The culture of the ‘killer’ gun

By Dennis Nichols

You’ve probably heard it a thousand times, “Guns don’t kill people; people do!” So true, but spoken so glibly that it rolls off the tongue like a well-rehearsed mantra. Yet they certainly make it easier. I have heard, though I do not necessarily agree, that just holding a loaded gun in his/her hand may incline someone consciously, or subliminally, to pull the trigger.

A friend of mine (a former GDF soldier) told me many years ago that following basic training, (including of course the use of weapons) he had become very angry, and expressed an almost uncontrollable urge to use his gun on someone, like an itch that had to be scratched. Sounded like that proverbial trigger-happy figure of authority to me! Once only in my life, I held a loaded gun, and yes, I did feel a twinge. But afterward, no gun; no inclination!

Yet I do experience something more than a twinge in recalling the number of fatal shootings in this country over the years, especially since the turn of the century. And I am convinced that had guns been less available to the general citizenry, the number of gun-related fatalities would have been markedly lower. To me, it’s simple logic; simple math.

I experienced my first gun murder(s) in 1969 when a ‘bush’ man living just across the road from where I reside, blasted his wife and two young daughters with a Luger pistol before shooting himself in the throat. The wife’s nephew, whom I knew in passing, was grazed by a bullet that missed his heart by an inch.

The mayhem following the 2002 jail break, the Lusignan and Bartica mini-holocausts, and the surge in gun crimes since, reflect this logic.

We love to ‘follow-pattern’ America and I’m sure that many Guyanese favour the stance taken by that country’s N.R.A. with respect to the constitutional right of its citizens to keep and bear arms. It should be noted however that the actual words in the U.S constitution appear to limit this right to ‘a well-regulated militia … necessary to the security of a free State’ – an eminently debatable point.

(In fact since 1939, according to a reliable online source, federal appeals courts have agreed that the 2nd Amendment does not confer gun rights on individuals, a stand apparently supported by the U.S Supreme Court.) There are pros and cons to this issue with very strong convictions on both sides.

Guyana has fairly strict gun-control laws, but as in the United States, they do not seem to count for much as far as respect for them is concerned.

The easy availability of guns in Guyana is in itself a crime, which simply perpetuates itself with human assistance. Meanwhile emotions like anger, jealousy and frustration express themselves too easily as ‘a problem’ and a gun is too readily seen as ‘the solution’. It’s the easiest, fastest and most efficient problem-solver for many, and it’s also the most tragic.

From what I have read and from my own observations, a gun in the hands of even a mild-mannered man or woman acts as an extension of the person’s ego. Then if that part of the personality is damaged, it may be the easiest thing in the world to aim at your perceived tormentor, or yourself, and pull the trigger. In the mind of the shooter it probably isn’t much different from killing ‘the enemy’ during a legitimate war.

But the gun availability/fatality issue is even more troubling in other scenarios such as suicides, accidental deaths, and homicides committed by children with access to guns. Thankfully, the last of these is not something we in Guyana have to worry about much, hopefully for a very long time. Even the first two (with the exception of Jonestown) are not as problematic for law enforcement as they are in more developed and sophisticated societies.

In the United States for example, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suicide by gun accounts for more than 60 percent of all firearm deaths, and over half of all suicides. To some that isn’t surprising since research has shown that America has more guns than any other developed country in the world – some 88 guns per 100 people.

When it comes to accidental gun deaths, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence says more than 600 people have died in one year from unintentional shootings, and that on average, states with the highest gun levels had nine times the rate of unintentional firearm deaths compared to states with the lowest gun levels. But what really gets me is a federal government study of unintentional shootings which found that eight percent of these deaths resulted from shots fired by children under the age of six.

The ‘guns-don’t-kill-people; people-do’ debate and wrangle will no doubt go on indefinitely. I think it should be taken up seriously here in Guyana; although, in spite of the sensationalizing of our gun-related crimes, Guyana’s homicide by firearm rate vis-à-vis other developing countries is ‘manageable’ .

While my heart aches for the smothering of young lives, my mind tells me it is time to launch a blitzkrieg on the culture of the killer gun before it’s truly and actually too late. Exactly, how I do not know, but our shattered sensibilities, our vulnerable young people and our vision of national unity demand it.