I Don’t Own a Gun
“Gun Play, Arkansas.” Three guns lined up in a row. Photo credit: Rod Waddington.
[I originally wrote a version of this post on Hit Coffee back in May 2015. I have revised it.]
I don’t consider myself anti-gun. I was raised around guns. I don’t have the knee-jerk reaction against “gun culture” that some do. There’s much to criticize in (what I’ve seen of) that culture. But the criticisms I and others have made are sometimes overwrought. They’re certainly not the whole story.
However, I choose not to own a gun. Here’s why:
I don’t hunt.
I don’t have anything against hunting. In fact, I think getting one’s meat through hunting, if that’s why one hunts, is much more ethical than getting it through factory farms. And I eat a lot of meat, almost all of which probably comes from factory farms.
I do have a personal objection to hunting for sport. But I wouldn’t outlaw the practice, and I have no interest in converting others to my view.
I probably couldn’t use a gun for self-defense.
If I tried to use a gun in a self-defense situation, the person against whom I’m defending myself would probably just take the gun away from me. Another possibility is that I’d end up hurting someone needlessly. Not all self-defense situations are really self-defense.
In theory I could take classes that train me how to safely use a gun. If I seriously thought I needed a weapon for self-defense, I definitely would take that class. However, I’d have to balance any perceived need for self-defense against my next reason for not owning a gun. And I don’t see that happening.
I don’t trust myself with a gun.
I have dark moods sometimes. It probably doesn’t count as bona fide depression, but the moods get very, very dark. And even when the moods aren’t dark, there’s always a reserve of darkness to check even my brightest moods.
Or if it’s not “dark moods,” it’s anxious moods. Think mild panic attacks and occasional choices to lose my temper. I undergo (thankfully brief) moments of impulsivity. In those brief moments, I wouldn’t like to be in possession of a firearm.
I don’t really believe I’m a danger to myself or to others. But it’s probably a good thing not to tempt fate.
Implications for policy.
My reasons for declining to own a gun have few obvious implications for gun policy. I’m not saying, “I shouldn’t be owning a gun, therefore we need to ban all handguns.” There are very good objections to many of the more restrictive gun control measures that I, for one, am coming around to supporting. Those objections need to be acknowledged and addressed. But I do think gun rights advocates need to consider my non-hunting related reasons above, or at least the spirit behind those reasons. A good number of those advocates already do, and those advocates are an important part of any solution even if I must eventually part company with them on policy.
Photo credit: “Gun play, Arkansas,” by Rod Waddington. License: Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 generic. CC BY S-A 2.0.
Excellent post.
You and I would probably not agree on policy, but if I were to choose three people in the world to be at the table to discussing such things, you would be there.Report
Thanks! But I do get kind of boring after I’ve run through my talking points 🙂Report
More seriously, though. I’m not so sure we’d necessarily disagree as much on policy. Maybe on ultimate aims–and I endorse social constructs that are more robust than the ones you’re likely to endorse–but we might (maybe) agree on some shorter term things.
Or not. But yeah, thanks again for the compliment.Report
One of my main reasons for not owning a gun is that I live alone. I don’t have to protect anyone. I am personally unlikely to be targeted for an attack, but if I were, it’s no great loss. If I had a wife and kids, though, I’d want to be able to defend them, and I’d want the missus to be able to defend them as well. So, even though it may be counter-intuitive, I’d be more likely to keep a gun at my place if there were children there. I understand the importance of gun safety training for children, and I’d want them to participate in such training even if I didn’t have a gun at home.Report
Do you live in a highly restrictive area?Report
Do you mean gun restrictions or a secure neighborhood? I’m sure there are gun ownership restrictions in my area. I’m personally not likely to be a target for crime because frankly I look more like a threat.Report
I was just curious if the existence of restrictions make ownership too much of a issue to pursue it. I guess if I were to ask it differently it would read:
would you own a firearm if there were no restrictions?Report
No, for a few of Gabriel’s reasons and a few of my own.Report
We’ve never felt the need for a gun for home protection, but we live in a place with a freakishly low violent crime rate. The city’s violent crime rate is a tenth the national average. As best I can recall, in 30 years there hasn’t been a case in my (gossipy) neighborhood of breaking and entering when the homeowner was there. Lots of Denver cops retire here because, to quote my retired Denver cop neighbor, “Big inner-ring Denver suburb conveniences with small-town crime rates.” The costs of having a gun for home protection, storing it safely, and maintaining proficiency has never seemed worth it.
