While federal gun control measures remain tabled until the next two GOP manufactured crises subside (the debt ceiling and government shutdown), the nation and The Nation continue to ponder the problem of guns in American society. Marie Myung-Ok Lee wrote a fine piece on American gun culture, and it is one marker pointing toward a turn in the talk: a turn toward a deeper, more nuanced examination of firearms and American citizenry.
The article:
When Mental Illness Meets US Gun Culture:
After a shooting that injured thirteen people—including a toddler—in a park in Chicago last week, my friend complained it didn’t make the national news. Likely, there are just too many mass shootings competing for our attention: a few days earlier, Aaron Alexis had slaughtered thirteen people in a Washington, DC, naval office building.
The National Rifle Association exploits an easy tautology whenever we have a mass shooting: if anyone is so awful to do this, they must be mentally ill. If the person was a video gamer or a violent movie watcher, even better. This kind of reverse engineering creates a reliable narrative of an “other” that gives false reassurance that we would never have neighbors, friends, spouses who would do such a thing.
In a fascinating piece in The New York Times, Stanford professor of anthropology T.M. Luhrmann explores cultural differences in schizophrenia, specifically the commanding inner “voices.” I always assumed the voices were always dark, along the lines of “Must…kill…” However, the dark auditory hallucinations that mass shooters such as Adam Lanza and Aaron Alexis were said to have experienced may actually reflect a peculiarly American violence-and-gun-saturated culture. In a surprise twist, Professor Luhrmann and her colleagues at the Schizophrenia Research Foundation in Chennai, India, found that in Chennai, the commanding voices could be dark, but most often said a version of “Must…do…chores”; an example cited from one patient: “Go to the kitchen, prepare food.”
It is easy to square away mass gun violence by blaming violent video games, movies, and/or mental illness, but then we fail to understand the connection between it and the ubiquity of and easy access to guns in our society, as well as guns’ roles in our culture and self-image. It probably isn’t a coincidence that so many mass shooters spring not just from the ranks of the mentally ill but directly from gun culture, like Major Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood. Or Christopher Dorner, the Los Angeles shooter, an honorably discharged Navy Reservist andformer policeman. These mass murderers were, also, at a different time, one of NRA Executive Director Wayne LaPierre’s oft-cited “good guys with guns.”
In a gun culture world, more guns equal more safety. But most other industrialized countries seem to feel the opposite, and interestingly, their gun homicide rates are a fraction of ours.
Writing for The Guardian, Henry Porter points out that in the last forty-five years, more Americans lost their lives from firearms than in all wars involving the United States (which, on its own, is a lot). A raw look at the numbers, he says, suggests that a world-governing body, such as the UN, should get involved, just as it would in any other country mired in a bloody civil conflict.
To be clear: a vast majority of people with schizophrenia — a disease we popularly associate with violence — never commit violent acts. They are far more likely to be the victims of violence than perpetrators of it. But research shows us that the risk of violence from people with schizophrenia is real — significantly greater than it is in the broader population —
it is a sobering thought that the greater violence in the voices of Americans with schizophrenia may have something to do with those of us without schizophrenia. I suspect that the root of the differences may be related to the greater sense of assault that people who hear voices feel in a social world where minds are so private and (for the most part) spirits do not speak.
We Americans live in a society in which, when people feel threatened, they think about guns. The same cultural patterns that make it difficult to get gun violence under control may also be responsible for making these terrible auditory commands that much harsher.
Both weapons used by Alexis were recovered at the scene and have been submitted to the FBI Laboratory for forensic analysis. The Remington 870 shotgun had been altered with a sawed-off barrel and stock. Purple duct tape covered the end of the stock and handwritten etchings were present on various parts of the shotgun. Etched into the barrel of the shotgun were the words “End to the torment!” Etched into the right side of the shotgun receiver were the words “Not what yall say!” and etched into the left side of the receiver were the phrases “Better off this way!” and “My ELF weapon!”
There are multiple indicators that Alexis held a delusional belief that he was being controlled or influenced by extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves. The etching of “My ELF weapon!” on the left side of the receiver of the Remington 870 shotgun is believed to reference these electromagnetic waves. In addition, a document retrieved from his electronic media stated, “Ultra low frequency attack is what I’ve been subject to for the last 3 months, and to be perfectly honest that is what has driven me to this.
ELF technology was a legitimate program for naval sub-tonal submarine communications; however, conspiracy theories exist which misinterpret its application as the weaponization of remote neural frequencies for government monitoring and manipulation of unsuspecting citizens.
Guns and values
A cautionary note is needed; gun control in many respects is a branch of crime prevention. A need for effective crime prevention is not invalidated by the argument that criminals break laws. If we had figured that one out, we criminologists could all go home.
The objective is to secure the most effective series of gun violence prevention measures; reducing risks consistent with our other social values. All things being equal, the more guns in a society, the greater the frequency of gun violence. But those “other values” and other social changes are important too. The more cohesive, trusting, tolerant and responsible a society is, the less risk that gun ownership itself represents.
Societies undergoing rapid social changes, or riven with conflicts and divisions are likely to become increasingly dangerous when firearms are added to the mix. Unfortunately these societies are often the very places where private citizens seek firearms for “self-defence” purposes.
Firearm Homicide rates in selected societies: firearm homicide per 100,000 population. Data from Alpers and Wilson (GunPolicy.org), 2013
The societies above are selected to demonstrate the European range of gun homicide rates as compared with three other societies (Australia, Canada and India) and the USA. Norway, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland all have relatively high rates of gun ownership, likewise Canada and Australia, but nowhere near the US rates of gun violence. None of the European societies has been immune from the experience of “mass shooting” incidents and most have strengthened their guns laws as a consequence.
One final note on the gun culture: Not only is it preventing this nation from legislating for the public good, it is tainting and sabotaging American foreign policy: Kerry backs arms treaty; right preps major freak out. Once again the Second Amendment utilized to only protect corporate interests rather than citizen rights. Clearly the Second Amendment has outlived its usefulness for we as American citizens and now thwarts our position as what Thomas Paine might call “global citizens.”
The Reuters article embedded in the above link is a perfect example of we as a society of individuals allowing our media to coddle wingnuts. There’s no reason whatsoever for Reuters to give the NRA any space at all if it represents a loon-view of the world. Clearly NRA’s opposition does. For Reuters to legitimize this insanity is unacceptable. If Reuters gives NRA’s loon-view as much space as it does, it is incumbent upon Reuters to effectively correct the NRA’s position so the public isn’t misinformed. I might suggest anyone who supports sensible gun legislation or who seeks to recalibrate America’s status as a “rogue nation” in the eyes of the global community or who desires an end to corporate-driven media, write to Reuters. Demand they print only rational opposition. Insist they desist their role as mouthpiece for American arms manufacturers and switch their role to inform, not mislead the public.
The problem, in other words, keeps coming up, and probably won’t get any better until the electorate sends fewer conspiracy theorists to Washington.
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