I have never felt safe around guns.
I grew up around them because my father is a hunter. Harvesting wild game is a central part of keeping our ancestral ties alive and, as Indigenous people, it is part of maintaining our role as stewards of Mother Earth.
My father hunted moose and deer. I have never been a hunter but have been on many hunts and appreciate his hard work to feed his family and have always had the deepest respect and love for the animals that give their lives to sustain us. I have seen guns used for their intended purpose: killing. When hunting large game as part of a lifestyle that lives in balance with the earth, guns make sense.
Nothing else about owning guns makes sense to me.
I know people that have collected guns and went to gun shows and the habit always confused and annoyed me. These aren’t toys and owning them isn’t a hobby. The way they are marketed and glorified feeds into the idea that they are crucial to our existence as free people and that we need them to protect ourselves.
The Second Amendment is touted as one of our most important rights, even though it was written at a time when people could not have imagined the bloody toll gun violence would take on our country. The people stockpiling guns and using them in mass shootings don’t care about the Constitution. They don’t care about your right to protect yourself. They only care about killing other human beings.
I was a teenager when the Columbine shooting sent shockwaves throughout the country. My high school teachers talked to us about what we were to do if a shooter came through the school. We were warned about video games, violent movies, and Marilyn Manson. What nobody was talking about why these teenagers had access to deadly weapons and in the years that have followed we still aren’t doing much about getting guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
We have targeted mental health as the biggest contributor, but we haven’t done anything to fix that system either. We have continued to let the NRA have a strong political influence and our culture continues to glorify the right to bear arms, and while we have limits on other rights under the Constitution, we have not been able to stand up to the gun craze. We cannot yell fire in a crowded theater but we can bring a gun into one.
During the last Maine legislative session, we were able to make some important lasting changes in this state and I was proud to have been involved in some of them. I was deeply disappointed that even in this moment of clarity and progress no gun control bills passed. What are we afraid of?
I will tell you what I am afraid of: I am afraid of being in a public place with dark skin.
President Trump has elevated the voices of white supremacist and domestic terrorists with his racism and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Repeating a metaphor that has been used a lot, Trump saw a bunch of gasoline poured on flammable materials and, instead of stopping the hatred, he lit a match. He is firing up his base that sees their position of power in this country as threatened by minorities. They are living under the falsehood that Black and Brown people are taking jobs, money, and resources from them. Instead of leading America to a place of unity, understanding, and inclusivity (which are all very possible) the president is feeding the unfounded fears of the extremists and he is benefitting from them.
Mass shootings are affecting vulnerable populations and often have motivations that are based in fear and bigotry. Children in schools. LGBTQ nightclubs. Shopping malls near the Mexican border.
Marginalized populations don’t have the political capital and means to match the efforts of the NRA and powerful Republicans who pursue the interests of the gun lobby. We have been historically oppressed and are often just trying to survive and feed our families. We are now afraid for our lives when we leave the house.
The president conveys to his base that Black and Brown people are dangerous so it is no coincidence that white supremacist groups are being more vocal and organizing in the open. In Maine, the white pride group “Maine for Mainers” bragged that if anyone disturbs their gatherings they will be waiting for them — with guns.
If one of them saw me on the street, they would not know that my people have been in this state for thousands of years and that I am more of a “Mainer” than they will ever be. They would just see a woman with dark skin who is a blemish in the state they love to brag about as being 95 percent white. They see me as a threat. They see me as part of the “infestation” of their whiteness. They see me as not worthy of safety or basic human rights. As a mother of two daughters that look like me, it is terrifying to think that my children are in a country where a resurgence of white supremacy has been coupled with inaction on controlling weapons.
Gun violence has been a disease for a long time. Gun control may be just treating one of the symptoms. However, when cancer is in your body you want to focus on the tumor. Other things may have contributed, but the immediate concern is getting rid of the poison that is spreading. Guns are the tumor. Of course we need a wholesale change in our culture and while we work on that let’s prioritize the thing that is killing us the fastest.
We were shocked by Columbine and we aren’t shocked anymore. I refuse to let mass shootings become normal for me and I refuse to stop trying to make things safer for my dark-skinned daughters.
Students gather for a rally while taking part in National School Walkout Day to protest school violence on April 20, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo: Jim Young | Getty Images)
Daily Updates