watch list. But this isn’t an insurmountable obstacle. It would be a simple task for our representatives in Congress to amend the process to allow judicial oversight and the protection of civil liberties in the process.
There are many ways we can work together to create a safer society, but we also need to acknowledge that there is nothing we can do to create a perfectly safe society. In order to maintain a free society, we will always have to accept some risk. I often hear people argue for a ban on specific types of guns, such as the AR-15. People often say, “You don’t need a semi-automatic rifle and high-capacity magazines to go hunting.” This argument is based on a complete misunderstanding of the 2nd amendment, guns, and gun culture. I’ve never met anyone who used an AR-15 for hunting. It isn’t designed for hunting. It is exactly what anti-gun advocates call it; a weapon of war.
Our founding fathers wrote the 2nd amendment after fighting a long and bloody war for independence. Hunting was probably not what they had in mind when they wrote that amendment. We have a 2nd amendment right, not because our founding fathers hunted, but because they had to fight against a tyrannical government. Some people talk about this right in an almost wistful sense of dreamy ideations about overthrowing the government, which I find deeply disturbing. I experienced a civil war in Iraq and we don’t want any part of that in this country.
I’ve also heard many people say that an armed insurrection against the American military, if that day ever arose, wouldn’t stand a chance against the might of the U.S. military. For this argument I can only point to the history of insurgencies in American warfare. Rice farmers with AK-47s in Vietnam defeated us in South Vietnam. Sheppards with AK-47s nearly defeated us in Iraq before the troop surge in 2007. Those who advocate for the limitations on which types of rifles an American can buy, are directly advocating for regulations that go against the intent of our 2nd amendment.
Furthermore, nobody owes anyone an explanation for why they wish to own one type of rifle over another. I, and many other people like myself, find target shooting an enjoyable pass-time. Attempting to limit what type of gun I wish to use for target shooting is directly impinging on my rights. We don’t try and pass legislation mandating what type of car a person can own. So why do we try and do that with guns?
Both sides of the gun debate are taking more extreme positions every day. The only way we can bridge the gap and balance public safety with personal freedom, is to discard our emotions at the door and begin an earnest discussion. We need more listening, and less shouting. We need to find the middle ground.
