I wrote this piece in response to the mass shooting in… (it doesn’t matter at this point, pick whichever shooting is in the news right now, I’m sure there are plenty to choose from).
Introduction:
I think a question that people should ask themselves more often about the issues and conflicts of the present and their importance is: How will people in the far future view our actions or inactions? I was thinking about this question when it comes to the mass shootings and completely overlooked gun violence in America. When people in the future look back on America’s culture of guns in the early 21st century and our refusal to do anything about gun violence, how will they judge us? And if that judgment is harsh, do we deserve it? My answer is yes, we do deserve to be judged harshly by the future, and I’ll quickly try to explain why I think so.
Part 1:
If you ask me, America’s attitude toward gun violence has evolved to the point where “ordinary” shootings are completely ignored and mass shootings are basically ignored. When we see news of the 4 thousandth mass shooting this year, we all say, “oh isn’t that sad,” and then we move on. Part of that is just the sheer quantity of shootings, their frequency has an exhausting and benumbing effect on all of us. But I think this numbness has let a dangerous attitude settle into all of our heads; we think that this is normal and that there is nothing that can be done. This is a question I asked in my book, and I will repeat it here. What would it take to shake Americans out of our apathetic stupor when it comes to gun violence? How many people need to die in a mass shooting for us to finally say enough is enough? How horrific does the frequency of violence need to become before we finally demand that sensible gun legislation be passed? When are we finally going to dispense with the national myths that we are still some frontier settlers that need a gun above the mantelpiece to guard ourselves and our loved ones? Every time there is another unnecessary and horrific mass shooting, I think to myself; “Okay this has to be the tipping point, something is finally going to change.” And I’ve been disappointed again and again by the constant cycle of people saying that something needs to change and then it doesn’t and then we rinse and repeat for the next shooting.
When people in the future look at gun violence in America, especially the relatively unique phenomenon of mass shooters, I think they will have two big questions for us. 1. The solution to rampant gun violence is obvious, so why didn’t we implement it a long time ago? And 2. As a long-term solution, why didn’t America do anything to fix the broken society that churned out mass shooters with the reliability and efficiency of a factory assembly line? I will address question 1 in Part 2 of this post, so confusingly I am going to start with question 2.
I want to emphasize a point I made a moment ago that the phenomenon of mass shooters isn’t unheard of in the rest of the world, but it is far rarer. And certainly, part of the problem with mass shootings in the US is the copycat effect. So why isn’t the US more committed to adjusting our society that will help alleviate the conditions that lead to this mass violence in the first place? I think a short answer to that question is crass but accurate, and it can apply to many societies in the past and present: it’s easier to maintain the status quo, however horrific it may be, than to change it. Just imagine all the issues the US would need to solve in order to become a more just and equitable society. Entrenched and systemic poverty and racism, corruption, healthcare reform, mental illness, and a million other factors that all swirl together into a soup of discontentment. Not to mention that throughout human history there are always people actively and consciously working against progress, making meaningful change all the more of a Herculean labor. So, from that perspective it might make a perverse kind of sense as to why so many are so willing to accept gun violence as an unavoidable fact of life, rather than an issue that can be addressed. I’m not saying that I agree with this brand of despondent acceptance. But it does take a significant effort to overcome that despondency, and that effort has to come from individual conviction.
Part 2:
But these big systemic and societal issues take a lot of time and arguing over what the problem is, how to solve that problem, and how to implement that solution. All of that is a necessary process of living in a free society. However, the short-term solution to reducing the death toll from gun violence is patently obvious. Less guns. That’s it. So why hasn’t the US figured that one out? Are Americans stupid? Well, they are, but less guns is an idea that can’t be missed even by the most dull witted. So, what’s happening, why has the problem of gun violence been increasing, and why have we been regressing when it comes to gun safety (and we are currently regressing in a lot of other areas as well)?
Well remember how I said a second ago that there are always people working against progress? Anyone who makes money off of maintaining the status quo is going to fight like a cornered animal to make sure that their cash cow isn’t taken from them. But I think there is more to it than that. I think there is a flaw in people’s thinking on a societal level that creates a mental trap for people.
