Thoughts about Guns

By Lilly

“How do you know if someone is not an American by reading their palm?”

Audience pauses in inquisitive anticipation.

“Well, you look at the lines. The life line, the heart line, all those. And then if you can see them, you know there isn't a gun in their palm!”

The audience laughs.

This is a joke.

A joke that came across my feed from a British comedian, playing on how the rest of the world sees Americans.

But what does this say about us?

I think many of us know. We have a lot of guns in this country. Many other countries don’t. The actual numbers, though, can be a little shocking for those who don’t own guns and don't know many people who do.

Most of my friends don’t own any guns. Most of those people are also left-leaning, or whatever the political equivalent of agnostic might be. Most of those people also believe that this country needs more strict gun laws and regulations.

But I’m not actually here to talk about gun laws and regulations. Surprised?

What I’m here to talk about is survival.

And when it comes to survival in the U.S., we have to discuss guns. It’s just something that we need to think about and discuss. Whether you’ve never held a gun before or you go to the range every week and own multiples, let’s talk.

Here’s a look at some of the details and stats.

According to Legalreader.com:

• The United States has between 400 million and 500 million civilian-owned firearms.

• There are 1.93 firearms for every adult in the U.S.

• In 2022, there were 22 million people with concealed carry permits.

• 46% of American households—approximately 65.19 million—contain at least one firearm.

So let's think about it. There are nearly two guns for every adult in the U.S. But I said earlier that most of my friends don’t own guns. And I would wager most of their friends don’t either.

But the people I do know who own guns? They don’t have just one or two. They have 5, 10, 15, 20 or more.

According to PewResearch.org: “White men are especially likely to be gun owners: About half (48%) say they own a gun, compared with about a quarter of white women and nonwhite men (24% each) and 16% of nonwhite women.”

This is exactly why I’m talking about this here. This is a page for Womxn and Minorities. So if only about 25% of us own guns and something major breaks out, do you think you know enough white men who can and will protect you?

Probably not.

Now, don’t assume I’m saying that everyone needs to own a bunch of guns. I know a lot of you are opposed and will never allow a gun in your home or purchase one for yourself. I get where you are coming from. They are deadly weapons, and I myself know someone who was shot in the back eight times and broke the record at her hospital for longest stay in the ICU.

What I am saying, though, is that they are all around us. Even if you don’t own one, you should know how to use and safely handle them. You should know how to disarm them and such. Also, in regard to survival, you may want to think about getting one for hunting.

Food security is part of survival too.

I do think all of us should go to a range, practice target shooting, take a gun safety class, and learn self-defense.

Gun ownership ≠ violence

Learning about guns doesn’t mean glorifying violence. It’s okay to hold both truths: that gun violence is a serious problem and that being educated about firearms is smart. Especially when others are already armed and trained.

Many white men learn about guns from a young age. We can think about gun knowledge as a way of breaking cycles of disempowerment.

Again, PewResearch.org says: “About two-thirds of current gun owners (67%) say there were guns in their household growing up, and 76% report that they first fired a gun before they were 18.”

For generations, womxn and minorities have been kept from gaining independence, power, knowledge, and self-reliance.

An example that many of us know: in the U.S., women were granted the right to own credit cards in their own names in 1974. The mid-70s!

According to the Federal Reserve, the median wealth of white families in the U.S. in 2019 was eight times that of Black families, and five times that of Hispanic families. Despite progress in education and income, this massive gap persisted, and I'm guessing it hasn’t closed much since 2019.

It was illegal for people of different races to marry in parts of the U.S. until 1967. And same-sex marriage wasn’t legalized until 2015.

These are just a few examples of how womxn and minorities have been held back from our full potential. If you’re too worried about your basic rights, then you won’t have the energy to rise up and fight for anyone else's rights either.

You may think this argument is kind of a stretch, but honestly, this isn’t just an argument for learning about guns. To me, this is an argument I’m going to make a lot here on this page.

We, as womxn and minorities, need to gain knowledge and skills that are often passed down to white men from their fathers, uncles, etc.

Like I said before, learning to use a gun safely could be part of breaking cycles of disempowerment. Kind of like learning financial literacy, self-defense, or even learning how to say “No” without feeling guilty.

Guns are often tied up with patriotism, masculinity, and whiteness in American culture.

What does it look like to rewrite that story? What if gun knowledge was framed as communal protection, responsibility, and resilience, not aggression or domination?

This is what I want you to try and wrap your head around.

Right now, I keep hearing people say that seeing the American flag fly no longer brings a feeling of patriotism, but instead brings on a wave of dread. We can almost assume that a flag flying from a house means the inhabitants don’t value you or me as equal human beings, and that our rights don’t matter to them.

This is often the same feeling people have about gun owners.

Let’s rewrite that narrative to instead mean self-reliance and preparedness. That we can feed our families and loved ones. That we can protect ourselves and the people we care about from those who want to harm us.

Recently, when I was at a range, I was talking to a friend about how during an invasion, I won’t have ear or eye protection available if I ever need to use a gun.

But I said I would gladly blow out my eardrums if it meant I wouldn't be raped and murdered.

Dark, I know. But real.

I know this isn’t an easy conversation, but it’s one I think we need to be having out loud, in community, and without shame.

I’d love to hear where you stand on all this. Have you ever handled a gun? Would you ever want to? What fears or questions come up for you around this topic? Drop a comment. Let’s talk about it.