A Different Take on America’s Mass Violence Problem

What is it that triggers evil in the heart of man?

A couple days after the mass shooting at Uvalde I took a step away from the gun debate. I couldn’t read about it. I couldn’t think about it. I couldn’t write about it. It was just too much.

The photos of the kids dying and the politicians posturing had made me ill. I retreated into a no-gun-talk bubble and was much happier.

Three weeks later, an article jabbed below my defenses, and I took the bait. Inside was a link to a YouTube video of parents wailing while being physically restrained by police. At that moment, their children were either soon to be shot, were bleeding out, or were already mangled beyond recognition.

This was Uvalde.

Texas police, deputies of the Lone Star state, were stopping parents from trying to save their children.

My heart was pounding (and it still does every time I re-read this section). We all have our personal triggers, and this is one of mine. My brother was shot in the neck by a fifteen-year-old with a 40-caliber pistol.

For two years after that day, I practiced. In every drill in my martial arts school I saw my brother next to me with the gunman in front of us both.

A grab to the wrist paired with a thrust to the nose. Two hands on the wrist, a twist, and a blow to the elbow. A capture of the arm, and a hip throw to the ground.

However I could, I was taking that gun and dropping that attacker.

My sparring style shifted, too. Rather than patiently stalking, looking for the proper opening, I became wanton, reckless. Unless I could take down my opponent in two seconds, my brother or my children would be shot dead.

More than once, my master shook his head and cautioned me to be more patient. Though I took some blows harder than I had in years, I consoled myself by saying that more often than not I had gotten to my opponent before they got to my family.

While police stopped the parents, fellow officers left the children — some bleeding out, some soon to be shot — locked in a room with a shooter for 30 minutes.

Hours after watching that Uvalde video, I was still shaking.

How can those officers ever sleep at night?

Having fallen prey to a gun violence story again, the algorithms teased me with another. This one was from a classically conservative writer, Jeff Hilles.

I peeked, curious as to what they had to say. The perspective was mildly surprising:

Guns are so prevalent in America that we have habituated to their presence… and so the natural weapon of defence (sic), also becomes the natural weapon of offence (sic).

The author writes about Christianity and the challenge of living a good life in the modern world. I had expected him to defend gun ownership as a pillar of freedom in America while condemning sin in the heart of any killer.

His discussion portrayed gun violence as a significant evil that needed confronting. It would never be stopped completely, nor by any one effort, but it was important enough for Americans to at least try. He suggested multiple methods, both those typically deemed conservative and liberal.

The use of the word “offence” rather than “offense” was likely a typo, the sort that we all make. But it may also have been a subconscious malapropism.

His line of reasoning suggested that it was possible the prevalence of so many guns in America has shaped the way Americans think about responding to the world. How easy it has become for us to take offence and to feel the need to go on the offensive.

Guns had become “the natural weapon of offence.”

It is an intriguing thought.

Common wisdom among my family argues that evil will always be with humans, that violence is natural and even necessary when channeled properly, and that the Founding Fathers demanded Americans remain well-armed with guns to protect against a predatory government.

The author’s comments went far further than I would have expected.

They suggested that Americans might be behaving differently as a result of the nature of a tool (guns) that had become so prevalent in our society.

Could that possibly be true?

There is a famous statement attributed to Winston Churchill, Marshall McLuhan, and others that goes something like

We humans shape our tools, and then the tools shape us humans.

In recent decades scientists have further argued that tools came first, before the appearance of the human species. For those disturbed by the concept of evolution, it can be easier to accept the simpler fact that tools have been re-shaping human society for thousands of years: brass, bronze, iron, steel, the wheel, the train, the car, the telephone, the internet,…

Tools created humans.

The idea postulated by some is that the innovative tool of the sling (adopted by early human mothers to carry their babies) allowed for humans to remain helpless for months outside of the womb so the human brain could continue growing. A tool allowed humans to become smarter than other animals.

The innovation of cutting tools facilitated smaller more nimble fingernails. Stone tools to cut meat led to narrower jaws better able to use language. The use of a wide array of tools shaped the social environment so thoroughly that a smaller, less aggressive, more social creature called “Homo sapien” or “Man” could come into being.

If rudimentary tools could literally pave the way for humans, then it is no surprise the internet is changing us.

Just about everyone has accepted the idea that modern society is being deeply shaped by our latest tools: the internet, mobile phones, and social media. Almost all feel the immense impact on how humans organize and how we see the world.

Hardly a day goes by that we don’t hear people talk about these changes:

In Turkle’s best seller, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other. In analysis from top universities: “Social media has been blamed for teen mental health problems but has also provided a lifeline for millions during the pandemic.” In daily talk shows. In conversations among friends.

