Guns are dull

It might seem despicable to yoke the Connecticut shootings to the theme of this blog -- so soon, at least -- but I think that doing so is defensible. The impetus of my post is this:

Guns are dull. Relationships are not.

Indeed, guns are dull in a precisely similar way to which relationships are interesting.

Perhaps my attitude to weapons has to do with having been brought up in the UK. I am fiercely proud of the US citizenship for which I studied years ago, but something I find notable is the sheer level of fascination  that guns seem to exercise on the US civilian population. It is an interest one simply doesn't find in Britain or a lot of other countries, and it gives these small devices silly oxygen. I accept that a few folks might find them appealing as collectibles, and I imagine that target shooting might be fun for an hour. Plus, people in certain rural or military circumstances can make a case for firearms that is strongly, if not necessarily, valid. But otherwise, guns strike me as just dull. Dangerously dull.

I am told that the allure has to do with the Constitution, and to do with guns being "more legal" here than in, say, many European countries. I'm not so sure. Both arguments have that combined fragment of original truth and skewed echo that ring -- now, in 2012, on the heels of Sandy Hook -- of misguided apology. Plus bullshit. And the phantom for which the apologist, who is very often anti-gun, seems to be grabbing is that of desire. Want. Glass-eyed lust for lead.

It's hard to fathom why. Guns are tools: that is all. I suspect that the world's best soldiers are leery of the fizzing enthusiasm that many civilian gun owners display. A gun, to a soldier, is a matter-of-fact instrument, comparable to a good lathe or quality bowl. There is professional pride in the selection and maintenance of the optimal weapon for the job, but not entertainment. Nor diversion. Also: guns need to be oiled; cleaned; have their status constantly monitored. Oh, and they are lethal, so the handler can't let his attention wander for one second. A snore-inducing combination.

It was pointed out to me once that, among their even more dreadful features, the Nazis were boring. They tried (imagine this) to suppress the Czech language. A whole language. How grey, paranoid, and arrogant would you have to be to try that? The hideous and simple potential of guns surely falls into this category. Someone who has a pistol pointed at your head has power, but it is perhaps the most tiresome power there is. Its power reeks of the metallic. It postures like a done crossword. It is nothing but its own voice. It is the diadem of the annoying kid who badgers you with one of those closed-loop, when-did-you-stop-beating-your-spouse word games. But it is awfully, sometimes fatally, worse.

Investing time and energy in relationships, by contrast, is interesting. Relationships -- romantic or not, polyamorous or not -- are intriguing. You like or you love those involved, often both, so you apply yourself to helping them.  Even then, relationships can be like seeds thrown into the air: you judge your moment, but you don't quite know how or when even a slight breeze will affect them. If it does, you have to think on your feet. Although not always in charge, you are always involved. You can pick from your spectrum of skills -- everything from intuiting a partner's feelings to knowing how to mend a tea kettle -- to aid everyone involved. You learn when to be like a bull at a gate, and when to use restraint.

Ah, restraint. This brings up another point. When the tyranny of dullness is given rein -- whether literally by guns or by a similar crass power -- rudeness follows. Tom Hodgkinson points out that "Puritanism and its brother, money-getting, are rude by nature... It is rude to kill 27,000 Iraqi civilians. Interference is rude; governments are rude; professionals are rude."

A crude, oft-made statement on this whole topic is that Americans would be better-off if their love of violence and hatred of sex swapped roles. Well, I think that's unfair. Horribly unfair. Especially on a weekend that saw the President in genuine tears, having just been re-elected by a patient, sophisticated, and compassionate electorate no longer enchanted by the sniff of cash.

But on the USA's road to re-setting itself as an exemplary nation, one of its challenges will be in recognizing the sheer littleness of guns. Dull, dull guns.

How dull? On Friday 14th December, they left 28 people cold.

 

"Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form:
Then have I reason to be fond of grief."

('King John', William Shakespeare)