People shouldn't *want* to own guns. [View all]

[Tommy Carcetti]

Besides the very obvious breakdown on the political level, that's one of the biggest contributors to the Great American Gun Violence Problem that vexes us.

Way too many people in this country want guns. They tell themselves that they need to own a gun even when in most circumstances, they don't. They think they're fun. They think they're cool. They think it somehow qualifies them as manly. They convince themselves of a hundred and one situations where they think they'll be called upon to use a gun, very few if any of which are actually realistic.

And then there are the "Second American Revolution" nuts. That craziness speaks for itself.

I don't own a gun. I've never even actually shot a gun. (Besides BB guns and water guns, that is.) The only time I can remember having the chance of shooting a gun, I was probably 10 or 11, in scout camp, and they had a shooting range. And I was going to do it until something in the back of my head told me I would rather not do it. And so I polite excused myself from the activity. No drama or anything like that.

I think it was because that was the first time it dawned on me that yes, guns were tools, but they were extraordinary tools. Tools designed with the specific primary purpose of shooting—and potentially killing—another living being. And at 10 or 11 years old, I just really didn’t have the desire to get involved with something that had such heavy implications just as a fun exercise. Hence, the abstention.

That is not to say I don’t feel guns have their place in society. The military needs guns, obviously. The police, too, although with rigorous and properly trained discretion. And, yes, there exists a need for private citizens to own guns.

And this goes for myself as well. Because while I may never have yet owned or used a gun, I’m not saying I would never do so under any circumstance. There are certain defined “red lines” that could be crossed to change the situation.

If I lived in a neighborhood that was under constant threat of burglaries and break ins, I might buy a gun.

If I was in a situation like that in Ukraine, subjected to a hostile foreign invasion, I’d probably get a gun.

If I had to hunt for survival because there were no other means, I would certainly use a gun.

Luckily, none of those things are remotely a reality in my life at the moment, so for now I have no need or desire to buy or use a gun.

Regarding the solution to the problem, beyond just the political solution, I think it’s all a matter of a change of mindset in this country.

We have to realize that guns are extraordinary tools, and that people should never just *want* them, even when they still might need them or have to have them.

And all the scenes that have played out on the news are the ultimate end result of too many people wanting guns without actually needing guns and all that comes with it.

We need a will to act, both politically but also personally and introspectively.

It is our entirely unique American Gun Problem to solve.