The head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says he fears that a drumbeat of mass shootings and other gun violence across the United States could make Americans numb to the bloodshed, fostering apathy to finding solutions rather than galvanizing communities to act.
Director Steve Dettelbach’s comments to The Associated Press came after he met this past week with family members of some of the 18 people killed in October at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine by a U.S. Army reservist who later took his own life.
He said people must not accept that gun violence is a prevalent part of American life.
When I visited the Netherlands, there was something I felt that I couldn’t really find the words for at the time. It was a lightness, that upon stepping off the train and embarking down the steps to Amsterdam proper, my soul just felt light.
Later on, I’m in a weed cafe when an American couple walk in. The man walks towards the back restroom after making a purchase, leaving his significant other at the counter. She smiles with her whole body, and says loudly, perhaps louder than she realized, “you don’t have a gun!” she laughs, “I feel safe!”
And that’s what it was. That lightness. When we arrived, unbeknownst to us, the burden of thought that surrounds you in the U.S. where every chance encounter could lead to a violent death, where every supermarket or corner store holds within it the potential for a mass shooting. This ever prevalent threat of gun violence that surrounds us everyday, we get used to it. So used to it, that when we find ourselves somewhere without it, the feeling of peace and safety that accompany this loss is felt in your soul.
But you don’t realize it’s there until you feel what life can be without it. Tally it up as just another burden we carry, beholden to gun manufacturers. The toll is not just in the loss of life, but also the loss of peace within ourselves and our communities.
I live in a Canadian city, and I recall some years back there was an incident where some guy from Texas got in trouble for carrying a handgun while visiting. He raised a huge fuss on social media and went back to the US as soon as he was able, ranting about how he couldn’t feel safe in Canada because they wouldn’t allow him to have the ability to shoot anyone who might attack him while he was there. I wish I could find one of the news articles, there was a lot of head-shaking amusement from the locals at the time.
Really goes to show how diametrically different people can be sometimes.
I’m not following, who did she think might have a gun? You? Why would she have thought that?
Also, where in the US do you live that gun violence is actually surrounding you personally? I’ve lived in different parts of the US all my life and I’ve never felt that, nor a marked difference when traveling internationally.
You’re just lucky, that’s all.
My neighbor woke up the other day and found a bullet hole in the side of his car and a bullet in his back seat.
It was a stray from someone randomly shooting their gun in a neighborhood. I’m just thankful the bullet was stopped by his car. It could just have easily hit one of our apartments.
Agreed, guns in public are not as common as this post implies. Additionally, I’m just as scared of a mugger with a knife. Seeing that video of someone drop dead within 3 seconds of being stabbed in the neck is pretty freaky…
One time I had a seizure and almost died, apparently I was screaming extraordinarily loud while convulsing. I called 911 while I was losing awareness because I thought I was having a stroke. So a fuck ton of cop cars arrived because I allegedly specifically asked for a police to come pick me up ::: spoiler (I didn’t ask for an ambulance because it’d be outrageously expensive, I ended up being transported by ambulance and then helicopter anyways, the ambulance bill was almost $1000 for a ~10-15 minute ride and the helicopter bill was multiple tens of thousands for a 10 minute ride, lol I almost died to avoid this) spoiler :::.
My friend told me after all this that, while the fuck tons of cop cars are pulled up on my lawn and I’m being carried out with makeshift bondage in a stretcher convulsing/screaming, my old ass neighbour (I’d have to guess like in his 70s) came out with a whole ass ARSENAL strapped all over his body, a rifle attached to his back, pistols and ammo around his hip, everything. And he just walks out of his house, up to the cops, and starts asking about what’s happening. I didn’t even KNOW this dude had guns, but apparently he’s a super conservative gun-owning ““enthusiast”” and he found it appropriate to flaunt what I can only presume he perceives as “badassery” to this sea of cops including the local chief.
Maybe if I wasn’t a dumbass and just asked for EMTs instead, that wouldn’t have happened haha…
This isn’t very relevant to your comment but it just reminded me of that situation for some reason lol.
I think how common guns are in public depends on where in the USA you live. The number of signs I saw in Dallas and Fort Worth that guns are not allowed inside the building was alarming.
Yeah, Texas was the only place that I’ve actually witnessed casual open carry on a regular basis but to their credit I never saw any crime with a gun. However, I know people all over the country who conceal carry and you’d never know it.
I realize this is anecdotal but I witnessed the 2022 Las Vegas mass stabbing outside my hotel that killed 2 and injured 6 people. No one even knew what was happening because it was such a quick and silent attack.
My point is not that guns and knives are comparable, but that it’s silly to feel afraid in the US simply because of guns, generally I’m more scared because of the mental health and wealth inequality crisis causing an increase in apparently crazy people wandering the streets.
Missouri here. I just got done working at a walmart for 6 years. In the time i was there 2 different people had been shot by police in front of the store. I personally saw a gun get pulled right in front of my department in a huge argument but luckily the cop was just showing up over the screaming. A little bit before I left someone pulled a gun on the guy who brings your shit to your car because he took too long. That’s just there. I have also been held up at gunpoint once and also had a random car shoot at me as it drove past.
Hearing gunshots outside is such a boring common thing I don’t even pause my game unless it sounds like its right outside, which happens a few times a year. Usually thats just people firing ‘for fun’ but about 5 months ago someone was killed in my apts parking lot.
Well said.