Aurora - Shooting Our Own

Dressed to Kill

Well, America is undergoing another week of self-therapy and self-loathing.  The tragic mass murder in Aurora, Colorado has re-opened a deep wound (not a pun) carried by this country.

I'm a naturalized American having immigrated here from Canada in 1995.  America is a great country.  It has a patriotic spirit that fires innovation and entrepreneurship.  But it is also a society full of fear and full of guns.

In March I wrote about a shooting that I witnessed.  My wife and I were having dinner with some friends on a restaurant patio.  Twenty feet away, in the parking lot, gunshots rang out.  

Once the chaos settled down and my wife administered emergency attention to one of the victims we started to understand what happened.  Basically a man was stalking his wife.  They had been separated for several months.  She and some of her friends had come to the restaurant.  When they got back to their car the man opened fire on them before he took his own life.

It took many weeks before all of the facts were known, including the fact that the man’s wife is now confined to a wheelchair for life.

Now my little incident doesn’t compare to the shooting in the Aurora movie house.  But what I do know is that in the few wild seconds of the shooting in the restaurant no one knew what the hell was going on.  Most people didn’t recognize the “pops” as gunfire, and those who did were diving for cover under the dinner tables.

Even if you had been trained to recognize and assimilate the chaos you wouldn’t have had a clue of what to do.  This wasn’t a movie where you've been prepared and are observing the scene from a calm vantage point.  This was reality.  Who was shooting who?  How many shooters were there?  How can I stay alive?

This shooting happened in Texas where we have a concealed gun law.  That’s right, if you are licensed you can sit in a restaurant with a concealed weapon.  Many of my friends “pack heat”.  When playing golf I'm always leery when someone says “good shot!”

Now it is not unreasonable to think that there were several gun totters in the restaurant that evening.  Yet no one jumped up, gun in hand to save the day.  If there were packers in the vicinity they were obvious by their absence.

So what’s my point?  Well, I'm a gun guy.  I see value in guns.  I think there is a valuable lore around families and hunting; and I’ve always been a big fan of various types of target shooting.  There is something magical, powerful, and even primeval about shooting, even when the result can be fallen game.

I also empathize with the second amendment of the US constitution - you know the right to bear arms.  It does make some sense to me that the citizenry should be allowed to arm itself against unjust government – even if the gesture is simply symbolic.  The second amendment goes to the heart of America’s belief in itself.  It represents freedom and sovereignty.  Since it is a belief, it cannot be assailed by the arguments of logic.

But what about the flip side of the belief?  Did the framers of the US constitution want to protect the freedom of disturbed citizens who want to kill other citizens?  Maybe, but I don’t think so.

We seem to have over-interpreted the second amendment.  We are now saying that it’s ok for someone to legally buy 6000 rounds of ammunition, automatic rifles with clips holding 100 bullets, and body armor to protect them against retribution.

All I know for sure is that if the Aurora shooter had come to our restaurant instead of a crazed husband, we would all be dead.

If I have to take my shoes off at airports so people can feel safe, shouldn’t I feel just as safe while eating tacos?

Shooting

I had a strange experience a few nights ago. My wife and I were out to dinner with several other couples. We were seated in a glassed-in outdoor patio. We were near the end of the evening when we heard a series of "pops". We were all pretty casual until my wife looked out the window and screamed for everyone to get on the floor.

As the news reports flowed out, we came to understand that a middle aged man was waiting in the parking lot for his estranged wife and her girl friend to leave the restaurant. As the women got in their SUV the man fired several shots at them and then turned the gun on himself. A tragedy for everyone.

Putting the suicide and shootings aside I had several reactions to the incident.

First, it's weird how you can be part of an event, but really not be part of it. We were definitely part of the aftermath but we had nothing to do with the incident other than being in extreme danger without knowing it. Yes, we heard the shots but to this day no one knows how many. I thought it was five, others claim four or six; and everyone has different recollections of the cadence. One astute colleague even asserted that the gun must have been a nine millimeter because he recognized the sound. Good for him because that wasn't a sound I ever heard in a hollywood movie. The sound was definitely just like the pop-gun I had as a kid.

Then there was the strange non-reaction to the shots. What was it? Was it a car back-fire? Maybe it was firecrackers? Could have been gun shots? The amazing thing is that we tended to discount what it really was. It's like we didn't want to be embarrassed by over-reacting until my wife told everyone to get down. Even then most of us didn't hide and one women jokingly hid behind a wall. It's no wonder that when we hear of a shooting in a school cafeteria that a dozen students get hit. They simply can't assimilate what's going on.

My final thought is about the aggrandized gun culture in the US (I'm a naturalized US citizen). People here love their guns and their Second amendment rights. I have no problem with people owning guns for what I see as legitimate purposes - like hunting or taking kids to enjoy the outdoors. But the easy access to guns in the US is ridiculous. Any one can get a gun - increasing the probability of bad things happening.

After the shooting one of my colleagues said; "that's it. I'm getting my concealed gun license." Yep, that's true. In Texas you can be licensed to conceal your heat. The thought is that in a situation like we encountered that some brave citizen will unpack their heat and blow the shooter away. It happens everyday in the movies. But in reality it would be chaos. First, we all had a stunned reaction to what was going on; and second, if someone pulled their gun they would just be a target for another law abiding citizen. In the moment it would be impossible to separate the white hats from the black hats. In all likely hood a lot of people would end up as collateral damage.

So, we were in real danger on Saturday night. The gunman could have unloaded his gun into the restaurant before taking himself out. But is the danger over? I don't think so. We're all at risk as long as people think that the answer to their problems comes from a gun barrel.