Gun ownership is a protected right
Mark Greathouse
(3/2022) Welcome to "Tumbleweeds," an opinion column drawing upon the history of America’s Old West to put many of today’s pressing issues into historical perspective. Tumbleweeds tumble randomly across the prairies causing concerns to whatever destination they reach. Issues can be like tumbleweeds, as folks fail to heed the lessons of history and those lessons pop up randomly as crises and cause all manner of havoc. A 1930 ballad associates the tumbleweed with freedom, "See them tumbling down, pledging their love to the ground, lonely but free I’ll be found, drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds." Follow "Tumbleweeds," as lonely but free we’ll be found on today’s issues.
The Earp brothers strode down the dusty Tombstone, Arizona Street to the OK Corral, headed to a gunfight that became indelibly imprinted in American lore. Jack McCall walked up behind "Wild Bill" Hickock in Deadwood, South Dakota and shot him in the back of the head. McCall was tried and hanged. Perpetuated in dime-store novels, the gunplay of the Old West is often hijacked by the anti-gun establishment to support their political slant. Ironically, those Old West killings are too often mimicked today…gang violence…ambushes…revenge…robberies…all perpetrated by lawbreakers. Most folks of frontier America owned and carried firearms. There were no licenses, no background checks, and no permissions. The vast majority were used by necessity, including protection from varmints like rattlesnakes, coyotes, and javelina; hunting for food and cover; and self-defense from savages and outlaws. My Texas rancher cousin has found it necessary to shoot
rattlesnakes, and a friend in Arizona shot a rattler to protect her dog. Like an Old West throwback, ranchers, clergy, and even mothers living near the U.S.-Mexican border increasingly carry guns these days as defense against desperate criminal elements that cross illegally.
Death, especially violent death, is sad by any measure. Death delivering tools range from knives to poison to guns to nooses to drugs to bombs to…well, you get the picture.
Statistics are a cold-hearted reality that wraps itself around death. Per the FBI, roughly 32,000 folks die by guns annually. An especially sad two-thirds of those are suicides. Fifteen percent are by law enforcement in the line of duty against threats to public and police safety. Three percent are by accidental discharge, such as the recent Alec Baldwin movie set incident. The rest are through criminal activity.
Excepting the recent pandemic-era spike in deadly shootings, this means that roughly 5,100 deaths each year are attributable to lawbreakers. That’s horrific. A quarter of those are concentrated in four cities with hyper-strict gun control laws: Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, and Washington, DC. Clearly, the criminals are not exactly upstanding law-abiding citizens. Folks still think that lawbreakers will abide by strict gun control laws. That’s excruciatingly ludicrous.
There are 15 mostly highly-restrictive Federal gun regulations currently on the books in U.S. Code, Title 18. Enforcement can be spotty. And there are literally thousands more local laws and regulations, also often with less-than-optimal enforcement. It’s sort of like Old West towns that required visitors to park their guns with the local sheriff but had a rough time enforcing it. Like frontier desperadoes, today’s lawbreakers also ignore gun laws. Ever-greater restrictions on law-abiding gun owners obviously don’t keep the bad guys from getting and using firearms. In the 1850s, ranchers weren’t worried about a 911 response time to a Comanche attack. But the gang that invades your home today can count on 911 responses of 3 to 15 minutes, assuming the defenseless homeowner can even make the call.
Old West gun owners practiced shooting, as the gun brought them food, shelter, clothing, and more. Wasting shot and powder wasn’t practical. Firearms were kept clean and safety was practiced. Often more than one shot was required to kill game or defend against bandits or savages. For example, the Lewis and Clark Expedition found that a single ball from a 1795 Springfield musket often wasn’t effective in bringing down a grizzly. Given how fast an angry wounded bear could run, speedy reloading became important. It wasn’t until decades after Lewis & Clark that more practical weapons came on the scene, and they were often cumbersome. The famous Sharps 45/70 rifle that Tom Selleck used in his role for the film "Quigley Down Under" weighed a hefty 13 pounds. Of course, the Sharps became famous, sadly, as the buffalo gun used to kill millions of the beasts…often for sheer sport. It was also a popular sharpshooter rifle during the War Between the
States, and it’s where the term "sharpshooter" comes from. Firearms technology continued to improve dependability, accuracy, and weight through several wars and response to the demands of hunters. Today, we have the semi-automatic AR-15 sport rifle. The "AR" stands for Armalite Rifle, not "assault rifle" as mostly-unknowing anti-gun idealogues would have folks believe. An assault rifle is distinguished as being a fully-automatic weapon designed to kill enemies in battle. In any case, we can only imagine what an AR-15 might have done for Wyatt Earp at the OK Corral.
As I said earlier, the rifle was as essential to explorers, trappers, and hunters of the Old West as the bow and arrow was to a Sioux or Comanche hunter. These folks were not vegetarians by any stretch of the imagination. Personally, I’m not a hunter but appreciate and respect those that do. I participate in an annual hunt on a cousin’s Texas ranch in which wounded military veterans have the opportunity to hunt and target shoot. All safety protocols are followed and the meat from the wildlife is welcomed by a local foodbank. Safety is important. It wasn’t always followed in the Old West, but those folks didn’t have the National Rifle Association offering safety courses. Likely few folks know that Meriwether Lewis was accidentally shot in the buttocks during the famed expedition in 1806. Ouch!
Some knowledgeable people believe that the 2nd Amendment was not intended to apply to the right of individual gun ownership. That same Constitution guarantees them the free expression of that opinion, as knowledgeable folks with opposite views have interpreted the 2nd Amendment in the context of the era in which it was specified in the Bill of Rights. In 1787, when the Constitution was approved, lots of Americans owned firearms for hunting, sport, and self-defense. Yes, there were lawbreakers in 1787 that went well beyond the bounds of civility. In any case and despite protestations of the "Constitution-benders" of today, the 2nd Amendment was aimed at ensuring citizen ownership of firearms. Our Founders anticipated that there’d be idealogues looking to deprive folks of their rights, so embedded them in our governing document.
So, why do people advocate for "gun control?" Well folks, it’s about that second word: control. Don’t for a minute think they give a particular squat about saving lives. There’s great truth to, "when you take away law-abiding folks’ guns, only criminals will have them."
There’s far more to controlling gun violence than protests, laws, and slogans can resolve. America must fight the underlying gun violence causes by instilling moral values, respect, love, and faith through family, community, church, business, and government. Guns have but two enemies: rust and anti-gun idealogues. Like my Old West ancestors, I prefer the freedom, the right, to own a gun.
Read past edition of the Tumbleweeds
Read other articles by Mark Greathouse
