The NRA Took My Baby Away

“Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.””
         - Mathew 26:50b-52

Watching the NRA exhort the faithful to arms has been mildly amusing. At their annual rally the leadership claimed that the Obama administration has not only chosen to politicize gun ownership but wage a cultural war against American values.

Owning a firearm, we are told, is inseparable from being an American; it is a part of the national fiber. To even suggest that guns need to be subjected to greater oversight smacks of heterodoxy, even sacrilege. In any case, it is thoroughly un-American.

The NRA definitely takes the cake for being the master of spin. Contrary to the organization’s claims, the Obama administration has never insinuated that it is going to outlaw gun ownership. Though the administration does support firmer gun controls, the changes it proposes are so slight and commonsensical that to raise the alarm of cultural warfare makes the boy who cried wolf look like a Cassandra.

Attempts to take high-capacity gun magazines off the market and adopt background checks for gun purchasers are characteristic of the administration’s proposals. If guns really are for self-defense as the NRA claims then these measures should, if anything, appeal to gun supporters. After all, if guns really are needed to protect people then why would you want them getting into the hands of the very people they are meant to defend against, an occurrence which background checks would help limit at the most basic level.

What is most laughable, however, about the NRA’s critique of those seeking these benign and, quite frankly, watered-down measures is their claim that Obama and his colleagues are “politicizing” the issue of gun ownership.

One should note that the NRA is a political lobbying group which rallies for political measures through political channels, using funds contributed by political supporters. In other words, the very existence of the NRA, a political lobbying group, politicizes matters of gun ownership and to claim otherwise requires them to lie through their teeth.

And if the NRA really believes that guns are an inseparable part of American culture, a claim which I find hard to swallow, then this is in actuality very scary.

By definition, a gun is a weapon whose function is to kill or wound. Consequently, to say that guns constitute something unique to American culture is to imply, whether knowingly or otherwise, that violence is an important part of our national identity – part of who we are. Even more disturbing is the suggestion that this violence is not only intrinsic to our culture but a good thing, something we should not change but choose to glory in.

The gun death of 30,000 people annually in the U.S. is not a tragedy but an efflorescence of American greatness. Sporting the highest rates of gun violence in the world is not a blot on our reputation but an indicator of our shining exceptionality. Slaughtering millions of Iraqis, Afghans and our own children with instruments of violence is not a grotesque act of savagery but necessary to assuage the bloodlust of our national gods.

Or so implies the NRA when they claim without a hint of irony that guns are an inseparable part of our culture.

True, the NRA does not really mean to imply this. But in callously averring that guns are an integral part of American culture – a rather fatuous proposal – they unwittingly hint at a real truth: violence really does contour American interactions at home and overseas in a uniquely American way. This has nothing to do with some ethereal warrior culture, however; it has everything to do with the existence of powerful American interests who profit from arms sales and war.

It goes without say that the NRA stands at the center of these interests. Without a porous arms market and frayed nerves of a public shocked by gun atrocity after atrocity, the organization would cease to exist. At the very least they would have to struggle harder to cajole the public into swallowing its emetic logic.

According to this disgraceful reasoning, the shootings of children are not aided by easy, even promiscuous access to guns. Do not worry, we are told, you can be protected from guns we manufacture by – wait for it – buying our guns!

For good measure here are a few other knee-slappers:

'Guns do not kill people, people kill people.' (But what did they kill them with?)

'Having access to guns makes us safer by providing us with ways to defend ourselves.' (If we are protected because of an open gun market then why did the Newtown shootings, or any of the others for that matter, happen at all? If we are safe because of the way things are – for that is in substance what they are saying – then these events would never have happened in the first place.)

Lastly, it is worth noting that the very language of cultural warfare betrays a violent tendency on the part of the NRA. They cannot even countenance an open, honest and civil discussion of gun regulations, as even when their position is thoughtfully questioned they reflexively resort to cries of warfare against their own person. Like a savage, untamed beast, they gnash and writhe upon perceiving the smallest slight, an ebbing shadow which they eye leeringly with a jaundiced gaze.

For them, an organization evidently suffused with violence, even dialogue is interpreted as an act of "war."

Let us put down our fists and our guns, and start to use our heads. The NRA and aligned interests have everything to benefit in seeing the American people go at each other’s throats while their own privileged positions are left unquestioned. There is a reason that their leaders are accoutered in custom-tailored suits and it is not because they are looking out for our best interests.

The domestic and global arms trade is one of the biggest money makers in the world economy; violence may be wrong but it is also extremely lucrative. That the transparently misleading justifications used by the NRA to bolster its position are seriously entertained at all is a startling yet eloquent testimony to its undue command of the political process.

This does not have to be the case, however. Together we can strive for a more sane, peaceful and safe world for everyone. To begin this process we must first recognize that weapons do not make the world a more peaceful place but only increase the potential for violence and, in many cases, breathe it into being.

It is not without reason that Jesus said, "all who draw the sword will die by the sword."