Updated on Nov 8, 2017, originally posted on Nov. 4, 2014. I updated this post but the heart of it about how gun culture creates gun violence is still the same.
When I was working in forestry as a tree-planter I used to fantasize about the wild west. I’d read cheap, old, yellowed Louis L’amour novels about pioneering the west and searching for gold in ice cold rivers. I had no clue about the evil and violence of how Canada and America colonised the indigenous people back then.
I’d lay cozy in my warm sleeping bag idealizing the simplicity of life back then. But, the reality is that life wasn’t simpler then than my tree-planter life.
Simple Tree-Planter Life
My life 5 days a week was:
- Wake up
- Eat breakfast
- Drive an hour
- Work for ten hours
- Drive back to camp
- Eat
- Sleep and do it again.
- Wait for day off.
This rhythm was a lot like mining in the 1800s, but, I never had to kill my own food or my competition for access to the land.
A big part of wild west stories written by Louis L’amour is the gun fights. The hero, with a gun, is always protecting some innocent characters, usually women and children, in his community. I used to think that was a great ideal. Killing for justice and to protect the innocent seem like just a necessary part of taming the west. Thats the same logic that governments and powerful people use around the world to justify military advances.
But for many reasons carrying a gun is a very bad option. In reality, citizens carrying their own guns is one of the worst ways to protecting society. It’s one of the worst ways to bringing lasting peace, justice and harmonious relationships to any community.
Guns and Gun Culture Makes People More Violent
I was driving a few people home last night after Peace Church Philippines worshiped and ate together. On the way we listened to a podcast about guns. The primary question was, “Does owning a gun change the behaviour of a gun owner?” The answer is yes. Having a gun in hand changes a persons normal behaviour. Read more about it here.
I don’t like statistics because they can be manipulated to support most messages. Even so, the research from this article was very compelling.
4 Reasons Not to Buy a Gun
1. The presence of guns trigger the Amygdala part of our brain and put us into fight or flight mode. Men have about a 100% increase in testosterone which creates more aggressive behaviour meaning it leads to more violent situations. The point: if you have a gun you are more likely to act aggressively and a tense situation is more likely to escalate out of control.
There’s something called the “weapons effect,” a phenomenon first studied in 1967. Researchers Leonard Berkowitz and Anthony LePage found that just the presence of firearms in a room made people take more aggressive actions, administering stronger electric shocks to other study participants. A 1975 study showed that a person drove more aggressively when behind a truck with a gun in a rack than one with no gun – even though logic might caution you about honking your horn at a truck displaying a weapon. People have an evolutionary propensity to identify dangerous items very quickly – and studies show people can identify guns as quickly as snakes. It seems as if weapons trigger the same part of our brain as danger and aggression
It’s called the weapons effect, read more about it here.
A 2006 study showed that just touching a gun and interacting with it increased testosterone levels and aggressive behavior in men. From Guns, Testosterone and Aggression.
2. Living inside a house with guns increases your chance of dying from gun violence 3 times more than me since I don’t have a gun in my house.
The change in behavior extends to the street. A 2009 study looked at 677 shootings in Philadelphia over two-and-a-half years and found that people who carried guns were 4.5 times more likely to be shot and 4.2 times more likely to be killed as unarmed people. The study authors think that guns may give their owners a sense of empowerment that leads them to act rashly or go into dangerous situations or places they might otherwise avoid. Read more about it here.
3. If you have a gun in your house you or someone else in your house is 3 times more likely to commit suicide than I am since I don’t have a gun.
In 2011, the most recent statistical year available, 19,766 people in the U.S. committed suicide with a firearm. Meanwhile, 11,101 committed homicide with a firearm. Read more about it here.
4. A point related to number 3, found that after the Israeli military stopped allowing troops to take their guns home on the weekend, the Israeli soldier suicide rate dropped by 40%.
In fact, the Israeli Defense Force found it lowered the suicide rate 40 percent among its soldiers simply by forbidding them from taking their weapons home over the weekend. Read more about it here.
What if Someone Attacks Your Family?
There is a common question used to challenge nonviolent peace builders and try to prove that we are unrealistic idealists.
- What could a person committed to nonviolence do to protect their loved ones from an attacker?
From the research above, if you want to protect your family, getting a gun is not the best way to do it. The only certain thing when guns are present is that violence and tension will escalate.
If using a gun is your first option someone is going to get hurt. The question is, will it be you, someone you love or the intruder?
Situations are always more complex than we know. If you reach for a gun immediately after and intruder enters your home you make everything less safe. Next, you don’t know what the intruder truly wants or needs. Since you’re going to be more aggressive towards the intruder, he’ll (or she’ll) attack back to defend himself. If a gun the escalation might be fatal.
What are the nonviolent options?
What options exist then?
- Creative thinking always gives another option.
- Asking what the person needs is a good option.
- Talking them down from their craziness is another.
- If you’re a follower of Jesus then dropping to your knees and praying is a good option. If you believe that The Creator God cares for both you and the perpetrator and is not powerless then this is a very good option.
Conclusion
My point is that we have lots of evidence that says bringing a gun into any situation of tension significantly increases the likelihood that someone will get hurt. Having a gun does not increase safety it increases danger.
Looks like Jesus was right when he said, “If you live by the sword you will die with the sword.”
Do you have any stories about how having a gun increased safety or increased violence in a tense situation?