To The Gun Lovers: Here's Why I Won't Stand With You Confronting White Supremacists If I Know You're Carrying Concealed

Mourners after the El Paso shooting targeting Latinx people according to the shooter's manifesto. Photo credit: DNYUZ

I live in Maine's 2nd district, now represented by a gun-loving combat veteran who I predict will do nothing to respond to the three mass shootings last week in the USA.

(Note: I do not count offering "thoughts and prayers" as doing anything.)

Rep. Jared Golden has his staff write back to me about gun control saying that my neighbors, his constituents, don't want it, and that he went to Congress to represent them. How much the corruption riddled NRA has to do with his position will remain a sore subject with liberals scrambling to defend Democrat Golden because he replaced the odious GOP incumbent.

Recently I got involved in a group on social media committed to standing up to anti-immigrant white supremacists here in Maine. A friend of a friend started a public group and it burgeoned quickly into a group with several angry-sounding males expounding the virtues of gun ownership and use. It wasn't taken kindly when I commented that I would not be joining in where guns were present to witness and document white supremacist activity, or to defend neighbors being snitched on to ICE storm troopers.

Apparently I am an old white boomer (redundant with old) whose privilege has protected me from violence and who doesn't understand. The fact that I am a woman and thus a default target of violence from childhood doesn't seem to occur to them.

My clearly stated objection -- that the probability of injury to everyone goes up significantly when loaded guns are present -- was mocked as "guns are icky" by the young men.

The group appeared to lack moderation and focus. Debate over strategy and/or tactics among activists who share a goal can be divisive, especially if conducted in public, so I left. I continued to think about and talk about the issue while absorbing news of three mass shootings by angry young white men in a week: Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton.

Here's one acquaintance's report on the Dayton shooter:

I don't know the shooters but I do know how they grew up: in a society steeped in violent images, with the opportunity to spend hundreds of hours pretending to shoot people on screens in order to "win." They also grew up surrounded by gun shops, gun shows, and heavy propaganda glorifying the death machine that is the U.S. military.

The Dayton shooter killed his own sister and 8 other people.

As reported in Heavy.com:

Betts was in ROTC in high school. A Dayton local newspaper purchased a social media background check on him that revealed he used words and phrases like “All Shall Be Annihilated,” “Bloodlust,” “Absolute Carnage,” and “Bloody Massacre.” 

According to a press conference given by Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl, the weapon Betts used on Sunday morning was obtained legally. “The rifle was ordered online from Texas and transferred at an area firearms dealer,” said Biehl.

Many blame the demagogue with bad hair for hate language inciting the angry young white men of the USA, and its quite likely that his rhetoric is a factor.

But the violence that plagues us began long before he was "elected" to "lead" us.

Other countries similar to ours -- founded on attempted genocide of the indigenous people -- have achieved gun control effectively and drastically reduced the incidence of mass shootings: Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Eric Garner being choked to death by armed police on Staten Island five years ago this week. They didn't use guns to kill him for selling loose cigarettes on the street, but they were emboldened by being heavily armed. Image credit: Wikipedia

Black and brown people in the USA continue to suffer extreme levels of violence from the trained and licensed gun-toting police, many of whom are clearly white supremacists hiding behind a badge and a uniform. (Many people of color believe carrying a gun will protect them, too; but it did not protect Philando Castile.)

I say disarm police, also.

I lived in Tokyo for four years and police did not carry guns. In the U.S. even "school resource officers" aka uniformed police carry guns. And they are often quite violent with students of color, and useless when a mass shooting is underway.

I say disarm combat veterans, also.

It will reduce the chances for them to shoot themselves or their families when experiencing PTSD symptoms that make them want to end it all.

These are short term solutions (that will not be used here in the gun-crazed USA). Long term solution for toxic gun culture? It might be to reduce the ratio of males to females significantly.

Could a Congress full of women like those of The Squad, i.e. not having clawed their way to the top of a system of violent patriarchy, pass meaningful gun control laws? 

Could an army of women who've had it with gun violence and were in charge of governance buy back a large portion of guns now in circulation? I think they could.