responsible gun ownership is a myth

a chain email popped into my inbox this morning, about a charming little old lady who packs heat so she can be afraid of nothing. i replied with some statistics showing that gun owners are 30% more likely than non-owners to die from guns, whether suicide or homicide. statistics relating gun ownership or concealed carry to crime are not so easy to find, apparently the data is not collected.

but one thing is clear to me: i've had guns (loaded? probably) pointed at me twice in my life, both by people that I am absolutely certain consider themselves "responsible gun owners". the first was by an idiot redneck who couldn't cook a steak but wanted to show he wasn't scared of any badge carrying women. the second was last month by a grieving drunken redneck who was basically just trying to say "nice to meet you".

in both cases, i would not have felt safer had i been armed. but i would have felt a lot safer if the rednecks HAD NOT been armed.

this year about five blocks from my home, a "responsible gun owner" went off his meds and waved his gun around in the drugstore that I frequently visit. he was shot dead by police shortly after.

the entirety of human history, from the slaughter of innocents at jericho and troy, to the slaughter of innocents at dresden and my lai, to the slaughter of innocents at columbine and VA tech (twice now) shows that the concept of "responsible weapon ownership" is a complete farce. it is possible that individual humans are capable of not shooting me dead, but collectively, and on average, the human race is entirely incapable of owning weapons responsibly.

i have no policy proposals (short of personal proposals like moving to a place that understands that the proliferation of tools of violence is algebraically simplifiable to the proliferation of violence itself). it is not possible to make policy when the people at the table bring their own sets of "facts" or rely on false assumptions like "responsible gun ownership".

were all gun owners responsible, we'd have peace and rainbows. and if my aunt had wheels she'd be a trolley. but easy access to weapons ensures that our noble armed overlords will continue to militarize against us, and it's hard to blame them from seeing "us" versus "them" when "us" could be waiting for "them" with a military arsenal.

i have no policy proposals, but i do propose that people question their assumptions and prioritize solutions based on facts. it is a fact that i've twice had my life clearly threatened by firearms, and it is also a fact that in neither situation was i being robbed or carjacked or kidnapped or any of the things which concealed carry people think they're going to stop with their guns. in one case I was paying my restaurant bill (and those motherfuckers got no fucking tip that day) and in the other case I was hanging out in my sister-in-law's home. i would much prefer to live in a world where I don't have loaded guns pointed at me than in a world where I have the right to point my loaded guns at other people.

and you know what? when I'm not visiting my relatives, that's exactly the world I do live in. until I run into the next "responsible gun owner" idiot who wants to have a little fun with me.