Stop the Killing, Start the Talking

Part One: August 30, 2023
We cannot seem to talk about what is “rural” without guns coming into the conversation. Never mind that city folks are ever more buying guns and it is mostly city folks who are mis-using them. Guns are rural, and we rural Democrats need to craft our message.

Last winter we had an open session talking about gun control in anticipation of the 2023 legislative session. After the meeting, I summarized the conversation and crafted a discussion piece. It is time now to do that discussion about how we talk about guns.

Language works both ways. We use language to express our ideas. And language can feed back on our ideas. Messaging can change what we think we want. This is the case with my draft messaging of gun control.

My messaging piece changes my usual thinking. 1) I talk about “stopping the killing” rather than gun control; 2) I accept that many people buy guns for self protection and that is legitimate; 3) I accept that there can be “good guys with guns” and we should be smart about making allies with “traditionalists” to isolate the “absolutionists”; and 4) I accept the argument that “people kill people” and “stopping the killing” starts with our families and communities.

These changes are controversial. Let’s talk. Join our conversation Thursday 14 September. Come with your ideas, your experience, your messaging.

Part Two: September 27, 2023
We left our last meeting a little unsure of what to do next in re-casting the “gun control” rhetoric into a “stop the killing” narrative, into a narrative that we rural Democrats can use to engage our neighbors. In retrospect, the answer was clear. We have to talk to someone from the gun community.

Bob Bloch is from my home town. We graduated from Whitman College a year apart. We share friends, though we have not been in touch for some thirty years. And he has been active in the Walla Walla Gun Club since 1965. He is committed to firearm safety, and to firearms.

I would like to say that I had to work hard to get Bob to talk with us. Truth is, Bob wants to break down the divides as much as we do. He was an easy sale. I didn’t cheat though – Bob is not a ringer. Bob, rather, is the sort of skeptical citizen whose trust we eventually need to earn.

Bob concedes that the gun lobby has its crazies. Without quite conceding that we have crazies in our own ranks, we do come to this discussion with different viewpoints. Some of us reject guns wholesale, having seen gun violence first hand. Others of us are more comfortable with firearms, having been taught firearm safety early on by our fathers. Starting with a “stop the killing” objective, maybe we can approach common ground among ourselves, just as we explore common ground with Bob.

Join us next Thursday, 5 October. Bring your good humor along with your thoughts and values.

Part Three: October 6, 2023
Last evening’s conversation (Stop the Killing) was both passionate and respectful. I thank all you who elected to participate. Unfortunately, we were only a handful. That alone says something. My problem statement calling for redirecting of our policy from more effective gun control to robust social measures to stop the violence apparently does not resonate.

Even obsessions have their limits. I had teased that we were obsessive not about guns but about making rural Washington competitive for Democrats. It is apparent, though, that the personal and moral pain surrounding guns offsets our electoral ambitions. There are limits to how far we choose to compromise.

We had no convergence last evening. People left the meeting with pretty much the same position they had when they joined the meeting. Several participants were pleased we were taking a new look at guns. Others rejected the idea, with passion.

We all respond with horror to school shootings or killings in shopping malls or churches. We should. The victims are innocent, often children. They have done nothing to place themselves in harm’s way. Their daily routine is interrupted – forever.

Nearly 50,000 people die by firearms each year. Too many. And too many die by their own hand with guns. Suicides account for 54 percent of deaths by firearm. Homicides are 43 percent. That leaves 3 percent who die by “active shooters” in mass killings.

Pistols – not rifles – are the firearm of choice in suicides, homicides, and active shooter events. The last category may surprise. The FBI reports that last year active shooters used more handguns than rifles.

So, handguns used in suicide and homicide should grab our attention more than active shooters and assault rifles. The opposite is true. Why? Drama makes a difference, of course. And active shootings are increasing. That makes a difference too. A friend suggests that it also may have something to do with our sense that we should be able to manage our own risk of suicide and homicide, not perfectly but pretty much. With active shootings, all our notions of personal agency are violated. There is no rhyme or reason for why we survive or die. It is the perfect prescription for terror.

Don Schwerin is the Chair of the Ag and Rural Caucus of the Washington State Democrats. He is a former State Committee Person for the Walla Walla County Democrats.