As someone who was an adult– but a young adult– on 9/11, I have often tried to explain to those younger than me what actually happened to America that day. We lost people, for sure. That’s never to be forgotten or overlooked. But more to the point, we lost our false sense of security.
Younger folks might not remember it, but the average white American felt damn-near invincible before 9/11. Terror didn’t get there. We couldn’t really be attacked. I mean sure, we feared missiles during the 1960s, and we were vaguely concerned with the USSR in the 1980s, but things didn’t happen here.
If you ignore that when the colonists came here they sanctioned perhaps the worst bloodbath in human history. But beyond that…
But since 9/11, the fear of what could happen has driven people to odd places. The border wall that was part of the Trump platform that won the presidency is one example of this. People assume we’re in serious danger from the southern border, so they overreact and make what seem like highly illogical decisions. If you don’t agree that we handle border security, check this out from John Oliver’s show Sunday night.
The same flawed thinking has deep implications for people’s belief about the second amendment. I’ve often argued that people don’t read/understand all of that amendment, which reads:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Now bear with me if this seems annoying, but I want to explain to those who don’t pay close attention how grammar works. The part of the amendment that I bolded modifies the second part. The right to bear arms is so that a militia can exist. We have those now– they’re cops. So if you’re a private citizen and you’re not dedicated to a militia for protection from outside forces, you don’t actually have a constitutional right to own a weapon.
This can be coupled with a quick look at the statistics.This LA Times article lays out a number of studies, but the big point I want to hammer home is that hand guns don’t actually make anyone safer.
But fear drives people to buy weapons. Fear drives people to vote for people who insist on swift action, Fear drives people to long for a border wall. What people long for is the sense of safety. That is not coming back.
So when our President threatens North Korea that they will face “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” and then we hear mumbles that North Korea is looking at ways to attack Guam, we shouldn’t be surprised. The threat isn’t going to make us safer. If anything, the threat of violence makes us less safe.
Besides, if anyone in the world really needs to fear WMDs, it’s not us. To “end” World War II we used the atomic bomb (twice). No other country has been so brazen. Though North Korea might be the country to give us a run for the money.
We have never actually been safe in America. Safer than some places, too, but anyone who knows or is a woman, a person of color, a gay or trans male, knows that there’s never been a promise of safety.
We all long for those days when we knew our parents were immortal and we knew we were safe in their arms.
That’s gone.
All we can do now is be realistic and behave as safely as possible. We need to be vigilant, though, and not expect the quick answers that people offer to be the real answer. The real answers are hard, but they’re worth finding. We need to work harder.