BIG GUNS

This is not meant to be an argument about gun control, although it might seem that way. Just the mention of guns has people reaching for their holsters, especially south of the border, where it is legal to have something to reach for. Here in Canada, you can own a gun, but you have to apply for a license and undergo a pretty thorough background check. According to the RCMP, about 2 million Canadians have done that, usually for sporting guns. Automatic weapons are prohibited. Like it or not, those are the rules, and most of us abide by them.

My father-in-law kept a hunting rifle under his bed at the cottage. He was a refugee from Czechoslovakia, who came to Canada after the war, fleeing the Communists. He knew too well that governments can topple and turn against their citizens, and he supported the ideology behind the right to bear arms. He taught his daughter how to shoot, and I believe she still keeps the rifle (now registered) under the bed, although its intended use is against bears, not Communists.

A few years ago, en route to a dinner party, we stopped for drinks at a friend’s house. He had just inherited his grandfather’s service revolver, and he showed it to us, allowing us to pass it around, unloaded of course, and inspect it. We were fascinated, never having held a handgun before. It was heavy, and oily, and extremely difficult to pull back the hammer. We were excited and giggly, and took James Bond style pictures for Instagram. Later, at the dinner party, we mentioned the experience to other friends, who happened to be lawyers. They were horrified, telling us you can’t even touch a gun unless you’re licensed and it’s registered. I promptly deleted every picture, and that sums up my entire relationship with firearms.

Last night, as you no doubt heard, a 64-year-old accountant from Nevada opened fire on a crowd gathered for a country music concert on the Las Vegas strip, killing 58 at last count, and injuring over 500. Nevada has some of the laxest gun laws in the country: you don’t need a permit or a license, you can buy them anywhere, there’s no waiting period, and you can carry then openly. Semi automatic weapons are legal. In fact, Nevada profits heavily from machine gun tourism. That’s right. Machine gun tourism.

The gun people will tell you that this accountant, who took his own life, is an exception, a head case, a mental health issue, and that tighter gun controls could have done nothing to prevent this massacre. You see, people with mental health disorders aren’t allowed to carry guns, so remember: when you’re out shopping for a light machine gun in Nevada, don’t tell the clerk you’re feeling bummed and angry. Oh never mind, tell him anyway. He won’t care.

I wouldn’t even let my kids play with toy guns when they were little. Super Soakers, yes, and ultimately they moved on to Paintball, which I never liked, but it was all pretend. I wonder if this preoccupation with the right to bear arms is rooted in childish fantasy, in a world where bad guys have guns, so good guys have to have bigger guns. It’s left up to the clerk in the gun department at a Nevada Walmart to decide which is which. But in what kind of world does an accountant need an assault rifle? What kind of world would sell him one?

Advertisement