Wife and I had a nice walk up First Street with 1,500 other people on Saturday for the March for Our Lives Walk. We saw lots of familiar faces and engaged in conversations of heated agreement. We listened to the speakers. We felt their sincere concern.
It is a shame we have to march to keep mad gunmen out of schools; so much fuss and feathers over a common-sense issue. To this novice human, the gun-violence problem is obvious and the solutions are simple. Increase background checks and decrease weapons of mass destruction. Improve the database and study the causes. That’s all the kids want. That’s all they ask for on their global website.
It sounds easy and so reasonable that any good citizen should stand behind it. Yet there is much resistance. Resistance is where the mysteries lie.
Most of it is smoke and mirrors to mask the profit motive of selling guns to everyone, just like Coke and Pepsi. Those who profit use capitalism to support their right to have their products equally displayed behind the counter with chainsaws and fishing poles. They want their products available to anyone with cash.
Customer restrictions by age and background cleanliness bites into that profit pie. Product bans based on how many innocent people a specific instrument can kill in a minute takes another bite out of the pie. It backs up inventory. To cold calculators in the gun industry stricter control is as annoying as gas mileage and pollution restrictions is to the car industry.
Our gun control laws are extremely liberal. Why do conservatives love them so?
Corporations are people, but they cannot vote, so they buy influence. To win the war with guns, the gun lobby needs politicians in one pocket and voters in the other.
The angry voters against any change in gun control, if not heavily invested, are often influenced by misinformation, scare tactics, their own education and distrust, and a family tradition of gun ownership going back generations.
They’ve been led to believe that a ban on assault rifles would open the flood gates and be the first step in them losing all their guns.
Some are against gun control simply because their political rivals favor it. Or when you stand up for better gun laws online you sometimes get comebacks like this one I received from a Facebook friend recently back in rural PA. “Oh, yeah? What about Planned Parenthood?”
In my fantasy world of Gibonesia we would have tiered gun rights. You want a gun, you pass a test. No fee. Funded by the NRA. You get a card. It expires every five years like a teaching credential. You have to jump a few hoops to renew it. Just checking for crazy.
Guns and ammo of all sorts would be available, but separated based on how many innocent people it can kill in a minute.
If you claim to be a gun collector, a history buff, and wish to own military-grade weapons, assault rifles, grenades, bazookas, and tanks, that would be okay in Gibonesia. The background check would be more extensive and you would pay a fee for an annual license that requires renewal exams, like smog checks. Gibonesia believes in states’ rights. Tweak it, like it, or leave to a new state.
License fees would co-fund a national database and a team of researchers to study gun violence and present solutions to public officials.
Fighting over guns and ammo is a blatant war between morality and money. Constitutional amendments like scriptures are interpretive. We find no literal permission or prohibition for modern weaponry in the second amendment.
When we do make significant changes in our gun laws for humanity’s sake, it will shrink the wealth of powerful global dynasties. They will not go down without a fight. This struggle will be long, and deep, and dirty.
Across the internet tubes the bull, horse, and chicken manure will fly and stick to screens across America, blinding some, making others swipe for cover. We must resist with our own targeted investments and moral outrage turned to action. What is truly at stake here? Is it gun control? Or is it control of our nation, what it stands for, and its role and direction in the world arena?
For every voice that resists change, we must have five. I believe this youth movement has legs. I see it influencing a positive change in our culture. This is not the Wall Street 99-percent movement that fell apart under stormy weather conditions. We have awakened an American sentiment and compassion that has been left out of a lot of current affairs.
Perhaps, I hope, people are growing tired of the public hatred, vitriol, greed, and misdirection coming from our leaders. I am. I’m ready to live in a society with sane gun laws. Is that too much to ask?

Steve Gibbs is a retired Benicia High School teacher who has written a column for The Herald since 1985.

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