A Polite Society

"An armed society is a polite society"

Prove it.

Many gun fanciers cite our Old West as 'evidence' of this. Given that most of our common knowledge of the Old West is via television and movies, how could anyone possibly think this? Our Old West is largely mythological but, if barroom shootouts are any one's idea of "polite" then I'd like to know what they consider to be impolite.  Samuel Colt's .45 caliber revolver was known as "the peacemaker" and "the great equalizer", as in "God made man, but Sam Colt made them equal". I suspect that meant that little men could fight back against bigger, bullying men by shooting them in the back. It appears there weren't so many of the shootouts at high noon between two well-matched rivals as we've been led to believe.

My state is poised to become the 50th state in the nation to pass a form of concealed carry of handguns. I'm not against it. The reality is that Chicago is one of the most dangerous cities in the country, if not the world. Lots of crime. Good people should be able to defend themselves. Sad but true.

But, ya know, where I live in the suburbs, my life is not likely to be threatened by anyone whether they have a gun or not. Violent crime is pretty rare here. Sure, it could happen. I just cannot fathom a situation that would reasonably occur where I should readily carry a gun. I'm rather thick-skinned so, no need to force people to be polite to me. I'm quick-witted too so, in a battle of wits, most of my adversaries are over-matched. Real life, like Topix Boot Hill, is full of the metaphorical bodies of those who have tried to go up against The Ferrerman....

Anyways... I don't fancy a town here where everyone is toting firearms. We're supposed to be well past that and, in most of the country were have been for the several generations we've been removed frpm Dodge City and Tombstone. It's really been in the last 20-30 years that this gun madness has been deemed 'necessary' in our social fabric. The 60's and 70's of my youth weren't like this. Guns were something we saw on TV and really thought of as foreign in a sense and peculiar to the cops shows on TV and, of course, bank robbers and Mafia hit men in real life. As much as I had liked westerns and cop shows back in the day, I never really foresaw the time when I would have need for a gun.

That's the thing- the need. We should be beyond that in society by now, with our standing armies and police forces. Cops have always been armed here even though most criminals they were chasing probably were not. That's kind of a holdover from the old west too where, the town marshal had to be ready for anything and him being armed was a deterrent for many folks. Cops aren't necessarily the deterrent they used to be. Jail isn't either. For some, it's a way of life. That's been a big change too in the last generation. Crime seems to be a lot more profitable.

There are big bucks in all aspects of this. Violent crime creates an arms race. As criminals arm and get bolder, citizens feel the need to be armed as well. It's pretty easy to see that gun manufacturers profit greatly from this. So do security companies. The NRA went from being promoters of gun safety and hunting to a radical force in politics. Street gangs went from public nuisances  to criminal enterprises- like Mafia's but with more color and no virtuous Don Corleone's. It got crazy realquick, didn't it? Who's idea was this?

I don't know about a conspiracy but, we are a consumer driven society. Guns are fun and sexy and useful in that they can protect you. The trouble is, they are needed to protect us from others with guns. We the people created this. I think the invisible hand of the free market helped but, somehow, we let it happen. However it happened, I don't see it coming to a halt any time soon. Guns are too big of a business. In this economy and certainly in this political climate, I don't see a sudden parting of the blood red sea of gun play that may one day be looked at wistfully as something that maybe should have happened in the form of a complete ban and confiscation.
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Right now, within hours of the massacre of  20 children and six adults in Connecticut, we had gunners on the right not wanting to discuss any notion of gun control and, when pressed, desiring only to argue that the killers weapon of choice was not an assault rifle... Well, fuck me a running- semantics! Loopholes! Where did they learn that?

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

See? There you go! If that doesn't settle gay marriage and the abortion debate, I don't know what will!

Sigh. It's a bit vague, isn't it? Lot's of folks kinda bypass the militia portion, which was very important at the time but, not so much now. Citizens had the need to band together at the time to combat Kings  who might (did) oppress or to battle Indians. And hunting? That was THE way of putting meat on the table in 1776. The founders had no reason to believe that would ever be different. Hunting was not in question at the time. Crime? Given the unreliability of the single shot muskets of the day, if you missed, you better have a sword or knife on hand. I would have done all of my robbing with one. I bet others would have too. The founders could not have envisioned the weapons of today or the vast millions of people using and misusing them today. Smart men but, not a one of them was Nostradamus. It's disingenuous to have expected them to be. The 2A could have been worded better but, it sufficed for the time. It needs to be re-written, as soon as possible. What will the world be like 200 years from now? We don't know now just as they didn't know then. We just know now to be afraid, very afraid...