Americans love, no crave, simple answers to complex situations. We see an issue, like poverty, and say, “Well, if people just work harder,” or “The wealthy are hogging all the money,” or “It’s pure racism.” None of those answers are totally wrong, but they do not encompass the entire issue. Some problems that humanity confronts require responses as nuanced as the initial problem. To dismiss these issues with short, platitudes negates the real issues and the people who are affected by them.
Today, the biggest issue is gun control, and none of the bills that failed were small or simple. Likewise the issues they are attempting to address, escalating social violence, change in cultural understanding of firearms, and the fragmentation of our populace, are not questions we can answer with one new piece of legislation. These times are ones to discuss and talk about how to make new paths for the future and try to unpack some of these issues. There are parts of our lives that, while not directly impacted by policy, will still feel the impacts of our choices, and all of these need to be taken seriously.
When it comes to firearms, it looks like gun owners have won. While you are celebrating, my question to you is, “What is the cost?” While I know that there were letters written by many individuals, and rallies by people at state capitals across the country, the public depiction is one of lobbying groups grabbing the microphone in order to portray themselves as victims. This is the image that has been given to our culture, and it will be how people know you from here on. The work of the individuals who came together as a community are lost amidst the image of the suit-wearing lobbyists who spout legal and political jargon like the senators who voted. Is that the image you want shown to the world?
And, when everything was voted down, where there things in there that could be seen as positive steps? The bill that would have added veterans who required a fiduciary due to mental health issues to the background check pool may have been something to talk more about. During the months leading up to this vote, there was no real public discourse about the merits or faults of this particular piece of legislation. While not wanting to cast a disparaging view on veterans, should we have reconsidered this? The bill does not remove their ability to buy a firearm, just their exempt status from state run background checks. Can we continue to talk about this for future reconsideration? What is the issue.
On the other side of the issue, there are considerations that need to be addressed as well. The “universal background check” bill was supposed to seal the cracks that allowed bad people to acquire a firearm. Since the tragedy of Newtown, CT, this has been a focus on those who suffer mental infirmities, as well as others, but we will focus on the mental health issue. If we are to include mental health declarations in the database used for firearms purchases, do we have to change HIPPA? Those things would, in a sense, violate doctor-patient confidentiality, and therefore personal privacy. If you say you are not going to change HIPPA, then you will not have the information you are wanting, and will make the law impotent other than to take away a private individuals power to control their own possessions. Does this mean we have to legislate what is a private mental health matter and a public information issue? To be egalitarian, would we want for everyone’s mental health to be a matter of public record? As someone who has been to therapy in the past, I do not want you knowing what I talked about with my therapist, and I think many would agree tot hat sentiment
While not going into specifics or taking sides, I read the proposed bill, and that was one issue that was never addressed. Now, you are angry and think there are 46 people who you should be summarily voted out for not approving this bill, but harsh language will not fix this matter either. President Obama tweeted, though I’m sure he was not the one who sent it, that 98% of Americans favored the bill that was used. I’m sorry, but I was never asked. Where does this information come from? That questions would require pages to address saber-metrics and how those things are measured. I do not have the expertise to address such an issue. Besides, this is a blog post, and shouldn’t be that long.
The real issue is that the sun has risen again, and we have to live in this world that rose with us. We may be angry, or we may be rejoicing, but we need to slow down and look at the people around us. The issue that lies before us is that both groups are worried about their personal security. One wants the freedom to take that upon themselves, and the other wants to have a government that is big enough and powerful enough to do it. Neither is right, and neither is wrong. Both are a collection of people trying to discern the best for the future of the United States. May we have the wisdom to see ourselves in the other.
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