For completeness, I spent most of my early life in a rural area where household gun ownership, at least of long guns, was simply taken for granted.Report
Growing up in the actual city (and not in your suburb), my family’s perception was that crime was very, very high. (I realize you’re not saying anything different.) But I’m not sure it was that much higher than in the suburbs. The anecdotes about violence usually boiled down to personal vendettas, angry or frightened people who just happened to have a gun on them, and gang shootings.Report
If anyone was offended, I apologize.Report
Oh, I wasn’t offended. Just offering anecdata.Report
I should add that my brother, who’s a retired sheriff’s deputy from that county, would probably agree with you and the cops you’ve spoken to about “small town crime rates.”Report
“I’d be more likely to keep a gun at my place if there were children there. I understand the importance of gun safety training for children, and I’d want them to participate in such training even if I didn’t have a gun at home.”
I can see the point and maybe would have a different view from what I express in m OP if I had kids.
I do know that my siblings and I were impressed from a very early age that there’s no such thing as a safe gun and we should assume that all guns were loaded and could go off. Whatever else was wrong or problematic about my upbringing, our attitude toward gun safety was healthy.Report
As a partially relevant aside, I’ll say this: I’ve found two positions on guns that seem gun rights friendly, but that are actually contradictory. One position goes, “if you’re a responsible gun owner, you keep your guns locked up so that your kids can’t get into them” and “you need a gun for self-defense” don’t work together. If you need (or might need) a gun for self-defense, it doesn’t do much good locked up. (I mean the generic “you,” of course.)
It’s not that anyone actually (to my recollection) makes both claims. It’s just that they both seem to be used in the service of a gun rights argument. I have a hard time conveying exactly what I mean, but there’s an unaddressed disconnect there.
At any rate, if I had kids and chose to own a gun for self-defense, I’d make sure they knew about gun safety.Report
This…”At any rate, if I had kids and chose to own a gun for self-defense, I’d make sure they knew about gun safety.”
I was raised around guns and my father kept one for self defense. I knew how to use them and from an early age new the impact of their use. I also knew where he kept his self defense pistol in the bed room. I also new I was NEVER to touch it when I was younger.Report
Same.Report
Having dealt with both of these situations I think they can be consistent due to changes in circumstances. I had inherited long guns and purchased a tactical rifle for reasons I laid out in a post here a few years ago which I never really considered suited for self defense. They have always been locked up and unloaded outside of the range.
My family later ended up in a situation with a crazy neighbor and we bought two handguns my wife and I were comfortable with for self defense. Ive gotten a couple others since (I went through the licensing requirements and they needed a home) but the self defense firearms were treated somewhat differently. When we got indications it was going to be one of those nights we would have them ready. When the storm passed we would lock them back up, and now that we’ve moved and that threat is no longer present they stay locked up.
My point is just that circumstances are fluid. Part of responsible ownership IMO involves understanding that, and continued awareness and re-evaluation of your purpose. When the situation changes so should your approach.
Truthfully it would weigh heavily on me when we were on alert and I’d get a huge feeling of relief when it was time to put them away again. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t just get rid of the handguns (I could never part with the guns I inherited from my grandfather) but then I think today is not forever so I stick with safe storage for now.Report
That’s a good way to think about it.Report
I own a couple of long guns, of the sort nobody worth taking seriously is interested in keeping sane, law-abiding people from having, and used to own a handgun, which I got rid of when license renewal came up because I had used it so little. Although where I now live has restrictions on guns (I probably couldn’t get a carry permit if I wanted one), I grew up where gun ownership was no more interesting than chainsaw ownership. I don’t miss the handgun (though I’m toying with the idea of getting licensed and getting one for largely recreational use), and, although I have lived in and have traveled daily through dodgy neighborhoods for decades at all hours, I have never been in a situation where I would have felt safer carrying a pistol.Report
You’ve never felt unsafe, but that’s because you’re carrying a chainsaw.Report
I’m actually better with a gun, despite my rusty skills, than I ever was with a chainsaw. I routinely carry a pocket knife, Swiss Army folder with a two-inch blade, which, from a self-defense standpoint is better than nothing, but just barely. People sometimes think it’s weird, but I find reason to use it for ordinary civilian purposes several times a week.Report
“I grew up where gun ownership was no more interesting than chainsaw ownership”
For me gun ownership was actually boring. My father put up tables at quite a lot of gun shows, and I and my mother sometimes went with him. For the first 10 minutes, on the Friday when he set his guns up, it was kind of cool to walk around and look at all the other guns people had. For the rest of that Friday night, and the next two days, however, it was pretty meh. (ETA: and the turquoise jewelry. Ugh! People displayed it by the gallon. There’s nothing wrong with turquoise, but I’ve just seen too much of it in my life.) (My siblings…or at least two of my brothers…were much more into guns, both more as connoisseurs and as enthusiasts.)Report
hah. And, at that, most of the “turquoise” you saw was actually howlite dyed blue. Even actual turquoise material is usually several chips glued together and then ground down to hide the seams.Report
You may very well be right. There just was….a lot of it, whatever it was.Report
its tempting. but on the other side i guess one should own one lets assume you own a farm or other business that needs more security. But honesltly dont own oneReport