…from the desk of R.E. Vanella.
Jemand mußte Josef K. verleumdet haben, denn ohne daß er etwas Böses getan hätte, wurde er eines Morgens verhaftet. –Franz Kafka, ‘Der Proceß’
[Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K. because one morning after doing nothing wrong he was arrested. ‘The Trial’]
It is reported that Russian playwright Anton Chekhov advised aspirants to never introduce a gun in the first act if there is no intention to have it fired in the third. This bit of wisdom is very likely apocryphal, but it remains sound council. I thought of this axiom recently because if I have my druthers I’ll be buying a gun.
About three months ago I was seated at the desk from which I now write you, dear reader. My wife was relaxing on the bed reading. I suspect this was around the time of one of those debates. I looked over and announced the following:
“You know the chances look very slim, silly even. The Times says, like, 12%. The guy’s a fucking clown, I admit. Ridiculous. But in the unlikely event Trump wins, I want to buy a gun.”
So let’s just say the Missus was skeptical. Although this could have gone without saying I confirmed immediately and explicitly that in our home she has veto power. (For the record, I share the same spousal privilege.) Basically a veto is worth 1½ votes. If one of us is a hard “No” on an important issue, it’s settled in favor of the nay. I could be wrong here, but to date I can’t remember this particular pen ever being wielded by either of us. I’ve heard that great power mandates a great responsibility for judiciousness.
Ostensibly I grew up around guns, but the tradition wasn’t passed along. I am actually fine with it. Culture changes. Traditions become socially obsolete. As a kid my dad and his friends shot squirrels and blackbirds with a .22 rifle in a woods adjacent to Wilmington. I can hardly recall personally witnessing him handling a gun more than a handful of times. I knew there were guns in the house. I knew it was a tool like a router or drill press with which I was unfamiliar. No big deal. That was that.
I started my research speaking to my dad and my brother, both gun owners. I only wanted something to keep locked in a case in the bedroom. It would be accessible relatively quickly, but not to be grabbed with every bump in the night. I have no interest to carry it in public. I also consulted friends whose positions were distributed from hunters and mild enthusiasts to people whom, while accepting the personal right to bear arms, argued strongly against the idea. This polling methodology was by design. I had trust in these people and also respect for their opinions. One final note on this, I didn’t seek input from any 2nd Amendment abolitionists. I don’t know any and I’m not convinced of their existence.
I’ve had some basic instruction and took two trips to the range. I’ve zeroed in on caliber and a few makers that seem to produce an easy to operate machine. I have a few additional tasks to complete, another few sessions at the range, a more thorough course in safety and operation.
There are no children living in our home. If you asked me the last time a person under the age of 18 was in our home, I couldn’t tell you. Kids have been here, but not recently.
I feel it’s necessary to clarify something about my personal beliefs. There’s a difference between an individual who believes in personal gun ownership as codified in the Constitution and a person with a firearm fetish. And also this difference is stark. If you have a hunting rifle, a shotgun and a few handguns for protection or target shooting this seems to me totally reasonable. If you buy a two-thirds scale, pink AR-15 for your daughter on her 13th birthday, it’s just strange. Is it illegal? No. Should our culture deem you a very odd person? Yes.
But and so the toughest rhetorical challenge I face is this: Why? I’m struggling to hone this argument.
But… If it’s not available in a flash, if you have to open a lock box, is it really “protection?”
But… The statistics say accidental deaths are far, far more likely than the gun ever being used for protection!
But… Aren’t there any other options, bars on the windows, deadbolts, CCTV, safe room?
…………….
Here’s what I think, and, as Professor Newton would say, this could all be proven wrong and I may look quite silly, hysterical even. We’ve crossed a Rubicon here. I feel it. I am not a conspiracy theorist. I don’t think anyone is conspiring. A conspiracy of elites might actually assuage my concern. You have no idea how much I loathe being perceived as an alarmist. Petty partisan foolishness and political hyperbole!
The current social and political climate is unprecedented and fraught, but doesn’t half the electorate sing a similar ditty every four years? I suppose they do.
I think the chance of civil unrest has increased exponentially, from nearly nothing to shocking, if it should happen on a wide scale, but not entirely a surprise. Odds are still long, granted, but the bookies have odds on the board now when they hadn’t previously. Many of you have traveled extensively. You’ve seen places were an assumed connection to public order is quite a bit more tenuous. Moreover I think the factors that would lead otherwise compliant people to anti-social action are manifest now. We fought a civil war 150 years ago and the west didn’t win itself. National guard troops patrolled the streets Wilmington in living memory and we’re hunting the natives again.