Something I read in a book described what I mean in a profound and succinct way, and ever since I read this book, I have remembered this concept and applied it many places. The book is called “When the War Was Over,” by Elizabeth Becker about the Cambodian genocide, the events leading up to it like the Japanese occupation of French Indochina (of which Cambodia was a part), the genocide itself, and the Vietnamese invasion which eventually put a stop to the Khmer Rouge regime. At one point Becker describing the Khmer Rouge used the phrase “that they were reaching the end of their logic.” A truly profound observation made in a few words.
Just in case it isn’t clear what “reach the end of their logic,” means I’ll try and explain it quickly. As I understand it, this phrase describes when a group, individual, or whole society acts under certain false assumptions, and the longer they refuse to question or alter their assumptions, the more and more that those false assumptions lead them into making insane decisions. “Reaching the end of their logic” means that there is no one around to ask if there should be a course correction, or that there are people who can see that a course correction is necessary, but for whatever reason their advice goes unheeded.
I think the United States is in the latter of those two categories. We are reaching the end of our logic when it comes to sensible gun safety measures. But people have been literally begging for decades for course correction and they have been ignored every time. And as gun violence and mass shootings become worse our “solutions” are becoming increasingly insane. Look at what’s been happening in US schools in the past decade. Instead of doing the sensible thing and curtailing access to deadly weapons, we instead are expecting students and school employees to adopt a siege mentality when they walk into a school. More armed security, active shooter drills, proposals to arm teachers, development of things like bullet resistant backpacks or panic shields to deploy in classrooms. After the school shooting in Nashville (at the time of this writing there has only been one school shooting in Nashville that I’m aware of), you had Fox “News” pundits saying that the problem with schools is that they have too many doors. Just think about that for one goddamn second readers. How is it that we have reached the point where doors are the problem? And let’s not forget why public buildings have multiple exits labeled with signs in the first place, it’s in case of fires. If there is only one way in and out of a building, and there is a fire, a huge number of people will either be killed by the fire or be trampled in the stampede to get out. This still happens all the time in countries with no building safety regulations, or where those regulations are ignored.
So, what’s next? Are we going to brick up every door and window and turn every school into a prison that no one can escape from in the event of an emergency? How far are we going to go before we finally reach the end of our logic and circle back to the obvious answer of “less guns?”
Conclusion:
Some might be wondering why I titled this piece “A letter to Future Historians…” The reason is that historians try as hard as they can to remove their own cultural biases that they have when they view the past. As much as they can they try to jettison their own assumptions and try to understand the culture and assumptions of the time period they were writing about. They often caution their readers or students with statements like: “I know it seems strange what people did in the past. But you have to internalize the fact they were born and raised in a different society, with different values and judgements.” Basically, it means: “You had to be there to get it.”
So, when people look back on the cultural history of America in the early 21st century they might be completely baffled as to how we could let the problem of gun violence go on for so long and not only did we not do anything to stop it, at pretty much every point we made the problem worse. At this point a historian might step in and say: “You can’t judge these people too harshly; you don’t understand the context and mindset of the people living in that time period.”
Well, to any future historian reading this, I am an American living in the early 21st century, and I don’t understand our mindset. We do deserve to be judged harshly. Our behavior is inexcusable, both from our leadership and the general public. We should have solved this problem decades ago. We should have been able to prevent thousands of needless deaths.
And to make a broader point, I think if you look carefully at any historical issue or time period you can find reasonable pulling their hair out in frustration trying to warn everyone what’s going wrong and how to fix it. Most of the time the advice of these people is completely ignored. So, I wonder if we shouldn’t be more critical of people in the past who failed to listen to reason.
To the people of the future, when you look at America’s response to gun violence I say, don’t hold back.
P.S. I really hope that one week after I write this it looks silly because some sweeping gun safety reform swept through Congress and changed the culture of guns in the U.S. forever. But I’ve been disappointed so many times now that I wouldn’t bet on it. In fact I’d bet on the opposite like conservatives passing some insane legislation like “Guns for babies” or “One police armored car for every school.”