America’s Gun Culture and its connection to Public Health

To understand America’s gun culture, visit a gun show like I did. Or read this article, because this culture is not just about Gun Violence as a Public Health Issue. It’s also about a glorified Wild West of Texas, with John Wayne and Marshal Matt Dillon, and little boys growing up playing Cowboys & Indians, or Cops & Robbers. First it was with their wooden or store-bought toy guns, then they got their first air rifle and wanted to shoot something with it. Dad would take them hunting or to a gun show. It was the manly thing to do. But too many of our kids now grow up in fear of mass shootings, with active shooter drills starting their first day of pre-school. [March 2022: And now machine guns are back.]

I learned more about this culture yesterday when I went to the Lewisville Gun Show, sponsored by Premier Gun Shows. They hold large gun shows every weekend across North Texas. I wondered what about our nation’s gun culture attracts so may people to these big shows. We can’t seem to address our epidemic of gun violence without understanding the culture behind it. So off I went.

It was out of curiosity that I went with a friend active in Moms Demand Action. He had never been to a gun show either. Long tables were rented to gun dealers who laid out their “direct from factory” guns, as well as pre-owned and collectables. Adding to the “flea market” atmosphere were the many people who brought their own guns to sell, trade, or just show off. To enter the building, these guns had to be unloaded, checked by US Marshals at the entrance, and secured with a plastic tie. But what about the guns outside? Anything goes there.

Almost all sales were cash only (no credit cards), and many required no background check, although larger dealers seemed to have the needed forms. I didn’t ask about background check but wondered if completing the form would keep me from walking out with my new gun. It didn’t seem like it would, and it doesn’t make business sense if someone could more easily buy a pre-owned gun from others there. That’s the dark underbelly of the infamous “gun show loophole.”

A MASSIVE TOY STORE FOR BIG BOYS

That was the feeling I got – the perfect market for guys believing, “He who dies with the most toys wins.”

There were tons of toys for avid hunters, sportsmen, and Rambo wannabes, adding to a culture of toxic masculinity that is made worse by violent video games, movies, and music. But other countries have the same games, movies and music, and they have the same problems with mental illness, drugs & alcohol. They just don’t have nearly our gun violence problem.

What we have that they don’t is more guns, a lot more. We also have NRA-promoted fear, corruption from big money in politics, and a Laissez-faire attitude that has limited regulatory oversight. We unfortunately see gun ownership as a Constitutional or even “God-given” right. God? Yeah, right.

Gun ownership, thanks to the NRA and Republicans in Congress, is also seen as a patriotic duty.

No other nation has this toxic gun culture, so no other nation has our level of gun violence and suicides and accidents. Interestingly, Harvard Medical School researchers found that fire-arm related injuries drop 20% or more during NRA Conventions when the 80,000 attendees aren’t at home with gun access. They compared the 3 weeks before the convention and 3 weeks afterwards. For nearby populations in the same state, the decline was even greater (a whopping 63%). Apparently it’s because proximity makes it easier to attend the event.

It’s the guns, stupid – It’s not all those other excuses but the fact that we have too many guns, of the wrong kinds, in the wrong hands, and with no real oversight or accountability. My gun show visit made that clear. But behind that problem is the politics and the culture. In the Old West, when Lawmen cleaned up a town, they took the Cowboys’ guns away, but try doing that today.

Every Kind of Gun & Ammo – The variety and sheer volume was astonishing.

• Hand Guns of all sizes were everywhere, and there were many types of holsters and purses to conceal them and make access easy.
• Military-style Assault Rifles of every kind were just as prevalent and quite affordable, starting at about $250. They were displayed with high-capacity magazines holding up to 100 rounds. I was an expert marksman with the M-16 in the Army, but these weapons were beyond anything I had seen before.
• Hunting guns, included shotguns and even the sawed-off variety, or ones with a magazine holding 10 or more shells. They were displayed next to long-barrel rifles used for hunting deer and big game, as well as hand-made rifles used for competitions. I even saw a sniper rifle that fired 50 caliber shells like those used in military machine guns to fire on vehicles a thousand yards away.
• Scopes and modification kits of all kinds were everywhere, as well as lots of ammo and reloading supplies.
• A Co2-powered fully automatic BB gun caught my attention. The guy said it could fire 1,400 BBs per minute, or over 20 per second, making it like a copper wire extending from the muzzle when in automatic mode. I asked what this $150 gun was used for, but he had no good answer other than just to shoot stuff.

Safety Items – It was good to see gun safes and other items for securing weapons and ammo. There was also personal protection items such as mace, stun guns, bullet-proof vests, and Kevlar-lined backpacks.

