Are Guns More Important Than What They Are Supposed To Protect?

A lot of people vote on the issue of gun rights because they want to make sure they can protect their freedom from an out-of-control government. I can understand that. I don’t agree with it, but I respect it. While I once thought the same way, I have grown to appreciate the path that people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi have taken in order to combat oppressive governments. I think ultimately the only kind of revolution that will bring about positive and enduring change is a peaceful one. Violence, as it is said somewhere, only leads to more violence. Violence used by one side justifies the violence used by another. When there is justice, no violence will be necessary, and when there is violence, there will be no justice.

But regardless of the approach, I appreciate those who wish to protect freedom from an overreaching government. And if having a gun makes you feel more secure in your protection of freedom, I can live with that. Most gun owners I know are responsible and peaceful people who have never given me a reason to fear for my safety. Most.

But like anything else, the support for guns can be taken too far. And just like anything else, the tool can sometimes take precedence over its intended use. As J.R.R. Tolkien once said, “I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” Like any unhealthy fascination, it is quite possible to come to love the weapon for its own sake, to admire the skill that went into its creation, the genius of its design, or its ability to do its job. This can and does happen, and I’m sure we’ve all seen examples of it. Perhaps if we are to be honest with ourselves, we have witnessed it in ourselves.

Like any other aspect of our lives, we have to be careful that we have a healthy relationship with guns. If guns are a way to protect freedom, we must never allow the two—the physical weapon and the abstract idea—to stray too far from each other. When the concrete form takes precedence over the ideas it is supposed to represent or protect, it leads to idolatry and fetishism.

Even many thousands of years ago, people were aware of how we can lose sight of the abstract and the spiritual and get distracted by the concrete. The Bible warns repeatedly of the dangers of idolatry, the First Commandment being a warning against having false gods. And yet the desire to worship statues is apparently a strong attraction. Moses discovered this when bringing the Ten Commandments to his people, only to find them worshiping a golden calf. It’s hard for us humans living a physical existence to remember the ideas that help us live more fully in such a world. But they do. The ability to think abstractly is exactly what has made us the ruling species on this planet. Nevertheless, it is easy to backslide into forgetting complex ideas. A gun in the hand can seem more understandable than the nuanced concept of freedom.

Losing oneself in a symbol rather than what it represents is not merely a religious condition. Too often we see people elevating a flag over the ideas that flag is supposed to represent. If the flag represents freedom, then we should never try to restrict people’s freedom in order to show respect for the flag. And yet we see people losing their heads about it all the time. We forget that the flag is but a symbol for deeper, more abstract yet important values. Without such values, the flag is just a piece of cloth.

So too do we often times lose the idea of freedom in our fight to protect gun ownership. For example, if you support a powerful lobbying group that influences government and reduces democratic principles, you are undercutting the idea of freedom of all to act equally in a democratic society. The NRA is one of those special interest groups promoting an agenda through money and influence that is undermining our democracy.

If you vote principally on a candidate’s or a party’s position on guns, you may be undercutting the very freedoms you hope to protect with those guns. If not your own, then the freedom of others. And they matter, because when government comes for the rights of others, it is only a matter of time before it comes for yours, too. If you support politicians who want to send people to prison for ingesting whatever chemicals they choose, you are not only infringing upon their freedom to do what they want, you are physically incarcerating them as well. If you are a gun rights advocate who enjoys the occasional use of marijuana, you are restricting your own freedom in order to protect your right to protect your freedom.

When you vote solely on the issue of guns and do not think about the other issues, you can end up voting against the very notion of democracy. In voting for guns, you have voted for gerrymandering, which has limited competition for political offices. In voting for guns, you have voted for increasing the barriers people face to vote. In voting for guns, you have increased the power of special interest groups (such as the NRA) to influence elections. If in voting for guns you also voted for an increasingly militaristic police state, then you have undercut the very ability of your limited arsenal to fight against a state that has drones and armored vehicles at its command.

If you have placed the gun above the very things it is supposed to protect, you have lost your way. More than that, you have been distracted. Don’t feel bad, it is a classic ploy used by those who want to rule you. Rest assured that all of us are being distracted to a degree: the propaganda machine is very well funded and practiced in the art of manipulation. Nevertheless, it is upon you to look beyond the gun to the issues you wish to defend. Because if you are not defending democracy and freedom with your right to own a gun, why should anybody care about your right to own one?