Sickness Unto Death

America’s diseased relationship with firearms prompts us to reconsider many things, including our ideas of obscenity and fetishism and to seek a redefinition of mental illness and cultural delusion. Defining the “problem with guns” get us from a place of confusion and doubt. We need a working diagnosis and a rigorous treatment plan if we hope to recover. The dogma, denial and delusion we are subjected to sufficiently clouds our thinking to the point of despair. It is nearly impossible to understand the pathology in all of its subtlety. The patient-our civil society- is in critical condition.

Nonsense phrases and chop logic does not help. We are subjected to stupidities like “good guys with guns”, “hardened targets” and ” mental illness ” as we scramble to understand. What we are loathe to confront is the complexity and malevolence of America’s gun disease. Guns have become a fetish and GUNLOVE has become so normalized that we fail to understand its crippling insanity. The idea of the fetish is not the common one with sexual overtones only but also, it is the belief that a gun is, “an object believed to possess magical powers to protect.” We fail to appreciate the destructive power of firearms. Many gun owners have justified their ownership of their arsenals to the point that assault rifles are objects of ornamentation, accessories to be worn as an indication of their personal power and control. Guns are a part of one’s outfit and they appear on our streets and in family photographs.

The myth that guns will protect you is a powerful one. Many own guns because of the same thinking that motivates one to stockpile toilet paper or food staples…because of the sense that these items will be needed and that they will provide protection against horrible outcomes. No one wants a dirty bum or the pangs of hunger so stockpiling is justified. Defense against a takeover by government, the attacks of criminal elements or constraints on individual freedom are just a few justifications for arming oneself to the teeth.

Guns do not often protect us. A co-worker of mine once told me that she bought a 9mm automatic pistol for “personal protection.” when I asked her where she kept it she informed me that it was in the trunk of her car in a locked case – rapid response -effective protection – was impossible. She agreed, but said, “I feel better knowing that it’s there.” What gun owner will stand up to a bad government (as referenced in the second amendment) that is armed with switchblade drones and heavy armor? None. How often have gun owners inadvertently armed their attackers?

The patient – The United States – is critically ill from an overdose of GUNLOVE. We need a full range of treatment for survival. All treatment modalities need to be explored from gun buybacks, assault weapons bans, background checks to a new constitutional amendment have to be real possibilities or we will lose the patient. As Eliot Spitzer said succinctly, “Yes, people pull the trigger -but guns are the instrument of death. Gun control is necessary, and delay means more death and horror.”

We have placed these issues largely in the hands of the nation’s senior leadership and they must act. STAT. If we don’t upgrade our healthy interventions we will drown in a sea of blood.

The next time a I hear a series of loud pops I hope it is not the sound signature of an automatic weapon but the sound that results form our leaders collectively pulling their heads out of their asses. We must put an end to the obscenity of GUNLOVE.

The patient may yet survive.