I know a very smart guy. He is at the top of his professional life. I think he is doing well, and can be considered to be upper middle class in both money and influence. He is a loving Dad, and a great husband. He is involved in his community. He grew up in a safe environment.
A little while ago, he had a violation of his personal belongings. The intruder or criminal did not end up taking anything, but my friend felt violated. I have not had much stolen from life, but I know the feeling of being unsafe and violated. It is not a good feeling, and when it happened to me, I did not know what to do. Something was stolen from me while I was walking back to my car, in a dark parking lot.
My friend, who is such a great guy, decided to buy a gun. He lives in the United States of America, and he has the opportunity to buy a firearm. My question around guns and the US has always been, why do people buy a gun when they feel that they are at risk ? People want to keep their things and their family safe. They might hear about a mass shooting or there might be a flurry of robberies in their town, and the first response is to buy a gun, a rifle, a pistol or a machine gun. They want to keep their family safe. What are the alternatives to buying a gun ?
In other countries, I do not think people do this. I might be wrong. But in my experience with America, it seems that the first way to find reconciliation when you feel you have been wronged is to find a weapon. Violence never brings reconciliation. People seem to be afraid in their homes, and when someone approaches their home, they pick up a gun to protect. It seems the normal thing to do. It is relatively easy to find a gun , if you want to purchase one in a store ( like Walmart ), at a gun show or on the black market. Why are gun death rates lover in other countries ?
I have never held, or shot, a gun, so maybe I am not one to talk about gun control or violence. I fear guns. I have been to places in the world where soldiers walked around , showing off their M-16 or A-47. When I saw that, it was unnerving. We lived in Thailand for three years. On the night we arrived, our taxi was stopped and a soldier put a machine gun through the window. I have never forgotten that.
So, if someone knocks at my door in the evening after dark, would I go for my gun, if I owned one ? Do I fear the stranger that much, that I believe that there is always a chance of violence ? I do not want to live like that. I live with enough fear and anxiety, that I do not need a gun in my house .
As of yesterday, there have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States in 2019. It seems, and I am far off from U.S. culture , that people have trouble resolving disputes without guns. Husbands shoot wives, neighbours shoot each other, and it goes on and on. There are targeted shootings, and there are random shootings, and then there are all those shootings at schools.
Fred Redekop
Ponder Anew 