Some reaction to my comments on NPR's Morning Edition about 400 million guns inhibiting our sense of freedom on the Fourth of July.
Thank you for sharing your insights regarding Independence Day during your interview on NPR this morning. As I listened to the radio while dropping my family off at the Denver airport (coincidentally passing an area of I-70 that had just reopened after a motorcyclist was shot and killed earlier), I thought about how little freedom we actually have in our country. We are increasingly held captive by our fear of gun violence. After years of complacency and delusions that "it can't happen here," we are all now realizing that it can happen everywhere — in every community, in every school, in every mall, in every stadium. As someone who used to revel in the energy of large public gatherings, I have increasingly limited my exposure to events; I look for exit signs when I shop or go to the movies; I worry about my children's and grandchild's safety in a manner that would never have occurred to my parents or grandparents.
Twenty-three years ago, when I joined a group of friends in DC for the Million Mom March, we were still reeling from the massacre at Columbine. We could never have imagined the carnage that would occur in the years to come. With each gun murder, each of us becomes just a bit more isolated, less trusting, and more fearful. And as you pointed out, that hardly constitutes freedom.
I appreciate your addressing this issue. And I am sorry for the news that Baltimore is now suffering from the results of more gun violence.
Sincerely,
Adrienne C.
Colorado
Thx for your comments on "Morning Ed." w/ Steve Inskeep. I was listening just after hearing about a Mass Shooting in Philadelphia on Monday evening, 7/3/2023.
I am a lifelong Philadelphian, 69 yrs. of age, and yes, I do believe my freedom may be at stake because there are too many shootings. I wish I had a solution, an answer, but I feel like I am losing my grip on how to even think about violence, not only in our country, but around the world.
Stay safe, and I hope you had a terrific 4th with friends and family.
Sincerely,
Nick B.
Pennsylvania
Dear Mr. Rodricks:
I've been thinking about this for years, and after Jan. 6 attacks on the capital, have been discussing this with others. I had started to think I was the only person feeling so strongly about peaceful folks rights being infringed upon by others who are unhinged or bullies, or paranoid, or have bought into the NRA's propaganda about "what will stop a bad gunman" etc…..
I would like to see someone, perhaps you, go into this subject more. Here are a few of my thoughts: my right to peacefully protest at- say, a climate change event won't happen now because I am terribly afraid of being shot by a right-wing gunman who thinks I don't have the right to voice my concerns. I was at Chevron headquarters in California years ago and had a guy get in my face, yelling that I was an 'ecoterrorist.' It rattled me, but now tensions are so much higher, that a person's sentiments could easily be delivered through a gun.
I believe there is a high likelihood of the 2024 election to be something about which I would normally take to the streets to make my voice heard. Now? Not gonna happen unless I can go dressed head to toe in bullet-proof gear.
I was raised by people who took my siblings and me to anti-Vietnam rallies when we were small children. There is no way that gunmen wouldn't be at that type of rally now.
My sister lives in Tennessee, and when I visited last year we were discussing open-carry, and how that makes her feel so unsafe. There were stickers on shop windows telling folks that they support the right to carry a gun into their shop…I made a decision to not go into any shop that had those stickers simply because my right to walk around feeling safe was overridden by someone else's right to make an oversized reaction to some vague fear they may or may not have to spend an afternoon in a place where there are no threats to them….Here is the kickee: No one is treading on them yet they are treading in a very oversized way on a lot of other citizens….
Because I live in the San Francisco Bay area, one thing some of us talk about here is what would slam some of the 2nd amendment rights shut quickly: if a movement like the Black Panthers were to rise up again, if some of the folks that the right-wing hates so much were to be as well armed as the right wing gangs, then things would change. But I fear now that so many gunmen would have assault weapons that there would be bloodbaths…..But I do think the 'rights' to assault weapons would change.
My mother came to this country from Germany after the war, and so perhaps I have a bit more sensitivity to fascism and its ability to take over the minds of regular folks. But the thing that springs to mind is how these rights get chipped away little by little, and this issue of gun rights has bullied another segment of society into submission.
So, again, thank you very much for broaching this subject-I appreciate how challenging it is to even start this conversation, I truly hope this is only the beginning though.
Audrey M.
California
There are now somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 million AR-15 type assault rifles in the hands of private citizens in the U.S. These are weapons designed primarily for killing human beings efficiently.
In the early 2000's I did two tours of duty with Doctors Without Borders in west equatorial Africa, Liberia and Nigeria. In the town of Port Harcourt, on the Nigerian coast, we occasionally dealt with mass-casualty events. "Rebels" would emerge from the coastal villages and shoot up groups of foreign oil workers as they socialized after hours in the city. The general population had become inured to such events, possibly because they were, to some degree, sympathetic to the cause; outrage about environmental devastation visited upon the coastal areas and the failure of the Nigerian government to direct any of the oil profits to services for their population.
Here in America, these days, it would be hard to say what the "cause" is that drives the epidemic of mass shootings going on, daily, all around us. Many of the shooters appear to be white males who are, I'm told, outraged over racial and religious minorities taking away their rights and entitlements. Many other shootings appear to be gang-related. In either case, the sheer numbers and availability of large caliber firearms occupy one large chamber in the heart of the problem.
In simple language, you make the case so well. The currently popular misinterpretation of the Second Amendment as a no-holds-barred freedom to own, carry and use firearms now diminishes my Constitutional rights to freely associate, move about without fear and engage in the pursuit of happiness. The best response was provided by John Stuart Mill, long ago, to paraphrase: "Your freedoms end where mine begin."
In the presence of all these weapons, I'm just not feeling very free these days and, as you do, I have changed the ways in which I move about in public.
It is hard to say where we go from here; perhaps to a country where politicians still have a conscience and feel a duty to protect and serve those who elected them? Such places do exist and, I sometimes think, might be better places for my granddaughter to grow up.
Thank you for your voice in these dangerous and confusing times. I hope you continue your important and honorable work.
CR
Wyoming
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