Knives – There were all sorts of knives, from high-end custom cutlery to pocketknives, large Bowie (or Crocodile Dundee) knives, swords, and switchblades, along with brass knuckles and other self defense (or attack) gear and many other accessories and gift ideas.

THE ROLE OF RACE

I’m not going to say much other than there were no black people in the packed hall of gun enthusiasts, not one. That observation reminded me how the NRA once supported gun control legislation when the Black Panthers had them. How times have changed.

ANOTHER MASS SHOOTING

No sooner did we get home from the gun show than we heard about another mass shooting, in Odessa, TX. Seven people were killed and 22 injured, including a 17 month-old little girl who was shot in the face. That may seem ironic, but mass shootings have become so commonplace that there’s more than one per day.

Rather than spark enough outrage to cause political change, mass shootings have become normalized. They’ve increased our fear of being shot and driven up gun sales. This thrills gun manufacturers and investors. It also gives cover to those resisting gun safety laws. They cite the Second Amendment and their “God-given right” to own guns – as many as they want.

Admittedly, one reason I visited the gun show was to prepare myself in tcase our nation’s divisiveness worsens into a civil way. It worries me that the radical right is made up of the same people who own most of the guns. They don’t want to be outnumbered by a rogue government, they say. But I don’t want to be defenseless against them. This fear, and toxic American gun culture, is a dangerous mix that seems to be spiraling out of control.

TEXAS RELAXES GUN LAWS FURTHER 

Laws vary significantly by state, but even with the most guns and most gun deaths, Texas Governor Greg Abbott seems determined to make matters worse. Although Texas Republicans found just 16 cases of false addresses on voter registration forms out of 11 million in 2020, they just passed one of the nation’s worst voter suppression laws. And with 3,683 Texas gun deaths in 2019, the legislature passed a bill allowing Texans to carry guns with  no permit or training at all.

Texas Laws Regulating Gun Sales (from Giffords Law Center)

Although Federal law requires firearms dealers to obtain a license from ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives), severe resource constraints limit enforcement.

Texas does NOT require dealers to have a license, and it lightly regulates them if they do. Dealers are supposed to post certain warnings regarding the safe storage of firearms, and Pawnbrokers are not supposed to display firearms in a storefront window or show signage advertising gun sales if viewable from the street.

But Texas has no law requiring a background check when the seller is not a licensed dealer. However, a person knowingly selling a gun or ammo to a minor, intoxicated buyer, someone with an active protective order or felony conviction, or someone planning to use it unlawfully can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor. (“Can be,” but h would they know?) Misdemeanor punishment is rather minor: up to a 1-year jail, $4,000 fine, or both.

Texas also has no state law requiring dealers to conduct a background check. Although the (lightly-regulated) federal background check requirement still applies, it does not seem to be enforced.

Texas Relaxed Gun Laws Further in 2019

The evidence is clear. States with stronger gun laws have lower gun death rates. But even though Texas has some of the least restrictive gun laws and earned an “F” rating from the Giffords Law Center, state Republicans say that’s not enough. In the last legislative session, they passed a series of gun-friendly bills that were signed by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Guns in Churches – In November 2017, a gunman in Sutherland Springs killed 26 people with a semiautomatic rifle at First Baptist Church and injured 20 more. One of the new laws, Senate Bill 535, reduces penalties for those who carry guns in places of worship. That’s irresponsible.

Guns in Schools – In May 2018, a teenager used a shotgun and a revolver to kill nine students and a teacher at Santa Fe High School outside of Houston. House Bill 1387 allows districts to appoint more armed “school marshals” and makes sure they can’t ban licensed gun owners from keeping guns or ammunition in a locked car in school parking lot. Some have even argued for arming teachers. Here’s a teacher’s sarcastic post showing how crazy that sounds:

“I have a student in my class that keeps hitting other kids with a hammer over and over. I can’t get anything done, and the other kids are hurt and hate it!”
“Have you tried taking the hammer away from the student,” another asked.
“No, no, it’s not the hammer’s fault. Everyone knows that kids have the right to have hammers! I want to buy a bunch of hammers and give them to all the other students, and then no one will ever have problems with hammers again!”
Oh yeah, more hammers will definitely fix everything, for sure.

Guns in Foster Homes – HB2363 lets foster homes store guns and ammunition in a safe & secure place for personal protection. Proper storage must be followed.

Guns During a Disaster – HB1177 prohibits residents from being charged with a crime for carrying a handgun while protecting their property or evacuating from a state or local disaster area.

