Guns, talk, and money

This is the third and final post on guns. On to other things! I hope you can find some time to peruse the resources below. The Jubilee ‘Middle Ground’ video, where regular people talk to each other about guns, is particularly enlightening. (Sorry about the brief adverts on the YouTube clips.)

1. In the satirical movie, Lord of War, Nicholas Cage’s character stands deadpan in a field of bullets, looks at the camera, and explains:

“There are over five hundred and fifty million firearms in world wide circulation, that’s one firearm for every twelve people on the planet.  The only question is, how do we arm the other eleven?”

“Selling firearms is like selling vacuum cleaners—I supplied every army but the Salvation Army.” 

“Say what you like about warlords and dictators, they always pay their bills.”

Cage’s character sells guns, planes, and tanks all over the world. He epitomizes of the amoral man. It’s all about good product, timely service, and the money. Countless lives are lost as guns exchange hands. Small, nasty war lords as well as the biggest governments protect him. Dictators and democracies alike fete him. His product is more precious than gold.

2. On February 28, 2018, ‘Business Insider’ published a list of top 85 Congressional recipients of NRA contributions. It’s an interesting list.

http://www.businessinsider.com/nra-political-contributions-congressional-candidates-house-senate-2018-2

3. On February 15, 2018, a day after the Parkland shootings, ‘Business Insider’ published a survey about gun control. I can’t get the ‘http’ to be click-friendly, sorry. If you wish, please copy and paste.

http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-gun-control-beliefs-las-vegas-shooting-polls-surveys-2017-10

You may be surprised at how few people admit to owning guns, but those who do, feel that their personal safety depends upon it. Almost no one wants the ‘gun show loophole’–where buckets of money are carried off–to exist, and nobody wants the mentally ill to have guns. But there is disagreement between those who own guns and those who don’t about assault style weapons, certainly no surprise.

According to the survey, only 19% of gun owners say they belong to the NRA, but people are quite split on the amount of power the NRA seems to have.

4. On March 13, NPR Students Describe(d) How They Developed Their Views On Guns. One girl watched her mother try to save a drive-by victim and doesn’t like guns at all. Another sees guns as protection, even though his father committed suicide with a gun. Still another is fine with guns for sport and safety, but she feels that there are just too many of them. Her friend lost her mother to domestic violence. Note: NPR has interviewed many more people about guns. Our attitudes vary widely.

5. Please watch the group in the following Jubilee video: ‘Pro-Gun Vs. Anti-Gun: Is There Middle Ground?‘ from Jubilee’s Middle Ground series. Warning: no pacifists here.

The letter of Paul to the Ephesians 4:1-3 (NRSV): I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We the people must communicate with each other honestly. We must be willing to compromise. We don’t all agree about gun laws, but the decisions we make about guns are too important for our American ‘winner take all’ approach. 

Photo by Nicolas Tissot on Unsplash

If you have to be ‘number one,’ please stay home from our talks.

6. In 2003, my husband and I stood in a Zurich museum in a room filled with swords and javelins hanging from the ceiling. We had to walk through a huge circle of them: broadswords, lances, sabres, halberds, pikes, glaives. They swayed gently above us, in homage to blood, shouts, and death. We were reminded that those ancient weapons required direct contact, person to person. Not guns.

Photo by Henry Hustava on Unsplash

A final thought: while we middle class folk are doing all the decent, democratic work of protest, conversation, and compromise, other people in dark places are making scads of money selling weaponry.

We talk, they sell. It doesn’t hurt to keep one of our eyes on the money.

Best wishes and have a good week,

Greta

*Next week, Jeff Gundy will join us with a poem!

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I welcome your comments: gretaholtwriter.com/blog. Please enjoy a few short stories on the Home page, as well.

{Thank you to my niece, Addie Liechty, for taking the picture above that is this blog’s featured image. Her blog is: https://addieswriting.wordpress.com.}