The slaughter in Las Vegas has brought America fully a-Twitter once more. All the mindless rhetoric on both sides of the aisle rose as predictably as the morning sun.
“Our thoughts and prayers …”
“No one needs an automatic weapon for hunting.”
“This is not the time or place to talk about it.”
Suckers for a good PR gesture applauded the NRA’s pitiful concession to the tenor of the times. They will “consider” firmer regulations of so-called bump stocks, which turn a needlessly deadly semi-automatic military gun into a needlessly deadlier automatic military gun. Even the more reasonable and familiar calls for gun control always — always — require an accompanying bona fide of “I am a gun owner,” as if one may not object to mass murder unless also packing heat.
Much of the post-carnage debate centers on arcane arguments about the Second Amendment. But the deepest issue here is not about the right to bear arms, however much I and others would love to see a repeal of the Second Amendment or at least a different Scotus interpretation.
The deeper issue is the unique American insistence on the right to use arms. Owning is one thing — the attitude that leads to shooting other humans is another. I have often written about gun control and had my life threatened. I watch NRA fanatics at rallies with bandoleers and semi-automatic weapons, their fingers nearly twitching in anticipation.
So I find myself in the odd and uncomfortable position of conceding that gun control probably won’t do a thing. It can’t hurt either, so have at it you few courageous lawmakers who want to give it a try. But the real problem that no one is talking about is the problem of men.
We have a man problem in America, not just a gun problem.
Men like Harvey Weinstein and less notorious tech wizards in Silicone Valley accumulate power and wealth while insiders wink and nod at their serial abuse of women. Our president brags about grabbing women’s private parts and half the country says, “Boys will be boys. Just locker room talk.” Boys date-rape girls in frat houses and men beat their wives. Men shoot strangers who change lanes carelessly on the highway. Boys raised on violent video games become numb to death. We have a national fascination with men (and some women) brutally assaulting each other in mixed martial arts. We call it “sport” in America.
Yes, yes, I know … not all kids who play Grand Theft Auto turn into terrorists. Not all frat boys rape their dates. Not all MMA fans abuse their wives or neighbors. But the cultural milieu in America is that men feel entitled, perhaps obligated, to take matters into their own hands even if they merely feel aggrieved. The rugged individualist is the American male ideal. I grew up with cowboy heroes who administered their own doses of deadly justice. I played sports and learned to hit back. In Army basic training, I learned that our personal responsibility was to render any misfit unconscious before dragging him to company headquarters.
America celebrates a violent football culture. The president thinks we should be more brutal. An incessant drone from the NRA and its supporters aggressively insists on our right to defend ourselves, even when there is scant evidence of anything to defend against.
Most of us navigate this social reality without shooting anyone, including ourselves. (The male “suicide by gun” rate is tragic and growing.) But when life circumstances leave some men with a crippling sense of inadequacy or a profound sense of injustice, they don’t seek counseling or mediation. They get even, as they have learned to do explicitly and implicitly through a lifetime of images, admonitions and admirations.
America is awash in guns. We all know that we have enough guns to put one in every pot with the chicken — more than 300 million guns. But imagine all these guns with no men. Women aren’t conditioned to hit back or encouraged to drag colleagues to the boss unconscious. Women don’t sexually assault their classmates or swagger into the local bar, church, big-box store or school with a rifle slung over the shoulder or a pistol on the hip.
Men are responsible for 98 percent of mass killings. Let’s talk about that.
Steve Nelson lives in Boulder, Colo., and Sharon. He can be reached at stevehutnelson@gmail.com.