Texas Fish & Game July-August 2022

Freedom, American Style

MOST, IF NOT VIRTUALLY ALL OF YOU WHO READ FISH & GAME ARE gun owners. Therefore, it is a safe bet that we speak to a predominantly pro-gun audience. That makes it tricky to bring up the tragedy that occurred in Uvalde last month. Tricky, because we do not intend to just repeat standard pro-gun reactions and let it go with “thoughts and prayers.”

Our hearts broke at the thought of what those innocent children and their heroic teachers went through in their fi nal moments, and the devastation left on families, survivors, and fellow students... as well as the fear and anxiety affecting school kids, parents, and teachers everywhere. No words can capture the depth of grief and despair these horrifi c events leave in their wake, and so we won’t even try. But, that hasn’t stopped countless others from taking up their bullhorns and keyboards to weigh in on what this tragedy means in the ongoing battle over Second Amendment rights and the uniquely American problem of gun violence.

The ambiguous wording of the Second Amendment has, thus far, been interpreted so that U.S. citizens may possess fi repower just shy of machine guns. This has kept proposed laws to “control” the owning and brandishing of arms deemed Constitutional at bay. After all, gun restrictions only restrict those who are law-abiding. Right? But what about laws to keep bad guys from getting their guns legally? Most recent mass shootings were carried out with legally obtained weapons.

Would tougher background checks or red fl ag laws keep another deranged 18-year-old, like the kid in Uvalde, from walking out of a gun store armed for war? Maybe. Maybe not. The truth is, we will likely never know. Our ponderous Congress may have put forth a superfi cial “breakthrough” bipartisan bill, but don’t expect any consequential legislative solutions—or gun grabs—any time soon.

Let’s get real: if you’ve been sweating through your jockeys worrying that government agents are going to confi scate your AR 15s or ban high capacity magazines, relax. Given the Hatfi eld and McCoy level of cooperation in Washington, the odds of that happening are about the same as the Dallas Cowboys moving to Oakland. On the other side of the political barbed wire fence, if you think that everything more deadly than a .410 shotgun should be melted down—and used to make, what, participation trophies?—that’s about as realistic as... well... as that thinking sounds.

Problem is, half the country is pro-gun and the other half pro-gun control. There are extreme positions on both sides, as well as voices of reason on both sides. But the way we’ve cultivated the political system driving our government, plus the universal adoption of social media as our preferred information source, the voices from the extremes have drowned out any voices of reason.

Meanwhile, thousands more “troubled” teens and sick individuals of all ages are festering out there, urged on by social media. Damn straight they’re mentally ill. Unfortunately, there’s no quick fi x for the emotional instability or psychopathic and sociopathic personality disorders that seem to be trending upward lately—no matter how much money we suddenly decide to throw at them.

There is no easy way out of this, despite the jabbering we hear from offi cials, pundits and the self-proclaimed authorities on Facebook and Twitter.

Freedom, American Style, requires us to live with inherent risks, laid before us by centuries of Constitutional interpretation. We can barricade schools. We can arm janitors. But there will be more tragedy. It may or may not make sense to add friction to the ease with which bad guys get ahold of guns. But voices of confl ict in our leadership, in our media, and around our dinner tables will likely always suppress such notions, applying the friction to any constructive dialogue instead.