I guess since I’m opposed to the “Second Amendment” gun culture and their NRA lobby, that I live in a county that has had two horrendous mass shootings in the last 13 months and freely admit I own and enjoy firearms, I am under some obligation to clarify my position on this issue, lest I be accused by all the Bungalow Bills and Rocky Raccoons out there of Liberal hypocrisy.

I don’t believe anyone should have the unrestricted right to bear arms. Unfortunately, I live in a society that has made that the norm, and recently, judicially re-interpreted the Constitution so that a routine article about establishing organized state militias has been distorted to mean that the any individual has the right to acquire unregistered military-grade weaponry. Since I am forced to live in that kind of society, I feel I have every right to defend my home and property from armed criminals by owning a weapon myself. As shield-maiden Eowyn once remarked; “The women of Rohan learned long ago that not having a sword does not mean one can’t die on one.”

I do believe everyone has the right to defend his home and property with deadly force. What I do NOT believe is that I have the right to take deadly weapons into public places where they threaten others. This is especially the case where those weapons are designed and configured for military use; weapons capable of high volumes of fire and of inflicting horrible wounds at immense distances. These are not sporting, recreational or home defense firearms.

Its a moot point now, I suppose. We live in a country where there are already enormous numbers of lethal firearms circulating, accessible to criminals, the mentally deranged and deluded pseudo-patriots convinced they are the nation’s legitimate defense against tyranny and foreign invasion. The use of these weapons in illegal activities is already forbidden, but it happens anyway. Banning weapons won’t work, a large percentage of the population has convinced themselves that god and the founding fathers have authorized and legitimized their dangerous hobby. Even if we banned the sale and manufacture of firearms, they could still be smuggled (as one wag put it) into the nation inside bales of marijuana. A complete and total ban on firearms, their ownership, sale, manufacture and use, might work, but it would take years, perhaps lifetimes, to accomplish its goal.

Getting rid of gun addiction would require the dismantling of a lucrative and profitable industry catering to a huge market demand. This is not very likely in a Republican Administration. We tried Prohibition before, and it didn’t work either, with liquor or drugs, although with guns it might slow down the carnage to a more tolerable level.

The problem feeds on itself, the more guns there are, and the easier it is to get them, the more guns are available for criminal use, and therefore the higher the demand for them from people like me for legitimate self-defense. There is also the phenomenon of the evolution of firearm abuse and how the public perceives it. When I was a young man growing up in Florida, handguns were highly restricted because they were concealable, and useful for criminals. Long guns, difficult to conceal and useful for sporting activities, were virtually unregulated. The situation now seems almost totally reversed. Anyone can apply for a licence to carry a concealed handgun, (although the requirements to do so are tuned to favor the white, affluent, middle class). It is now long guns, particularly the so-called “assault rifle” (i.e., high capacity, high-power weapons capable of fully automatic fire with only minor modification) that are perceived to be the most dangerous firearms most in need of regulation.

The problem is partly cultural, we have created a lethal hobby and skillfully marketed (yes, I chose that term deliberately) it to the population so they now are obsessed with their ability to ape the power of the gods, the ability to kill instantly at a distance. Too many Americans (and I include myself in this assessment) simply want to be able to easily murder others, should it become necessary. The only difference is that some of us have a very loose definition of “necessary”.

But the problem is only partly cultural. Canadians have a history and culture not that different from our own, and a long frontier tradition of wilderness, farm and hunting use, and they do not have our pathological obsession with guns. No, our gun culture is not a racial or national characteristic. Even we didn’t have it a century ago, it has been manufactured and implemented over my lifetime. I’ve seen it happen around me, and I’ve seen it happen to me. Fortunately, like most Americans, I have been able to keep it somewhat under control. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting to own my own gun to protect my home. Still, if I knew my home wasn’t likely to be invaded by someone with a gun, I would not be as keen on having one of my own.

In Alfred Bester’s novel “The Stars My Destination”, the MacGuffin is a magical substance called “PyRe”. It is trans-uranic element, a fissionable explosive that can be made to undergo a nuclear chain reaction telepathically–even in microscopic amounts. In other words, anyone can detonate it by simply wishing it so. Special knowledge or training or even moral or intellectual virtue is not required. Anybody can do it. It is distant destruction at a distance, available to anyone. The novel’s protagonist, Gully Foyle, makes this knowledge available to the people of the world, he announces its existence and communicates how it is done.

Yeah, I know. That seems like a really stupid thing to do, sort of like giving a baby a hand grenade, or a straight razor, to play with. Or a gun. Well, that’s exactly what we’ve done. We’ve pretty much given every child, lunatic and criminal in America access to the thunderbolts of Zeus.