I've only shot a gun once in my life. When I went to camp as a kid, there was a rifle range and, at age 12 or 13, I shot 22s at a target. And I've only had a gun in an apartment I lived in once. When my father, a World War II veteran, died in 1983, I spent time in the New York apartment my parents had moved to after I went off to college. I began cleaning out his closet and, among all the war memorabilia he had (including his Air Force hat, his canteen, piles of wartime documents, and so much else), was an unloaded pistol, which I turned over to the New York City police. And I only remember someone arriving at my house with a gun once -- when my wife mistakenly called the police, thinking there was a crisis in our building and a couple of policemen appeared at our door with holstered pistols.
That makes me a distinct anomaly. After all, here are the figures that Ammo.com offers: there are an estimated 500 million -- no, that is not a typo! -- guns in private hands in the United States (only six million of which are registered). It's estimated that almost 83 million Americans (and 43% of all households) owned at least one firearm in 2023. And civilians in this country, according to Wikipedia, "account for an estimated 393 million (about 46%) of the worldwide total of civilian-held firearms." (No other country on this planet, it seems, has nearly as many firearms per citizen in private hands.)
Oh, and in 2024, more than 44,000 Americans died from gunshot wounds (which, believe it or not, was down slightly from 2023), with gun deaths outnumbering motor vehicle fatalities for eight straight years. Oh (again!), and as The Trace reports, "Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, his administration has cut funding for gun violence research, slashed grants to intervention programs, and ended the Biden administration's zero-tolerance policy for lawbreaking gun dealers."
And if that doesn't take your breath away, I wonder what possibly could! Well, with that in mind, let me suggest that you check out TomDispatch regular and author of the new novel The Angle of Falling Light Beverly Gologorsky's latest piece on our distinctly over-armed nation in this grim Trumpian moment when ICE officers are shooting down American citizens in our streets. Tom
Why Guns?
From Personal Power to Autocracy in Donald Trump's America
Power is felt, attributed, invisible, all-important, descriptive, without shape, and so much more. There is personal power, governmental power, and the collective power of the people. Power can be bought, sold, traded, bestowed, even rescinded. It can be good or bad, positive or corrupt.However you might wish to describe power, one thing is clear: how it's used depends on the society in which we live.
At present, of course, our society is one in which President Donald J. Trump is the quintessential seeker of power, a man who needs power the way most of us need food. And as it happens, he has at his beck and call not just the entire military establishment, but ICE (and so much more). With him in the White House, power is distinctly in fashion.
Personal Power
Married and with children, my brother, who was a veteran, kept guns in his basement. "To hunt," he told me when I objected.But he didn't hunt, not in Nassau County where he lived, not by taking part in a sport that cost money he didn't have to travel somewhere, get licenses, and who knows what else. Did he keep guns because he felt afraid? Absolutely not, he insisted. Was his neighborhood one with many break-ins? No, he assured me.So, why did he need weapons in his basement?He couldn't say, except that it was important to him to own them.
Why? I kept asking him.As a soldier, he reminded me, he had been taught that without his gun he was in danger of being killed.
Had he been a man of means, that inculcation wouldn't, I suspect, have been as powerful, but he wasn't and never did feel empowered. He's gone now, but his world isn't. Guns remain as much a staple in the United States as potatoes.
Well-off families keep guns, too, hopefully in locked places and have the money to buy hunting rifles, licenses, and whatever other paraphernalia they need. But in the United States today, all too many guns -- sometimes even untraceable "ghost guns" -- aren't locked in boxes, but carried by young people on the streets and even sometimes into schools. The guns on the streets of inner cities, in rural areas, and even in some suburbs are all too often unlicensed stolen ones. And a desire/need to be seen/known/heard all too often leads to someone shooting others with one of those weapons in a mall, movie theater, or school. Nearly 47,000 people died of gun-related injuries in this country in 2023. Such shootings occur more often in the United States than in any other nation. Why?
Under the Trump administration, when more is taken away from so many people than given to them, guns offer those who carry them a reprieve from a sense of powerlessness over their daily lives and futures. Many of them are young people alienated by a society that cares little about their well-being. With gun in hand, they experience steadiness, security, and yes, hope (however false it may prove to be).
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