Keeping a Gun In Your Home is Irresponsible
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Today’s topic is guns — including gun violence and gun suicides. Skip it you need to. Instead you could read about how my name was Shoshanna before it was Gabrielle.
I made a few people angry yesterday when I tweeted about guns. It wasn’t a thread, just separate tweets, though they were all on the topic of guns:
People responded wanting to let me to know that they are the exception. Their gun is a safe gun; it could not possibly be used for harm because they keep it so safe. Other people wanted to tell me that they have to have a gun because they live in a rural area, (not some tame suburban neighborhood), and wildlife could come into the yard and need to be shot. Still others wanted to tell me that they have to have a gun because they live in a dangerous city (not some tame suburban neighborhood), where someone might break into their house and need to be shot. Some people insisted that my tweets represent an extreme position and that taking an extreme position is harmful not helpful.
And it’s all NONSENSE.
Guns make households less safe. Period. So bringing a gun into your home is an irresponsible choice. Which means there is no responsible way to keep a gun at home. Keeping a gun at home means there is an ever present risk of gun violence in your home. That’s a fact. That is not an extreme position. It is the total common sense position. If you’re interested in avoiding gun violence in your household, making sure your household doesn’t have access to a gun is the most effective option you’ve got.
The extreme position is the opposite: I need a gun at home. Guns at home is normal. Guns make homes safer. THAT is an extreme position. And if it doesn’t seem extreme to you, then the propaganda from the gun lobby and gun fanatics is working.
Despite claims otherwise, the ONLY reason people keep a gun at home is because they like guns and want to keep one at home. It’s not more complicated than that. They like owning the gun. They may even know about the risks, but they like guns so much they are willing to ignore the risks. It’s a selfish choice. They just like guns.
It’s fine for people to like things. We all like things. But it’s bizarre when someone claims they have very important and serious reasons for keeping a gun at home instead of just admitting they like guns.
For many years, I believed someone could responsibly keep a gun at home, but I no longer believe that. A gun at home won’t be used for protection, but there’s a good chance a household member will use it to hurt themselves or others.
Based on responses I fielded yesterday on Twitter, you might be having thoughts like this:
But I own a gun for going hunting.
Then you don’t need to store it at home. Keep it at a gun club. Better yet, don’t own a gun at all and just borrow one when you need to.
But I saw a snake on my porch.
So get a dart gun instead of shooting a hole in your porch.
But my teen is on the skeet shooting team at school.
Again, not necessary to store the gun in your home. Lots of team sporting equipment is not stored in individual homes.
But my gun is locked away and doing no harm.
Of course it’s doing harm. If nothing else you’re contributing to and taking part in the psycho gun culture in the US. Beyond that it’s putting your household at risk.
But I keep my gun in a safe.
I’m pro-gun safes, but let’s be very clear that guns stored in safes can still be removed from the safe and used for harm. This happens literally every day. A household with a gun is far more likely to experience gun violence than a household without a gun. Again, that’s just common sense.
But my kids/grandkids don’t even know the code to the safe.
Maybe if they’re toddlers, but if they’re older they definitely know and they’ve definitely told their siblings. They also know where you hide your favorite chocolates. If your grandson is having a bad day and decides he wants your gun, he will access it in less than two minutes when you nod off in front of the TV.
And remember, it was you or your spouse that told them how to access the gun! Because you read some fear-mongering story about break-ins and wanted the kids to know how to access the gun in case they need to “protect” themselves. By doing so you put them at great risk and made them far less safe.
Which brings us to talking about gun suicides. Please read the following four tweets:
But I’m a responsible gun owner.
No you’re not. There’s no such thing. Unless and until the term “responsible gun owner” is legally defined and there are legal consequences tied to the definition, then the term is meaningless. Every gun owner I’ve ever talked to (and I’ve talked to thousands at this point) is convinced they are a responsible gun owner, but they can’t seem to agree on what that means.
But I’m trained in gun use and gun safety.
Train all you want. Having a gun in your home is by definition irresponsible. And if your trainer isn’t teaching you that having a gun at home makes your household less safe, then the training doesn’t sound legit.
But there’s nothing we can do, there are just too many guns in the US.
Baloney. Be creative, figure out what would motivate a gun fanatic to give up their guns. Privileges? Do we need to take away passports or driver’s licenses or wifi or freeze their bank accounts until they willingly hand in their guns? Money? Do we need to pay them to willingly hand-in their guns? The good news is we can get rid of 50% of the guns if we just focus on motivating 3% of the population, because 3% of the population own half the guns.
How would we fund this type of thing? Consider how much we currently spend on gun violence in the form of prisons, medical care, and police budgets. We can save a huge amount of money in all 3 of those categories if we get rid of the guns.
But we just need to focus on gun safety protocols.
Sure! Yes! I’m all for safety protocols. I have advocated for them for years. Let’s require gun insurance. Let’s make federal gun laws not state gun laws — only federal laws can be effective in a country where people can freely go from state to state. Let’s require safety classes before you can qualify for a gun license. I’m up for all the ideas! I’m also in favor of gun owners realizing they don’t need a gun and that it’s making their household less safe, so they should just get rid of it.
But guns aren’t the problem, people are the problem.
Fine. In that case I don’t think guns are selfish and irresponsible, I think are gun owners are.
We can not treat fearful excuses for keeping a gun at home as “reasonable anxieties” because every time we do, the gun lobby and gun fanatics escalate their resistance to even the smallest reforms.
Every day brings multiple new headlines — 11 people shot and killed at a festival, a man shot and killed his girlfriend, a toddler found a gun and shot and killed their sibling. So much preventable death and violence. It makes me nauseous. Guns make your household less safe. Perhaps we should get rid of them.
What is ending up in the headlines are mass murders and the occasional intimate partner gun death. If we reported on *every* successful deadly act of gun violence, including homicides, accidental deaths, suicides, and police brutality, and every successful non-lethal act of gun violence—attempted robberies, road rage incidents, i.e. use of a gun that didn’t end in death—and every attempted act of violence with a gun, we’d need to put a ticker at the bottom of the news feed like we do with the stock market to keep up, that’s how prevalent gun violence is in the U.S. We only ever hear about the big ones anymore because there just aren’t the resources to cover them.
I’m sick of having this argument. It’s the guns and we don’t have to live this way.
I grew up in a gun household. I knew where my dad’s guns were (“responsibly hidden” under a pile of sweaters at the top of his closet). I’ve shot guns for sport my entire life. I’ve taken safety classes. I have been around people who claim to be “responsible gun owners” who bring beer and whiskey to the shooting range (it is illegal in many states to be in possession of a weapon while intoxicated because the risk of accidental harm goes up exponentially).
I haven’t had a gun in my house in almost 20 years because I could not find a valid reason for it. There isn’t one.
Those that have eyes to see…I’m furious and exhausted with gun culture. (Could we call the US a death cult? A gun cult?!) I cannot fathom that we who oppose guns and/or gun violence are still considered to hold extreme position! It’s totally maddening. Thank you, Gabi, for laying out your argument both logically and emotionally. Maybe it will help break through the fog.