By Joaquin Gallegos
American AR-15 - stock photo. Photo by Gettysimages
I am a silent American. And yet, I am your neighbor, I am a father, I am a son, I am a voter. My silence is one of creation because I have been given a culture with unalienable rights from which I do not have to fight to keep every day. The ultimate rules I follow are rules of a constitution that has been bestowed on my American Society. Many have already fought and died for it. As with my fellow Americans, what I must do is protect its existence.
The Silent Majority
I am not alone in my silence. I am however part of thousands who have a voice as one when it comes to the protection of our rights. More specifically our second amendment rights. We don’t go around doing bad things that need to be heard about every day on the news. The silent majority that is not heard can be anyone. We are the lower class, middle class, and upper class, We are men and women, we are anyone from any occupation. We are both Republican and Democrat. We can be the judges with concealed carry permits.
Unfortunately, gun issues are constantly in the news cycle in one shape or another.
Yet politicians such as Biden and Newsom cannot do what they want many times. The reason for this may be that the silent majority still believes in the values laid out in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
Don’t Tread on Me
In the United States Declaration of Independence exists a phrase, “certain unalienable rights”. As in to not have the ability to alienate them. To alienate is to induce feelings of isolation. The unalienable rights are meant to be the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. One could say that the pursuit of life includes the protection of it as well. When our government tries to reduce our protections without the vote of those it wishes to govern it is essentially telling the people that those rights do not matter. Thus alienating the purpose of our declaration.
The American world we live in has had many hard times. Hard times often do befall a society when so many fruits must be picked from its bounty in order for it to live. Unfortunately, our society has many people who do not want to participate in helping to grow our societal orchard. Instead, these non-participants mean us harm in the way they take without giving and seek to upset the balance of our tranquility. Although difficult times come to all of us at one point or another, it does not mean that people should institute their own stamping on their fellow citizens. Those who take and instill harm to society must be vaccinated. Their disease of self should not become the disease of the populus. Our people must prepare for the day when those who mean to tread on us must not prevail and continue their personal tyranny.
A Civilized Society
The American population is around 331 million. The Census Bureau says there are 125 million households in the US. According to Pew Research, it is estimated that 42% of American households have at least one firearm. Therefore, there are at least 52 million households with a firearm. We should congratulate our citizens for being so responsible for their handling of their firearms. If it wasn’t for this responsibility there would surely be more bloodshed in our streets. Unfortunately, Pew also reported that in 2021 there were about 48,000 gun-related deaths. A number that our politicians are so vigorously willing to speak about.
However, Politicians often fail to bring up that around 25,000 of those deaths are suicides (Pew Research). Also, many of those were purchased legally under existing gun controls. So much effort is spent on bringing up gun violence in our society that the other major killers do not take up as much space in the news. For 2021, the CDC reports that Diabetes took around 103,000 lives of our citizens. It is in eighth place compared to other major killers of Americans according to the CDC. For comparison, in the same year, 695,000 people lost their lives to heart disease. Another 605,000 passed because of cancer. When comparing gun deaths to heart disease deaths it is only 7%. Why do our politicians not tackle those much bigger killers as much?
YouTubers
Some of the pro-gun Second Amendment Youtubers are so zealous to get their point across that they don’t understand the stereotypes they create when they demonstrate commando-like behavior when talking about gun issues. Stereotypes such as gun owners are fanatics or that gun owners are looking for a fight with the government.
This is not what the silent majority of gun owners look like or handle themselves as. If it was, then America would look like a military state. However, many of these YouTubers have valid points when they point out that the loss of our Second Amendment right is happening a little at a time with little changes that have not been the problem in the past. For instance, there is a background check needed to buy ammunition. There is also a limit of how much ammunition can be purchased. Limiting ammunition also limits practice with a firearm. To be accurate with a firearm a person has to practice. Being accurate is very important when it comes to self-defense.
Some YouTubers have suggested that the government is trying to push towards a national gun registry so it would know who has guns. Therefore if they decide to ban them they know who to get them from. It might not include criminals because as we know they do not follow laws. Additionally, people's private information would be on the list. Sometimes those lists are accidentally released like in 2022 when the Department of Justice had a data breach that exposed every Conceal Carry Permit Holder's personal information for the whole state. (1)
The Great Equalizer
Do guns create equalization amongst society members? If a criminal has a gun and an innocent victim has a gun they are more likely equal regardless of their size. Firearms can be used by many individuals to whom other forms of physical force may not be possible. Not everyone is capable of becoming a Kung Fu fighter to protect themselves. The CDC reports that at least 25% of adult Americans have some form of disability. They report that 12.1% of those have some form of mobility issues. That equates to around 10 million Americans who might not be able to get away from or fight off an attacker.
Additionally, as a large portion of the US population ages, such as the Baby Boomer generation, they will be less likely to physically defend themselves from attackers. An M&P Shield Gun weighs about one pound and has a pull trigger with a resistance of about 2 ounces. Many more senior citizens would be able to handle that than pick up a baseball bat or wrestle a would-be intruder.
