Ephemera

Compassion is All We’ve Got.

Illustration by Jamie Squire

Amrita Sher-Gil (Indian, 1913-1941)

“Valid” and “reasonable” are two different metrics. If by “valid” you mean to ask whether you’re allowed to be afraid of guns, absolutely. That’s not something I think anybody has the right to make fun of.

But that absolutely does not make your position reasonable at all, and it fact it is very unreasonable. For instance, the fact that he could go to a car lot, but a car, and drive up a sidewalk to kill a bunch of people would not necessarily affect how much you trust cars themselves- even as we have had more than one instance of that in Europe this year. He could go to a kitchen goods stores, buy knives, and stab a bunch of people. Even among guns, the ones most banned (so-called “assault rifles,” which is an inaccurate and meaningless term) account for less than 3% of all gun deaths every year. So of course it is not reasonable to say “I dislike guns because of who can get them” because it is obviously irrelevant to what you actually think about guns, or you would think the same thing about knives. While discussing reasonability we should also mention here that mentally ill people are much more likely to harm themselves than to harm other people, and more likely to be the victims of violence than to perpetrate it. I don’t know your brother, and I can’t speak on whether he’s a decent guy with problems or a shitty guy with some problems, but either way the fact does currently remain that he seems violent and has access to a gun and doesn’t just use it willy nilly- he didn’t shoot your windows in and I’m assuming he could have. Most gun owners, and most people who have mental/emotional health issues, aren’t necessarily violent at all.

The fact that you do distrust knives for the same reason tells me that how an item is sold and regulated is not the deciding factor in how you feel about it. I think you’re reaching to find some “valid” reason to be afraid of them or uncomfortable around them. But you don’t have to have some great political reason. It doesn’t have to be that deep. You can just admit “I don’t like them” and leave it there rather than elevate that to a reasonable political position. You don’t have to justify feelings. You do have to justify political positions.

I don’t think armed revolution is ideal, but I also don’t think those in power will ever simply hand that power over to those who ask for it, and yes that means that revolution is necessarily at least partially warfare. I also don’t think that it is “reasonable” for the police state and military, neither of which can be trusted, to be the only groups in the country with access to firearms. Any position that requires such trust in the police and military apparatus is in opposition to socialist theory, the development of socialism, and the needs of the working class- those needs include being armed and able to defend ourselves, especially among the most vulnerable of us, including gay people, trans people, black people, other people of color, etc. And in the meantime and in between time, since revolution is not around the corner, guns are necessary for self defense against very armed and very organized fascist/otherwise violent far right interest groups- the far right is rising, organizing, and arming itself. We should be doing the same. I have said before that I dope the day won’t come soon when we have to fight fascists in trenches. But it could, and the far right’s rise does signal the emboldened of those we would have to fight.