Revisionist History Season 8: What Americans Get Wrong About Gun Culture

In a week, my favorite podcast returns. Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell has never failed to enthrall, entertain, and educate. I have read all of Gladwell’s books and find him to be an excellent writer and reporter.

The Revisionist History podcast will begin its next season with a six part series on gun violence. I have tremendous respect for Gladwell and his team for taking on this controversial and sobering subject.

Before this gun series launces for the public, I must communicate my own perspective on the matter.

Whenever the issue of gun violence is mentioned, I invariably find a way to bring up the fact that the majority of gun deaths are suicides.

This seems to be one of the most underreported and underacknowledged facts about life in America. We aren’t killing each other nearly at the rate in which we are killing ourselves.

The issue of gun control is one of the most controversial topics in the United States of America. I can’t think of a subject more divisive and more likely to cause bitterness between those who disagree.

We are caught between the vices of cowboy culture and social disconnection.

I took a trip to New York City recently and was struck by how many people shared the sidewalks and street corners to get to and from their destinations, without really seeing each other. We can live our lives in crowds but feel very lonely. We can reach out to virtually whomever we like with the convenience of social media, yet social media has done more to make people feel isolated and disconnected than perhaps any other modern convenience.

It seems we don’t see ourselves as part of a tribe in this nation, until tragedy strikes. We become united in our cowboy culture and fight back, however we may need to work on being more forgiving.

The common denominator in gun violence is its lack of forgiveness. The gun is an unforgiving thing. It rips through flesh and bone without a moments hesitation. It doesn’t care how precious the human or how valuable their experiences.

People who turn guns on others do so with the intent of dominating a situation. It isn’t an act of kindness or generosity. It is meant to draw a definitive line.

This is the same energy behind the action of turning a gun on oneself. It is a way of having the final word. We’re either refusing to forgive ourselves or someone else when we commit suicide. Its a decision to no longer be a burden or to burden someone else with guilt. There’s no more room for negotiation or grace.

Many people who commit suicide due so when they are intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. The gun doesn’t hesitate, hoping the wielder will see things differently when they sober up. A certain amount of pressure on the trigger of the device causes a bullet to fire at a speed meant to dismember whatever it touches. That is all.

Guns offer a very cold solution to problems that derive from warm, soft, complex humans. The methodology of guns is incompatible with who are.

The term “this too shall pass” has no meaning when a gun is fired. The passing of time that will invariably change one’s perspective does not matter. Many people who attempt suicide and fail look back with gratitude. Painful moments don’t last forever. Our perspectives change even if our circumstances don’t. The action of the gun is too quick to process this truth.

Many people say that guns don’t kill people, that “people kill people.” I would argue that guns make it way too easy for people to kill people and this is inherently problematic. The outcome of a gunshot is too swift. We need more time to handle problems than guns allow.

A world without guns is a better place. We may have come too far in our cowboy culture to completely eradicate them, however we can take our time and dismantle the culture that promotes them.

Guns can indeed be used as an effective tool. Hunters use these weapons to provide meals for their families. While this may be the intention, far too many people find ways to turn these weapons on other people or themselves.

There is no quick solution to this problem, however we have to take a long look at the truth of the problem before a fruitful conversation can be had about solving it.

I am grateful that Malcolm Gladwell is making this attempt, and am looking forward to hearing his findings.

References

Rich, John A., et al. “How combinations of state firearm laws link to low firearm suicide and homicide rates: A configurational analysis.” Preventive medicine 165 (2022): 107262.

Sacks, Chana A., and Stephen J. Bartels. “Reconsidering risks of gun ownership and suicide in unprecedented times.” New England journal of medicine 382.23 (2020): 2259–2260.

Most firearm deaths are suicides

In 2021, 54% of firearm deaths in the US were suicides.

Published Tue, June 13, 2023

by USAFacts Team

https://usafacts.org/data-projects/firearms-suicides