There is little doubt. Americans agree that our tools shape our world.

Numbering almost 400 million, guns are one of the most ubiquitous complex tool in America today.

America has more guns than cars. More guns than smartphones, tablets, desktops, and laptop computers. More guns than electric can openers, microwaves, and toaster ovens.

A 2020 Gallup Survey found 44% of American households had a gun. In 2015 about 10 million Americans reported carrying a gun on their person on a monthly basis.

Over 39 million firearm background checks were made against the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) in 2020. 25 million more than in 2010.

Not quite 1 in every 2 households in America have a gun. About 1 in 25 adult American civilians commonly carry a gun. 1 in 22 American teens aged 12 to 17 report having carried a gun in the last year.

Guns have taken on a deeply revered status in American culture.

In 1967 California Governor Ronald Reagan signed the Mulford Bill days after armed Black Panthers entered the statehouse. It was the first California law to require citizens to obtain a license in order to carry a gun in public. Similar gun control laws were soon passed across America.

55 years later, those gun control laws have been overturned. Today, only five states do not allow the open carry of firearms.

In 1982 the movie Rambo captured the American imagination, celebrating the lone American hero with a gun and spurring on Rambo II and Rambo III soon after. Thirty years later, the hero Rambo still inspired admirers at the 2011 Long Beach Comic Convention.

At the 2022 Family Camp Meeting on June 8, a couple weeks after the Uvalde shooting, US Representative Lauren Boebert delivered a well-received address, declaring that,

“Jesus did not have enough AR-15’s to keep his government from killing him.”

The 18-year-old Uvalde shooter acquired at least one of his guns from Daniel Defense, a patriotic American gun manufacturer.

At the time of the Uvalde shooting, Daniel Defense was running the following Twitter ad.

In this advertisement (on the left above) we see a toddler cradling a military-style weapon. We notice an adult’s stern finger pointing towards the gun, demanding this “rascal” child come to know and honor the weapon.

Most Christian viewers will understand the clear comparison to the thousands of paintings and statues of Mary, Mother of God, cradling the body of her crucified son, Jesus. They are commonly called a Pietà, literally “the pity.”

Daniel Defense: Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. — Proverbs 22:6, Old Testament (American Standard Version Bible)

With the proper training, presumably, the child will know guns and give them a respect similar to that given to the Lord, Jesus Christ.

The message could not be any more explicit:

Millions of Americans believe that we must train our young children to know and honor the modern gun — as something special, something that should be relied upon, as a savior in dark times.

Faith in guns has become a central pillar in the psyches of millions of modern Americans.

We can’t deny it.

The modern gun is deeply impacting the American psyche.

Sure, people can make “chicken and egg” assertions. They can say that the world is so dangerous that they have to go get big guns to protect their families…to feel safe.

Fine.

I’m not trying the least bit to counter that argument.

Whatever the justification, this powerful tool — the modern gun, something quite different than the revolver or lever-action rifle of cowboy America fame — has re-shaped the American mind.

The modern gun has made us a different people in a mere generation or two.

Boom!

The modern gun has transformed Americans.

Modern guns have remade the very image of Americans:

Every champion deserves a firearm with a capacity to win. This out-of-the-box competition powerhouse will turn heads…delivers rapid hits on target with its light, short pull and quick reset…allows for shorter split times, more precise follow-up shots, and reduced fatigue. — DDM4®V7® PRO GUN METAL GRAY

Ending there would be appropriate. Some Americans would call me a hater, and I could leave it at that.

Instead, I’d like to end quite differently with this thought:

If Americans have been re-made in less than two generations, then there is HOPE for more change.

Hope. If we have changed ourselves, or allowed ourselves to be changed, then we can keep on changing.

The author Anastasia Frugaard recently talked about their time in a different country, a country considered one of the friendliest in the world:

What started out as a painful experience ended up creating some of the warmest memories of my life. No doubt that taking this daily time to build and strengthen a community, even in your workspace, is a big part of why [some countries] are just more relaxed about life.

I sincerely believe that we can find hope in these dark moments in America.

However, it takes some effort. We have to believe that things can get better. We have to want for things to get better. And we have to take action to make things better.

What makes Micelangelo’s Pietà most special is Mary’s face.

We see a mother cradling a son who had recently been murdered by the whim of his society, Rome.

Rather than showing the pain, the sadness, and the despair of a parent, this rendition of Mary shows a serenity.

In it we can find a sliver of hope for our society, too.

Hope for America.

Please follow J. Andrew Shelley to read more. Let’s experiment with better ways to help our world.

Be well