I Hate Guns — But I Might Buy One
As the father of four black children, I’m forced to reevaluate my ideals
Let me be clear: I am, at least in the hallowed halls of my ideals, as anti-gun as a person can be. I have railed against what I believe to be the antiquated concept of the 2nd Amendment, quoted gun violence statistics ad nauseam, and pointed out the obvious correlation between gun availability and gun violence in the United States more times than I can count. And yet, I find myself seriously considering buying a gun.
My anti-gun stance is more than an academic exercise. I grew up witnessing the destructive power of firearms. There were periods of my life when I carried one with me everywhere I went, and I’ve seen the devastation they’ve wrought from both sides of the barrel. I’ve lost friends to gun violence and I’ve lost friends to prisons for pulling triggers.
From an engineering standpoint, I’ve always admired the elegant efficiency of guns. They’re a near-perfect machine. Human ingenuity has distilled the power of dealing death and pain down to a process as simple as using a computer mouse. Point and click; point and shoot.
Ideals are admirable. Aspiring to the highest form of a principle or belief is a measure of one’s character and can shape a person’s very nature. Unflinching…
