Guns and Me

The horrific shooting attack at Virginia Tech prompts me to write about guns, trying out the new approach here of bringing in my life experiences.

I was born on the brink of the Second World War, and when I was old enough to go off on my own with the neighborhood boys, we played war in the “woods” [actually an overgrown empty lot]. One boy had a dummy M1 rifle, the kind used for marching in parades. He was kind enough to give us turns using it, the non-users having to make do with pieces of lumber carved to look somewhat like a rifle. We would dig a foxhole to hide from the enemy and roast marshmallows between popping up and shooting attackers. The dirt clods from the hole made great hand grenades which exploded when we bounced them off trees.

Cowboys and Indians was another popular game, spurred on [pun intended] by early TV shows. My favorite was “The Lone Ranger”. I loved the mystery of his life, the super hero who lived a monastic life of personal anonymity, leaving only a silver bullet as a souvenir for the heroine. His “faithful Indian companion” Tonto has been ridiculed as a sycophant, but to me he seemed a super competent co-hero, restrained in his social actions only by the prejudice of the world in which he lived. Growing up in a black neighborhood before the civil rights era, I saw the parallels. The Lone Ranger also fit in with the Catholicism I learned at school. Because he was such a good shot, it was never necessary for him to kill or even wound a desperado; his bullets would just hit the gun in their hand, stinging the villain into dropping it. To my great surprise, my request for a Lone Ranger gun and holster as a birthday present was honored, but it was so beautiful, I don’t think I ever played with it outdoors, and I do not recall ever matching the generosity of the M1 owner and letting any friends play with it.

Guns disappeared as girls were discovered. Then in teenage years, I started eyeing the BB gun my step-dad employed to scare birds from his garden. After a little target practice to learn its quirks, I decided to shoot at a live target, a Robin perching on the back fence. I heard the pellet hit the back of the bird and saw him react and then hesitate. As I waited for the bird to fall dead from the fence, a terrible feeling grabbed my gut and I felt like a total jerk. Fortunately, the gun was so weak the Robin quickly shook it off and then flew away, and I never touched the stupid gun again.

ROTC was mandatory the first two years of my college days. We marched with dummy rifles, but I don’t remember going to a firing range to shoot real ones. My only firing range experience was in Air Force basic training. I was one of only two guys that got an extra series of shots - because we shot so poorly the first time, we did not qualify. I had misunderstood which target was mine and fired all my first series at the target of the man next to me, who likely qualified as a sharpshooter thanks to my help.

Guns were not common on the streets when I grew up. I only heard gunshots one time, at a nightclub which a friend and I entered just in time to hear a gun discharged, followed swiftly by a mass exodus, which we eagerly joined. Teenage gangs of the day used knives and also weapons for hitting. There was talk of homemade “zip guns”, but I never saw one. In fact, a lot of gang talk was probably just that - talk - and strutting around in gang jackets.

I never felt the need to have a gun for self-defense or to protect my home and family. In fact, once I had a family, my greatest security was knowing I had no guns around which could injure my kids. As a lawyer I was aware of my second amendment right to bear arms, and as an opponent of the war in Vietnam, I disagreed with what my government was doing, but in view of the nuclear capability of Uncle Sam and mindful of my feeble Robin attack and errant firing range experience, I did not consider armed rebellion.

Genealogical research led me to a German immigrant ancestor who came to America before 1840 and settled in Tennessee. He was a jeweler and gunsmith and had a contract to supply weapons to the Confederacy. His son grew up around guns and was an adept shooter, enlisting for the South at 16 and surviving the War to become the second Mayor of Hot Springs, Arkansas. I’m reading a book about his time there in the 1880s, when gambling, crime and corruption were rampant. The City actually had a ban against carrying weapons in public, but the penalty was only a token fine. Local juries almost always acquitted everyone involved in shootings, on grounds of self-defense. Innocent bystander victims were regretted, but ignored as to recourse. My ancestor must have tired of the “Hot Springs Gunsmoke”, as the book is entitled, because he soon moved to Chicago, where he died peacefully.

When Michael Moore dialogued with Charlton Heston in “Bowling for Columbine”, I think he elicited the truth as to why so many white Americans historically have vehemently asserted their right to bear arms. It is rooted in the days of enslavement in America, when minority white populations lived in fear of a revolt by greater numbers of blacks, and guns were the white equalizing defense.

The second amendment was intended to protect Americans from a potentially oppressive government. The need for armed revolution is no longer likely, nor would paramilitary conflict be a realistic way to address such a problem. The amendment should be changed to say that neither the Federal government nor the States can make any law interfering with the right of the people to have their governments regulate weapons. Then the process of regulating guns and other weaponry for the public safety could proceed without having to contend with an archaic constitutional concern. The new amendment also might include a provision requiring a significant portion of our armed services to be composed of draftees, which would provide a more likely and capable group to oppose government oppression, thereby keeping government better in check. Congress would have been much less likely to enable the Bush invasion of Iraq if the lives of draftees had been involved.