Men and Guns

Earlier this week I had the absolutely amazing and very fun opportunity to act in a short film a friend was making.  Needless to say, it was pretty much one of the best things that has happened to me this year and served as a way for me to see how different theatre is from film acting.  Personally, after Monday, I have to say that I really like film acting.  There's something intoxicating about it.  Maybe its the realness and the environment.  I'm not totally sure, but I loved it.  In any case, it was an action movie, so there was a lot of running around, some fight scenes, and, obviously since we all had guns as you can see in the picture, some firefight scenes.

Yesterday, I ended up talking to one of my co-workers about it and showed her the picture because I think it looks pretty awesome and honestly its one of the very, very rare photos that are taken of me that I actually like the way I look in it.  Her first reaction upon seeing the picture was to freak out about how many guns we were holding.  I will make it very clear right now that every single gun, no matter how real it may look, was fake.  No real guns were ever used.  However, they do look very realistic and it took me a few minutes to convince her that they really were fake.  Once she was convinced she immediately asked who on earth would have so many fake guns.  When I told her a number of the guys in the group were into airsoft and such, she still couldn't get over how scary it was for them to have so many guns.  It didn't take me long to realize that she's one of the people who are firmly against anyone owning a gun.

As I continued to tell her about filming, she seemed kind of distracted.  I wasn't exactly surprised then when a couple minutes later she burst out asking if any of the guys owned real guns.  I told her that sure, some of them did.  Her reply stunned me:  doesn't that freak you out that they own real guns?  My immediate response was no and I think she was equally stunned.

I don't think she was just stunned by my answer.  I think it was also because of how fast I did answer and because of the people involved.  The thing is, I haven't known most of the young men in that photo for very long if I really know them at all and the ones I've known for longer, I'm not very close to.  She knew all this and I think that's why she was so surprised, because how could I know that one of these men wasn't a crazy person who would go on a shooting spree.  For me, its a simple answer.  No, I don't know all their deepest darkest secrets, with some of them I don't know much about them at all, but what I do know, what I believe, is that they are some of the most trustworthy young men I've met and quite honestly, if one of them had a gun, I'd probably feel a lot safer in their company.

The problem is that the issue with guns has gotten so out of control that the idea of anyone owning a gun just freaks people out.  It doesn't matter how responsible or how well-trained that person might be, if they have a gun, they become the automatic bad guy.  That doesn't mean that I think that everyone should be allowed to own a gun, but I think its time people realize that guns are not the problem.  If you set a gun down in the middle of a crowd, its not going to start shooting everyone in sight.  Its going to lay on the ground where it was placed until someone picks it up.  At that point, the person holding the gun decides whether they will use for it good or for evil.

One of my favorite book series growing up was called Redwall.  I actually still like to read them on occasion.  All of the books center to some degree around a sword.  Masterfully forged, it is as beautiful as it is deadly and many of the villains throughout the series believe that is is a magic sword.  This is, of course, completely untrue.  As one of the characters very aptly tells his young friend: "It is only a sword, Matthias! It contains no secret spell, nor holds within its blade any magical power. This sword is made for only one purpose, to kill. It will only be as good or evil as the one who wields it."  Guns are also made for one primary purpose, to kill.  But like the sword, a gun is only as good or evil as the one who uses it.  In the hands of police officers and other people of the law, it is often a weapon for justice and goodness.  But in the hands of another, it can be a weapon of death and destruction.

Now can we be more vigilant about who is able to own a gun, who is able to purchase one?  Absolutely.  But by thinking that everyone who owns a gun is automatically a horrible person simply makes it more likely that one of those people might turn around and become that person that everyone fears.  So as I looked at this young woman staring at me in shock because I didn't view guns the same way she did, I figured it was a place to start.  By the end of the conversation, she wasn't quite so against guns.  Sometimes you just have to start small, one person at a time.