Dare to disarm
Envisioning a gun-free future for our species
Every time a mass shooting happens in the USA, our elected representatives offer the same predictable responses. Assuming the shooter was a white man, which is the usual case, Republicans call for “thoughts and prayers” and more awareness of mental health. Democrats call for “sensible gun control”. Nearly all emphasize their support of the Second Amendment, which granted US-Americans the right to bear arms.
Aside from questioning whether the drafters of the Second Amendment actually intended to create a right of individual gun ownership, I’m not interested in slavishly adhering to a Constitution and Bill of Rights that was written over two hundred years ago, by and for the benefit of straight white cisgender male landowners. But as long as Congress members are in the pocket of the NRA — an organization whose leader issued the infantile mantra “To stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun” — true reform is unlikely to occur.
Regardless, from my perspective as a pacifist, reforming gun laws is not enough. I don’t want guns “controlled”, I want them gone. All of them. Not just semi-automatic or “assault weapons” (an ambiguous term), but every single firearm that was designed for the express purpose of killing another human being.