Firearms for defense can be used from a distance to stop a threat before the person has time to cause physical harm to a person or their loved one. As the baby boomers age, they will not only be a possible target, they will become more of a target because of their perceived vulnerability.
Accounting for more than half of our population, women may choose to do more things by themselves. They too may be seen as possible victims by aggressive attackers. According to the US Department of Justice in 2022 there were 531,810 incidents of Rape/sexual assault. Even though this number includes both women and men, you can probably make a guess who the majority of those were. Being able to defend themselves with a weapon such as a firearm can help relieve them of the dependence on others in today’s world where so many people decide not to jump in and help in many situations. It’s unfortunate that a lot of people would rather pull out their phone and press record.
Agenda in the Driver's Seat
Many of these numbers along with their faceless victims are not the focus of our media. However, the people who are the focus most of the time are often the politicians who are showcased by their media partners. They are supposed to have been voted in to do what we the people want. However, when was the last time that you heard about any ballot measures that requested votes when it came to gun control laws? Unfortunately, they are few and far between. Such as the failed 1982 ballot measure that attempted to restrict handgun ownership. In a world where the presidents, the governors and other politicians are constantly preaching how bad gun violence is in order to push their remove-your-rights agenda on the people, the decisions being left up to us are usually not allowed because they do not allow us to make them. They use mass shootings as scare tactics. They also give their solutions little nicknames like “Common Sense Laws”.
Even when they talk about mass shootings there are discrepancies. The Department of Justice defines a mass shooting as any time four people are murdered by a gun in a single incident. However, the FBI defines it as an event in which one or more people are engaged in actively killing or attempting to kill in a populated area. Yet the Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as when four or more are injured or killed in a single incident.
The political scare of the American public is into thinking this can happen to them. This would be fine, but the second part of that should be to help citizens protect themselves if that is true. However, most mass shootings are in places where most American voters are not allowed to carry a gun to protect themselves, which could be why most mass shootings happen in these places. The shooter might know that they will likely not come into contact with another person with a gun. In contrast, have you heard of a mass shooting at a gun store or shooting range, or pawnshop? How about at a police station?
Are politicians like Governor Newsom willing to allow more people to protect themselves? No. In fact, he is adding more restrictions to places for law-abiding gun owners. Which then expands to more places where mass shootings can happen. Based on his recent restrictions for California Concealed Carry Holders, mass shootings that happened in 2023 would have been in illegal places to carry. Would his new restrictions have stopped any of them? Not likely.
Ironically, Biden and Newsom who are against gun violence also use armed security to protect themselves. Besides, what is the most likely reason that they don’t want to hear from the majority of voters? Maybe the real question should be if voters are willing to give up their rights.
To Be, or Not to Be…. Protected
As our society continues to move forward it is not time to go back to the old west of gunslingers. However, as we have seen, the bad people are constantly pushing the boundaries of what they can get away with. And just as this is happening, the amount of those in charge of protecting the public is decreasing. As reported in the NBC News, The US is experiencing a police hiring crisis. Agencies are constantly understaffed and reducing their budgets. Some active personnel are headed to retirement as the hiring process has been affected by the lack of people willing to put in the time it takes to get trained. Whatever the good reason may be, at the end of the day, less feet on the ground is still less feet on the ground to protect us.
Politicians also look at ways to shore up budgets by reducing prison attendance. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that Newsom has approved the closure of three prisons. Where do you think those prisoners go when they are not there? One thing the pandemic has shown us is that the government can move fast when it wants to. Such as when it wants to reduce things in our society but it takes its time when it comes to fixing things like mental health insurance coverage, which most mass shooters and suicidal people need. If it really wanted to help society it would develop proactive programs to help those in need and not obscure it in a pile of paperwork.
We prepare for situations and protect ourselves from death every day. We put seat belts on in case we get into a collision in our vehicles. We learn to swim so we don’t drown. We learn to handle fire so we don’t burn our homes down. We do these things because we value life. We not only value our own life but also our families and our neighbors. We value complete strangers' lives at times.
At the end of the day, “You stand”
At the end of the day, you are the first one to protect yourself from those who will do you harm. Remember that the number of gun deaths also includes the innocent victims. It could be the mother who could not protect herself at the mall or a man who was shot at a gas station. It could also include a family who was watching a movie at a theater.
The bottom line is that the bad guys will always have guns. They will use them on those who they think cannot defend themselves. No criminal has ever said, “I can’t use a gun to get what I want because the law doesn’t allow it.” Punishing those who do right in their society is ethically wrong.
The vilification of people willing to protect themselves should be stopped. This includes trying to take away our human rights to protect ourselves if the time should come. No society is perfect, we live in this society and it is better than most. All 331 million of us need to be protected, not just the upper crust.
Politicians and the media should focus more on what needs to be given to our society not what needs to be taken away.
“Those who would trade in their freedom for their protection deserve neither”
- Benjamin Franklin
National Review June 29, 2022
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