Guns In America: Why I'm Profoundly Ashamed Of My Country

No "Greatest Country In The World" tolerates 650 mass shootings over the course of one year. We're an embarrassment.

Only two things are infinite- the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not certain about the former.

• Albert Einstein

When Erin and I were on our honeymoon a few years ago, we visited some of her cousins in a small village in western Norway. One of her cousins is a local policeman who’d been a member of the Norwegian National Police when Anders Behring Breivik staged a terrorist attack. Breivik killed 77 people, mostly children, in downtown Oslo and on the island of Utøya.

The attack was then and remains today the worst terrorist attack in Norwegian history. It was especially notable for Breivik’s evading Norway’s strict gun laws. Erin’s cousin explained these laws in detail, and I remembered thinking they weren’t draconian or oppressive; they were common-sense gun laws.

Norwegian gun laws are intended to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals, domestic abusers, drug addicts, political extremists, and those with severe mental health issues. They’re not intended to deny guns to everyone, only to ensure that those who own firearms have a legitimate need and reason…and aren’t a threat to society.

I remember thinking how wonderful it was to be in a country where guns didn’t have more rights than citizens. And I wondered why America was so different (as if I didn’t know the answer).

Last week marked the first anniversary of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, that claimed 19 students and two teachers. Since then (by President Joe Biden’s count), America has endured 650 mass shootings. That’s 1.78 mass shootings per day- every damned day, including weekends and holidays.

WTF is wrong with us?

I’ve been through this training and have seen this video. It’s chilling and a sad commentary on the state of America today. The training, which, if memory serves, lasted about two hours, consisted of a Department of Homeland Security trainer discussing what to do in a mass shooting situation. We could’ve been considering what to do if your car got a flat tire. But the discussion was so matter-of-fact and devoid of emotion that it was surreal.

I understand and appreciate the need for training like this, and I was grateful that my employer provided it. That said, I’m incensed that I live in a country so thoroughly f****d up that this training is necessary.

No, we can’t discuss common-sense gun control or how to get weapons of war off our streets. We don’t care enough to protect schoolchildren from being slaughtered in their classrooms. And so we have to produce training videos to teach people how to survive a mass shooting situation.

This is America today, a country with its priorities so thoroughly backasswards and f****d up that it’s difficult to know where to begin. Yes, it’s good that our government is providing training aimed at helping people survive a situation that no one should ever have to face. But it’s also pretty messed up that Republicans in Congress can’t remove their anteriors from their posteriors long enough to understand what their intransigence is costing us.

In most cases, they don’t have to care because mass shootings don’t impact Congresspeople directly. They haven’t lost loved ones to a madman wielding an AR-15 in a mall, movie theater, grocery store, school, or other public space. They haven’t had to see children cut in half, with their faces blown off, or their heads exploded.

No, they keep collecting donations from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and do what their masters tell them. They scream “2nd Amendment rights!” whenever any tries to discuss common-sense gun control, and “TOO SOON!!” when cries of “DO SOMETHING!!” erupt after a mass shooting.

We live in a country that is profoundly indifferent to the slaughter of innocent human life because of the Almighty, Precious, and Divinely-inspired 2nd Amendment. Never mind that, in reality, the 2nd Amendment represents the most willfully and knowingly misinterpreted 27 words in the English language.

I’ve written about these things often and don’t want to sound like a broken record. So instead, I want to know how so many people in Congress could care so little for human life. When (and how) did they become so callous and devoid of compassion? When did they come to believe that guns have more rights than human beings?

I shudder to think what horrors await us and what tragic events we’ll be compelled to remember. How often will we ask, “How many more must die?” This all feels so futile and pointless, as if no one in a position of power cares enough about whether people like you or me live or die to do something to ensure we LIVE.

When it comes to guns, ducks and geese are treated better and with more regard than teachers and children. Think about that for a moment. If that doesn’t give you pause, you need to have your humanity checked.

We live in a country that makes us wonder if a trip to a mall, movie theater, or public space may be our last. Will we find ourselves in the wrong place at precisely the wrong time? Will we go to a coffee shop only to discover there’s a bullet out there with our name on it?

We’re civilians, damnit. We shouldn’t have to think of our homeland as one big potential pop-up war zone. I keep hearing about how America is the greatest country in the world, but how can it be the “greatest” when it’s willing to tolerate 650 mass shootings in one year without taking meaningful action? How can it be the “greatest” when it allows weapons of war to be carried openly on our streets by civilians with no training? That never happens on military bases, so why is it acceptable on our streets?

And an armed society isn’t a polite society. How can we seriously believe an armed society is anything but a scared shitless society? You can’t terrorize people into being polite.

I’m not saying we should be Norway…but I am saying that when it comes to gun laws, being Norway isn’t such a bad thing. We could learn a thing or six from our Norwegian brothers and sisters about common-sense gun laws.

Because that’s what we lack in America regarding guns- common sense.