There's A Hand For Every Gun

I was listening to Blitzen Trapper's new album over the weekend and one track, 'Hazy Morning' (below) has stuck with me. This post's title is a lyric from that song and what gave me the idea for today's post.

This country (USA) has enough firearms to arm every man, woman, and child with spares to go around (and that's just in civilian hands). We can argue all day about the hows and whys and justifications for this but for the purposes of this post that is largely irrelevant, that is one horse that long ago fled the barn (and spread that firepower far and wide). The fact is that there is massive amounts of firepower out there and increasingly, groups organizing to carry said firepower en massein demonstrations and shows of force while anxiously awaiting Der Tag.

I've been around guns my entire life, handled and shot them from an early age, and been on both ends of a firearm on numerous occasions. I'm rather fond of firearms and have found out the hard way that you alone are responsible for your own security. That being said, the way I've seen guns handled and used this year has contributed more to insecurity than security. This brings me to the point of this post (finally!), namely the question: "Where do we go from here?"

I'm not going to get into what sometimes seems like the most likely end some days, namely a shooting war. Syria is a good case study in how that might go were it to happen, and it would represent a failure to solve the issue rather than being a solution.

For all intents and purposes the individuals and groups with the guns do not answer to political leaders. While the ones on the right definitely seem to support Trump wholeheartedly, he has no actual say in if, when, or how they act. The ones on the left eschew political leaders (and in many cases even hierarchical power structures) even more so. Essentially this means that Nancy and Mitch have a snowball's chance in hell of negotiating a solution to the situation, if there is to be a solution short of bloodshed it will be up to those of us with guns to find and implement it.

As someone who has seen their share of bloodshed and gunfire, I have some awareness of what a colossal, absurd, and sickening waste conflict and warfare is. For all its issues, I would not wish that upon this country, and fervently hope that is the attitude of everyone else residing here. Wars tend happen when one side overestimates their chance of success (see all the pieces talking about how many yankees one southerner could whip in the run up to the Civil War) and/or feels like they have no other choice.

Just because that's how it tends to happen doesn't mean it has to go that way. I have seen hundreds upon hundreds of people turn out with guns to defend things they valued (my feelings on some of those values are also irrelevant to this post), get into heated arguments with those opposing them and still avoid gunfire and bloodshed. In one instance the police 'protected & served' us by staying hid, while the opposing groups deescalated and disengaged on their own.

For all the bullshit the various media outlets try to sell us (and they all do, albeit in varying fashions and to varying ends), there is considerable common ground to be found. For starters we all have at least some degree of fondness and familiarity with firearms. Another is a distrust of government and a willingness to resist government oppression (it's the interpretation of this where things get messy). The working class roots of the overwhelming majority of those involved is a third commonality (I suspect that we're all being manipulated to fight some rich bastards battles but that is another rant for another time).

So where do we go from here? How do we building something better rather than destroy what we already have in the hopes of some sort of 'win'? While I mentioned three of the more salient commonalities, there are plenty of others if we're willing to look. We all know that the Democrats and Republicans will never resolve anything, it is incumbent upon us who will be out on the sharp end to settle things if we are to avoid major bloodshed. I damn sure don't have the answers myself, this is my long winded way of soliciting ideas, solutions, and suggestions. Politicians have a vested interest in picking fights and keeping them going but this is rarely to the peoples' benefit, so lets dispense with their bullshit.

All photos are mine, from the various times different militias and armed groups have turned out in Louisville this year. I will leave you with a poem by Thomas Hardy, it speaks to one of the reasons I am writing this.