With the debate over firearms in our country once again driven to the edge of a cliff, I’m beginning to wonder whether America will ever be able to have a calm and lucid conversation about guns. It seems we never reward listening, and moral equivalency is rampant. Echo-chambers on the internet allow only the loudest voices to resonate and become the consensus.
I suppose I would like to believe, in our prosperous society, it doesn’t have to be this way.
I am a liberal gun owner. I was in Boy Scouts growing up, and I greatly enjoyed earning my archery and rifle shooting merit badges. The supervised instruction I received and the practical skills I learned in a safe and controlled environment resonate with me to this day. I purchased my first firearm, a 12-gauge shotgun, while working on a farm in order to ward off undesirable varmints. I now own multiple guns.
This has always been a unique source of tension among some of my closest friends, many of whom seem to have a somewhat instinctive fear of guns. It has given me great pride to take them out to my shooting range behind our farmhouse and give them the same calm, reasonable approach to firearm safety that I received at scout camp. There’s nothing like watching a first-time shooter unloading round after round into the backstop, just as someone once watched me.
I never expected to change any of their minds about gun control. I simply found that offering them an opportunity to handle a firearm and hearing my perspective on gun ownership helped them put a face to a position. It was my hope that I could demystify some of the most common misconceptions regarding guns in the home.
That being said, liberals are not the only people in America who I believe have misconceptions about guns.
America is far and away an outlier in the developed world when it comes to individual ownership of firearms and, as a result, deaths and injury by them. Americans like to tout our unique democratic history and its founding against the grip of trans-Atlantic tyranny as the case for American exceptionalism. But America is not the only nation founded by strong-spirited, colonial pioneers.
Canada, Australia and Israel have all weathered the challenge of crafting legislation that the NRA would consider anathema. These countries restrict access to some types of firearms to their population, and in none of these countries is gun ownership illegal or even under threat.
I would like to believe it is possible in this day and age to have a conversation with anyone, no matter how close or far you stand to the line drawn in the sand. I’m a gun owner. I’m a farmer and a sportsman. I also believe in the value of regulation, even when it comes to the Bill of Rights. After all, the First Amendment has been shown to have its legal limits, too. Isn’t it possible to find a solution to these savage school shootings where both sides give in order to get?
The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 has unintentionally made schools into soft targets. Let’s talk about ways to harden them. If you’re a sportsman, do you really need a semi-automatic, military-style rifle that can hold 30 rounds? I’ve met quite a few proud trophy hunters, and none would ever brag about taking more shots than the first. If you do feel like you need an AR-15, shouldn’t you be able to explain yourself to the local sheriff before being able to walk out of Cabela’s armed to the teeth?
No matter where on the spectrum of gun rights or gun control you find yourself, I hope that you would be willing to at least share a few rounds at the range with a friend who you might know feels different. After the fireworks end, maybe we could try to listen.
Michael Polk is a freelance writer and licensed arborist. He lives in Lebanon.
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