We Need Gun Reform. Before it’s too late — again
By: Alaina Ruth
Tags: Gun Violence, Culture, Gun Control, Society, Guns

We Need Gun Reform

Photo by Jose Alonso on Unsplash

The culture I grew up in is so pro-gun, kids get a day off from school for the opening day of hunting season and not Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t own, at the very least, a hunting rifle. Gun safety classes are taught to kids on the weekends and kids participate in youth hunts. For my family, venison, the meat from deer, was a cheap source of protein. Hunting season has started in Northern Michigan, my home and the home of the much sought after white-tailed deer, on November 15th. Everyone has stocked up on beer, snacks, and bullets to take out to camp to try and bag the biggest buck.

Even with this inundation of guns and hunting, I couldn’t get comfortable around guns. Being near them gives me a nauseated feeling. I’ve tried to get comfortable with them. I can properly load and shoot a gun. I’ve shot skeet (terribly) when my husband was trying to find something fun for us to do together. Usually, I want to cry after the first explosive pop of the rifle. I can feel the gun’s power to harm, and to kill. I’m not comfortable with that kind of power.

I also came of age during Columbine, when overnight, going to school became scary. The image of two boys in long black trench coats and carrying guns is etched into my brain. Then I was in my first year of college when the Virginia Tech shooting occurred. I wondered if it could happen on my campus. It could have. As one teacher observed, “ we have an armed campus,” on the opening day of hunting season when students went to security to check their guns out of storage. I don’t remember thinking there might be a problem with this, but I never participated in hunting. Maybe these instances of violence fueled my revulsion for guns even as everyone around me was pro-gun.

Every hunting season, we wait. Not only for our family members to come back from camp either jubilant over the spilling of blood or resigned to get that buck next year, but we also wait for the news that someone has been hurt or killed. It’s usually an out-of-towner who never handles a gun except for this one time of year and usually, it’s an accident. A bullet was left in the chamber. The safety wasn’t on. Someone wasn’t wearing the appropriate hunting blaze orange and was mistaken for a deer. One year, a stray bullet got way too close to my grandmother after a neighbor rented out his land to out-of-town hunters. Scared, she stayed inside for the rest of hunting season, but never questioned who should have a gun.

We, my family, friends, literally anyone I know in my small rural town, live with this uncertainty, never questioning it and then getting angry over any proposed gun control. I think it’s a sign of how immune we are to gun violence. America has the 28th highest rate of deaths by guns, much higher than most developed countries. Even after Sandy Hook, when children ages 6 to 7 were killed by a 20-year-old (I would argue another child), in 2012, we did nothing. Obama recently spoke out about how it was the saddest and angriest day of his presidency when the gun control legislation that resulted from Sandy Hook didn’t pass. It should have been a sad and angry day for everyone in America.

Years have passed since Sandy Hook and gun sales are increasing. The New York Times recently published an article on the trend. And it isn’t just Republicans purchasing guns. It’s everyone. Gun sellers have reported selling more guns to women, Black people, and first-time gun owners this year.

“American’s bought 15.1 million guns in the seven months this year from March through September, a 91% leap from the same period in 2019.”

People are scared and trying to find some sort of control in a year where our worlds were turned upside down by COVID-19, social upheaval, and climate change. Another fearful statistic: some cities within the country have recorded increases in domestic violence up to 35% higher since the COVID-19 pandemic began. So what happens when more angry men have guns in their hands?