by Jeffrey Bell Hanson

I hesitate as I write this post because I know there are those who will think we should wait to discuss the politics of our national tragedies until the emotions aren’t so raw. I might have agreed at one time, but it becomes clearer and clearer that our raw emotions are the only real well of change in our society. And we need to change.

We face the need to mourn the senseless loss of the lives of our citizens far too often–far more often than any other nation with which we would identify in every other way. And the mechanism of far too many of those deaths is firearms.

Of course, an inanimate object made of metal, plastic, wood, etc. cannot be held responsible for any death, but making that argument is an insult to our intelligence! As is the argument over whether any regulatory measure will prevent further slaughters.

The law is not the problem, it is only a symptom. The profits to be had in making and selling firearms are closer to the problem, but ultimately are still only a symptom.

The real issue is a national mythology that venerates death as the ultimate solution to whatever problems we encounter. We have swallowed, hook, line, and sinker, a zero-sum view of life that teaches us that we can never win until the one we perceive as our adversary loses. It teaches us, in fact, not to have opponents or adversaries; only enemies who must be vanquished.

Once one accepts this calculus, then the most efficient tool is a gun. And the more efficient the gun is at killing our enemies before they can kill us, the more desirable that gun becomes.

So I no longer want to demonize the NRA leadership (though I think that their pandering to the gun manufacturers may earn them a one-way ticket to hell); that’s their problem.

Nor do I want to demonize the gun manufacturers. They are just trying to make as much money as they can, just like a lot of us. Decisions about their ultimate fate are far above my pay grade.

Here’s the hard part. I buy into this perverse, obscene, American, zero-sum mythology as much as anyone. It’s not part of my DNA (because I do not believe that we are creatures of hate and vengeance, but rather children of light), but it is part of my acculturation as an American. There has been great art based on this zero-sum, light vs. dark mythology. I offer in evidence one of my favorite films, Unforgiven, by Clint Eastwood.

The problem is that it’s too easy. We have to mature beyond this black vs. white dichotomy. We have to learn, as a society, to see shades of gray. We have to evolve beyond zero-sum thinking. If not us—the  world’s oldest democracy—then what hope do we have?

Once we finally grow up and realize the false dichotomy of good and evil, then perhaps we can move beyond the notion that we have to live in a black and white (life and death) world with black and white (life and death) solutions. Perhaps we can reject zero-sum weapons, and learn to talk to each other.