What Didn’t Pass in 2019 – The gun bills that did NOT pass are as important as those that did. Governor Abbott, for example, vetoed a bill to restrict guns at airports. Other killed bills include “red flag” laws, bans on bump stocks, and an attempt to close the “gun-show loophole” that caused me to visit one.

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE, FROM AN EVEN BIGGER GUN SHOW

More recently, in April 2023, The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper took a camera crew to America’s Biggest Gun Show in Oklahoma. He then aired this 8-minute summary of his interviews. Clearly, the problem is an evolving cultural issue that seems to be getting worse with the radicalization of one specific political party.

It doesn’t have to be this way, Klepper and Busse agreed. After Australia suffered a horrific mass shooting and bought back 650,000 guns, murders and suicides plummeted. If they can do it, why can’t we?

SO WHAT WOULD WORK?

According to a Quinnipiac University poll, 75% of Americans want Congress to do more to reduce gun violence. 97% support universal background checks, 83% support a mandatory waiting period, and 70% favor registering all guns with the police.

We’ve seen bipartisan legislation come through the House, only to be stalled in the Senate by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. So it seems for any of these bills to pass, Democrats must win the Senate or at least defeat McConnell, but even with rather poor popularity ratings, he won his reelection bid in 2020.

Automobiles as a Model for Regulating Guns – I don’t accept that nothing can be done and think this might be a good place to start the discussion. How we regulate motor vehicles presents a good model for how we might regulate guns, improve gun safety, and reduce deaths and injury from gun violence. I offer considerably more detail in my previous article on Gun Violence as a Public Health Issue, but here’s a brief summary.

1. Require universal background checks (22% of guns are obtained without them) and a 3-day waiting period.
2. Close the gun show loophole.
3. License gun owners like we license drivers, with age limits and periodic renewal
4. Test knowledge of laws and gun safety, and require a proficiency exam before granting a license.
5. Consider different proficiency levels and uses like we do with a driver’s license, starting with a Learner’s Permit and progressing to a Commercial Driver’s License to show the increased responsibility for using more powerful weapons.
6. Allow protection orders (red flag laws) with due process that let authorities intervene and temporarily confiscate guns when a person is a danger to themselves and others.
7. Require Liability Insurance covering gun owners, as we do for drivers.
8. Require updates to registration and insurance when a gun is disposed of in a private sale, like we do with cars. That would end the gun show loophole that now is used to avoid background checks.
9. Register each gun to make it easier to return them if lost or stolen, and require periodic inspection to make sure safety features are in working order, and safe storage requirements are followed. Charge an annual registration tax as we do for motor vehicles, to help pay the administrative costs of gun regulations.
10. Consider bans on the most dangerous firearms, such as those designed for military purposes to kill the most people in the shortest time possible. We also disallow private ownership of tanks and fighter jets, and certain types of cars designed for racing and deemed not “street legal.”
11. Require safe storage and security measures designed to prevent unintentional access to guns and ammo by unlicensed people, including children.
12. Limit quantities of guns and ammo except under tightly restricted and regulated circumstances, such as with collectors and shooting ranges that rent weapons for use there. There’s no justification for people to amass private arsenals.
13. Research “smart gun” technologies that prevent accidental discharge except by the owner, through a PIN number or biometric sensor like a fingerprint. If someone steals my iPhone, it’s useless, and if the same were true with guns, it would reduce the number of guns stolen each year, now about 200,000. It would also prevent a child from firing dad’s gun or a criminal from using a policeman’s gun against him.
14. Repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), which prevents the gun industry from being held liable in civil court for crimes “resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse of firearms or ammunition.”
15. Explore buy-back options to help cut the total number of guns on the street, since studies worldwide show that fewer guns result in fewer deaths.

Did any of these “restrictions” slow car sales or impose undue restrictions on car ownership? Of course not, and the government hasn’t used registration to confiscate cars either.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There’s a certain amount of DNA evolution that makes men more masculine and aggressive than women. It’s why they call men “hunters & protectors” and women “gatherers & nurturers.” But those traditional roles are changing, thanks largely to economics and extreme inequality. Gone are the days when the husband was the breadwinner and wife the homemaker. As prices rose faster than wages, families needed both parents to earn a living, often working 2-3 jobs just to make ends meet.

Economics drove women into the workforce, and once there they wanted equal pay for equal work. It’s no longer uncommon for the wife to earn more than the husband who may see that as a huge threat to his ego. To prove he’s still the macho man he once thought of himself as, he may buy as many manly toys as he can: a pickup truck with big knobby tires, a boat, and of course guns. If his masculinity turns toxic and violent, the outcome is made worse with easy access to guns. The same can happen if he becomes depressed.

I encourage you to check out the related links below and to respond with your own thoughts on the Gun Smoke Culture.