Freedom and the Common Good

December 17, 2021

A few days ago one of my neighbors put a sign at the entrance to his driveway: THE OWNER OF THIS PROPERTY IS ARMED, along with an image of a revolver.

Welcome to the neighborhood.

I don’t know the man, although I’ve waved to him a couple of times as I’ve walked down the hill to the mailboxes. So I don’t know why he’s so fearful. The hill where we live is a rural, wooded, middle class white neighborhood with little or no crime. Maybe he or a family member or friend has been robbed at some point in their life. Or perhaps he’s simply allowed himself to be terrorized by reports of violence that have been hyped up by the news media.

I have no objection to any individual having a gun in their home for self defense. At least one of my family members and maybe a couple of my friends have pistols for that purpose. And although I have never had a desire to own a gun myself, I can imagine how I could conceivably be willing to acquire such a weapon if I lived in a dangerous area.

But it’s one thing to discreetly own a gun for self protection, and it’s quite another matter to own automatic weapons that are designed to kill large numbers of people, and then flaunt those guns or their images in order to intimidate your fellow citizens. I’m seeing more and more bumper stickers and decals on pickup trucks that seem to promote gun violence. One pickup I saw recently sported a sticker with two crossed machine guns backed by an American flag. Another pickup sticker cynically illustrated the child-friendly driving slogan Baby on Board with a photo of an automatic rifle beneath those words. And many states such as Texas that are dominated by right-wing zealots are passing legislation that allows anyone to carry guns on public sidewalks or in stores.

Civilized countries such as Japan, Australia, Canada, and the European nations don’t allow such anti-social bullying behavior, and so they severely restrict access to weapons of mass killing. But in the United States, where for many Americans guns are a religion more sacred and appealing than the teachings of Jesus, guns are a potent symbol of masculinity and freedom. It never fails to amaze me how many American men who claim to be Christians and “pro-life” are enthusiastic proponents of the death penalty and of propagating weapons of death. A couple of months ago in Utah I saw a man with a baseball cap that proclaimed “God, Guns, and Trump.” It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.

Gun advocates, whipped into a frenzy by the self-serving National Rifle Association (NRA), claim that the U.S. Constitution guarantees their individual right to own and carry firearms. They proudly quote the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which says “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”

But what they conveniently neglect to mention is that that phrase is only the second part of the sentence. The entire Second Amendment says “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” In other words, the framers of the Constitution were allowing the possession of arms for the common good, not for individual gunslingers. The key phrase is “well regulated militia.”

I’m no legal scholar, but it’s pretty obvious that our founders intended for us to be a civilized people, not a bunch of “every man for himself” gun-toting lunatics, and so they allowed the possession of weapons provided that the arms were used by organized groups of police, National Guard, and military. If they intended for us to be a lawless nation of gun nuts, they wouldn’t have specified “well regulated.”

Even so, the larger question is, what do we owe each other, as Americans and as human beings? Anything? Do we have any mutual obligations, any social solidarity, or are we just a collection of self-centered, frightened individuals?

We are currently enduring an epidemic of selfishness, whether it’s spiritually sick gun fanatics, or anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers, or climate change deniers who want to continue the status quo in order to avoid short term economic losses. We as a people are not as evolved as I hope we will one day be. Just as modern day Germans look back at their Nazi past with revulsion and shame, so too will we Americans someday be mortified as well as mystified by the mass psychosis of the gun cult. I’m a short term pessimist but a long term optimist. Too bad we seem to have to learn our lessons the hard way.

Maybe I should knock on the door of my neighbor who has the revolver sign on his driveway, and introduce myself and get acquainted. But if I did so, “howdy neighbor” might be my last words. I guess I’d just have to carry a bazooka along with my smile to his front door.