When I was a toddler, tomatoes made me gag. Years ago, I tried to force a tomato down against my body’s will — now I still gag at the thought of biting into a full tomato. Luckily, as I aged I overcame this irrational aversion, and I now enjoy them on my burgers; unfortunately, I still cannot stomach the idea of biting into a tomato on its own, and I may never be able to — I have developed an emotional and psychological gag reflex to tomatoes.
Many prominent politicians and many more less-prominent citizens suffer from this same gag reflex to guns, only rather than springing forth from adolescent ignorance as my aversion to tomatoes did, their reflexive aversion is born under the cozy blanket of modern safety and success. For some, this blanket is truly tangible: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are constantly surrounded by armed guards. For others their blanket is a lack of danger: on a daily basis most citizens don't have to worry about the threat of gun violence.
The U.S. citizens that are not forced to worry about their domestic safety often gag at the mention, and especially at the sight, of guns; I witness this reflex all the time when my older brother exposes his Sig Sauer handgun. Half of the people around jump and shy away, while the other half look on gratefully, knowing that his highly-trained trigger finger could save someone from an attacker. A gun is a deadly tool, so that initial reaction makes sense. However, so is a chainsaw, and while I was nervous the first time I held a chainsaw, I put it to good use and lived to tell of it.
President Barack Obama himself has shown the gun gag reflex, especially in his latest set of executive orders. As is often noted, his new propositions would not have unseated any one of the mass shooters whom he constantly references in anecdotal style, yet he pushes them anyway. Rather than reaching a calculated, measured response to mass killings, President Obama gags in sophisticated fashion: his gag reflex to guns comes in the form of ineffectual, unconstitutional executive action and is no different than the physical gag reflex many people have when they see my brother’s Sig Sauer.
The blowback from many, if not most, Americans over these measures proposed by President Obama stems from their fair distrust of anyone suffering from the gun gag reflex. They worry that, while for now he proposes relatively slight measures, President Obama has an inherent aversion to firearms, and by extension the Second Amendment. It’s obvious that gun owners should be wary of such instincts, and it’s fair that they do as much as possible to prevent such instincts from governing their country.
Other Americans, under the force of cool, calculating rationality, come to the conclusion that horrific murder events signify not that our country is dangerous because of its guns, but that a school with an armed guard never gets targeted in the first place and that a military recruiting officer would have adequately defended himself and his office had he been armed.
In the U.S. many citizens long for firearms to disappear, and instead of accepting murder sprees as evidence that we need more armed citizens in public spaces, they hope that slowly restricting access to firearms from law abiding citizens will make guns go away. Unfortunately for those inclined to gag at the thought of a firearm, no politician can make nearly 300 million disappear, and the only thing they truly hope to make disappear (whether subconsciously or not) is the unpleasant feeling given to them by their gag reflex.
It is a serious problem that some politicians and many Americans seek to avoid their unpleasant gag reflex to guns by pushing the guns away, instead of growing past the reflex and learning to safely handle a weapon. Overcoming the natural instinct to avoid dangerous objects in order to use them is difficult, and many would rather avoid that struggle and help (or force) everyone else to do the same. I just cannot imagine how such people manage to trim their trees with chainsaws and cut their vegetables with sharp knives.
Related Links:
The 'big picture' on gun control
State Press Weekly: Guns on Campus
Reach the columnist at gheiler@asu.edu or follow @heilergeorge on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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