The current debate about “gun control” in America isn’t
really about controlling guns. On the surface, we use the language of control,
sure, but the discussion is finally moving beyond merely limiting the sale of certain
rounds of ammunition or certain types of weapons and moving on to wrestle with
a definition for gun ownership in 21st Century – post revolutionary
– America. Like every other challenge we face, finding that definition requires
us to let go of the past and face the future – a future that looks very
uncertain and very scary. And that’s the problem. America is afraid.
In the 1700s, the United States had no standing army. Armies
were raised on an “as needed” basis, mostly from volunteers who were expected
to supply their own weapons. True citizen soldiers, men who responded for military
service fought until the issues were settled, then returned home to plow or
feed the chickens or tend their store. They served our forebears well.
Before the American Civil War, an American farmer with a
good hunting rifle was as well-equipped as any regular troop from any army in
the world. Together they formed that “well-armed militia” referenced in the
Second Amendment and they were the nation’s only source of security against
unrest from within and armed attack from without. That’s why the Second
Amendment was added to the Constitution, to protect the right of citizens to “keep
and bear arms” – because the nation depended on well-armed individual citizens
for its defense. They were the army.
Today, that is no longer the case. Now we have a standing,
well-trained, full-time army. Defense of the nation no longer rests on a
“well-armed” citizen militia. But the myth of the American Minuteman lives on
and the notion of unlimited individual gun ownership has morphed into a
principle seen by many as the “bedrock of all liberties,” the foundation upon
which all freedom stands – suggesting that so long as we own our own weapons we
will one day have the means of leading an armed defense against terrorists from
abroad, or an armed revolt against the tyranny of politicians in Washington, DC.
One look inside a Stryker vehicle or an M1 tank would quickly disabuse you of
that notion. The citizen soldier is no longer our primary means of defense. It’s
time for our national firearms policy to leave the past and catch up with the age
in which we live – a highly mobile, exceedingly urban, media-influenced, violence-prone
age.
Think about this for perspective – there was a day when
those who worked on cattle ranches needed to perfect the skill of breaking and
training horses. Horses were their means of transportation and a vital tool for
the cowboy trade. Over time, certain cowboys developed a knack for riding rank unbroken
stallions. Today, ranching has changed and horses aren’t used much. Traditional
cowboys are all but gone from the West. Horsemanship has become a hobby. But
the art of riding unbroken stallions lives on in rodeos held all across the
country. What once was a vital work skill has now become sport.
The same thing happened with hunting. Killing wild game was
once essential for survival. In centuries past, it was the settler’s primary,
and many times only, source of animal protein. Now, except in remote areas like
Alaska and northern Canada, hunting is no long essential for survival. Yet the
practice lives on as a sport. And so it is with the citizen soldier – long
since eliminated as a factor in national defense policy, but lingering now in
the American gun owner.
This argument we’re having about gun ownership isn’t about the
need for a “well-armed militia,” or the notion that our freedom rests on access
to the means of armed rebellion. And it’s not about taking away all firearms –
no one wants to take away hunting rifles and shotguns, and not many want to limit
the use of handguns. The argument is about something far scarier than that.
It’s about coping with life in a rapidly changing world and grappling with a
future – a very uncertain future – that’s rushing toward us at an incredible
speed. We no longer live in the Minuteman age. We live in the age of Now and it’s
time we addressed the real problems we face rather than struggling to hold on to
the past.
