Gun Violence in America

by Errington C. Thompson, MD

Long before December 14, 2012, I was an advocate for gun control. As a young surgery resident in Shreveport, Louisiana, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I saw gun violence. You name it, I’ve seen the results.

I’ve seen domestic violence. I’ve seen gang violence. I’ve seen random drive-by shootings. I’ve seen a young child who was playing with a gun and accidentally shot his 10-year-old brother, who became instantly paralyzed as the bullet ripped through his spinal cord. I’ve desperately operated on a mother to try to save the baby because the mother had already been killed by an assassin’s bullet.

A long history of guns

I grew up in Texas, where almost every family owns a gun of some sort. We did: my father had a shotgun in the closet, though I don’t think he ever used it. My wife, who also grew up in Texas, owns a gun.

Guns are simply a way of life for many Americans. Unfortunately, guns are also a way of death for way too many Americans.

This is not a new issue. Debates about gun violence, gun control, and the Second Amendment have been raging for decades. And I’m not sure that there’s any subject – with the possible exceptions of abortion and taxes – that is more contentious than gun control. One side of the debate sees guns as nothing but tools for oppression and useless aggression. The other side sees guns as a symbol of freedom, and the only thing that will prevent them from being oppressed. When the two sides of the debate are this far apart, there’s almost no way to find middle ground.

Humanity = violence

There is a larger picture, though. First, we have to acknowledge that humans are a violent species. It’s not just Americans, or Second Amendment boosters, or jealous spouses, or gang-bangers, or mentally unstable people who are violent. And it’s not just guns that people use to kill other people. The 5,000 year-old “Iceman” mummy, found on a Swiss glacier back in 1991, is probably the world’s oldest and best-preserved mummy – and (with the possible exception of Abel) its earliest known victim of violence: an autopsy revealed that he died of an arrow wound.

Ancient Egyptians poisoned their enemies; Romans stabbed Julius Caesar to death. Every human culture includes prohibitions against, and countless examples of, murder.

Here at home violence has been commonplace throughout our history. In 1856 Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts gave a fiery speech denouncing those that supported slavery. Three days later, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat the senator with a cane on the floor the Senate, nearly killing him.

Six American presidents have been shot; four died. Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy were killed by assassins’ bullets; Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan survived their shootings. Andrew Jackson, FDR, Harry Truman, and Gerald Ford were the targets of assassins whose bullets went astray, and every president since Nixon has been targeted by assassination attempts that did not get near them.

Not only presidents have been martyred by bullets; other great American leaders including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers were also killed in retaliation for their outspokenness.

Nor does the violence diminish in the wake of national tragedy. According to Slate.com, just since the December 14 Sandy Hook shooting in which 20 6- and 7-year-old children and six adults were murdered, more than 2,500 more Americans have died as a result of gun violence (not including suicides).

Reality vs. Hollywood

Not long after the Sandy Hook shootings the Connecticut legislature held a hearing about them. Of course, as anyone could have predicted, one gun advocate stood in front of the legislature and said, “Our only protection against a bad man with a gun is a good man in the right place with a gun.” (Frontline, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newtown-divided/)

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I do know that if the answer to “a bad man with a gun” is that I – along with every school teacher in the country – need to become some cross between Charles Bronson of Death Wish, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis, then we are doing something really wrong.

In Hollywood, on the fourth or fifth take, the hero can always save the day. In the real world, you don’t get four or five takes. In the real world, the deranged maniac or psychopath has thought about this moment for days, weeks, or even months, and appears without warning or a director calling “Action!” You the victim, on the other hand, are simply going to a mall with friends, or watching the latest blockbuster in a crowded movie theater, or sitting at your place of worship, or playing with your child in a public park. And nobody calls out, “Cut!”

American dream – or fantasy

Simply put, I want to live in a much safer world. I shouldn’t have to worry about my grandson going to school and being gunned down. I shouldn’t have to worry about some guy shooting up my church.

We’re Americans; we have come to expect that “the good life” is within our grasp. We want our families to be safe from harm. We want to be able to assume that the water coming out of the faucet is contaminant-free, and that we can swim at Hooker Falls and know the water is pure. We want the air we breathe to be as clean as the new fallen snow, and we want the driver of the SUV that hits our sedan to be insured. The vegetables we buy and serve our families should be free of dirt and poisons, and the meat should be free of bacteria. And we should be able to live our lives without fear of being shot and killed by a deranged person – or snubbed lover, or angry husband, or racist, or anyone – toting a gun.

All of these things should come with living in the greatest country on earth, the United States of America.