Guns Don’t Stop Guns
Anonymous (private):
Hi Kalimah,
You know I have great respect for you and what you do but I respectfully disagree with your Facebook post today. No one in the venue could have possibly de-escalated the gun fire from the 32nd floor of the hotel. Country music fans should not have the onerous guilt of feeling like there is something they could have done about this situation. We still don’t know everything about the situation and there definitely will be a good time for gun control conversations but right now is not the time for inciting divisive conversations.
My daughter is a student at XXXXXXXX and had just been at that venue the week before. She had tons of friends at the country music festival and none of them are cliche country music fans. Right now we need to support Las Vegas and come to this conversation from a place of love and compassion for each other. There are good people on both sides of this problem. We can certainly come to a reasonable solution if we work together. But if we put guilt on the conversation my concern is that we may never get to a reasonable solution. I am not pro gun. Today I am just pro-XXXXX (my amazing daughter). She loves going to music festivals and gets together with friends on the strip on a regular basis. My heart breaks for her and her friends. I was so happy to get her sobbing phone call last night at midnight because I knew she was ok.
We have to do better for our kids. You have a powerful voice. I want you to speak out on this. I want you to move this conversation forward. Right now we have to do better in our arguments for our point of view and find ways to bring people together for better working solutions. I wouldn’t have gone on so long if I didn’t think you are an amazing voice for change. You are. I just think we can move this conversation forward without tossing in cliches or putting the guilt on the victims. Thank you for listening.
My response:
Thank you for the respect, I appreciate you reaching out to me.
My post came from accounts from victims of the mass shooting that they were armed with a gun but were totally helpless, because, as you have pointed out, the terrorist was on the 32nd floor of a hotel. Reporters have also mentioned the the carnage would have ensued if it were not the smoke detector that went off because of the amount of gun fumes in the terrorist’s location.
the prevalent myth that a gun will stop a gun — is exactly that — a myth
Thus the prevalent myth that a gun will stop a gun — is exactly that — a myth, and that only intelligence can counter intelligence, because as we have seen in wars and in mass shootings, if the other party executes on a planned assault, there is very little that those being ambushed can do. However, this is what the NRA uses to defend gun rights as well as other myths that more guns will solve the problem when the reality is that gun ownership is a part of White Anglo-Saxon American culture more so than any other group in this country, and most of the attachment to gun ownership is exactly that, a cultural attachment that forms a part of white identity and white pride to mask white fragility and protect white privilege. This is white supremacy.
Now, I have friends of mine that are White and awesome people, just as I have friends of all backgrounds and creeds who belong to my community, my village, but common sense gun legislation is repressed in this country because of this longing and belonging psychology that is deeply cultural within this country when the logic is defied by common sense. Guns don’t stop guns.
So I do come to this conversation as a public figure and also from a place of love and compassion for each other, but I also know what it is to grow up amongst gun violence (my first love — my wife was shot and killed, my baby brother was shot and killed), and that the privilege of some victims to retreat to their suburbs or rural communities and then dictate that others not guarantee their safety, through legislation, through policies, from a gun obsessed culture is the issue that I raise and will continue to raise this (gun safety) issue because it involves children, not my own children, but everyone’s child.
That is the difference.
I am thinking of Columbine and Sandy Hook and the numerous times youth are gunned down because we have decided to put politics and the NRA’s influence on our government before common sense decency and humanity. As a Buddhist, as an American entrepreneur, as both a child of immigrants and the US foster care system, I can not in good conscious allow another child, another civil rights leader, another US president, another teacher, another protest activist, another police officer, another pregnant mother, another boy, girl, trans-youth, or queer soul to become a victim and I not recognize the injustice and speak out against it.
It’s our system, our injustice, and I will not wait until the dust clears, because I have been choking on this dust all my life, and it’s time for all of us to breathe better and live our lives without fear — fear that can be intervened against.
Thank you again for reaching out to me and I hope you and your family are well and that you can understand my position that i am thinking of everyone’s child as I have always been and always will.
