What do you say to a highly respected doctor and researcher, a man who made significant, measurable improvements in the medical field, a top administrator who’s globally respected, when he says that everyone should turn in their guns? You say, “no,” of course . . .
Dr. George Lundberg, MD, recently penned an editorial asking all gun owners to turn in their guns to their local police department. Lundberg’s no small-town doc. He has impressive credentials and a history of working to make things better for doctors and patients. He’s even credited with bringing the industry’s largest journal – JAMA – back from the brink during his tenure as its editor. This is a guy whose name is perennially in the hat for Surgeon General.
So, how can someone who is smart – really smart – be so ignorant on a subject like firearms ownership? One reason might be an affliction I’ve coined, called “cultural localization.” Michael Bloomberg is a perfect example of this. Living in the Big Apple, surrounded by armed security, Mayor Mike never has to worry about his safety or needing a gun. He doesn’t wake up to a view of snow-capped mountains, rifles cleaned, scopes sighted, ATV loaded and ready for the day’s hunt. And he certainly never worries about who’s making all that noise at 2 a.m. outside his rural home. Because of his (self-imposed) cultural environment, Mike Bloomberg is not exposed to the reasons others own guns.
Why does Lundberg think eliminating guns will make thigs all better? Barring any political or greed-induced motivations, I have to think that he hasn’t done his research. If his goal is to make life better for “doctor, patient, public citizen” and his motives are genuine, then it would be beneficial for all to provide Dr. Lundberg with objective, verifiable information that he obviously never got before hitting the record button on his video camera.
First, however, let’s address his glaringly flawed appeal process, your last hope at keeping Lundberg’s grabbers from grabbing:
1. I am a gun collector; I run a museum and make my living collecting, showing, and writing about guns.
OK. You may keep your guns, but you may not have any ammunition. Not needed for your line of work.
I’m guessing the doc’s never heard of ammunition collectors. Or reloading. Or Zoot Suit Shoots. In any discussion, you can’t separate the gun from its ammunition; they are, essentially, a single machine.
2. I am in the Army National Guard so I sometimes bring my Army guns home overnight.
OK. Be sure they are locked up without easy access to ammunition for the other occupants of your home.
There’s a new one. Soldiers taking their guns home? “Hey, Gunny, I’m beat and it’s a long walk to the armory. You mind if I just toss this SAW in the back of my Jeep ’til Monday? Cool, thanks.” I’ll let the TTAG’ers with more experience chime in, but I don’t think the National Guard sends its troops home with weapons. It’s becoming painfully obvious Dr. Lundberg recorded his message without much thought at all.
3. I am a police or other peace officer or fireman or public defender criminal investigator and must use guns in my work.
OK. Be sure they are locked up without easy access to ammunition for the other occupants of your home.
First, this statement ignores that cops and other public servants are human, too. There are instances of folks certified to carry guns as a condition of their job, who end up going off the reservation and using their gun as a murder weapon. His suggestion would do nothing to reduce these incidents.
Second, if he can trust a vast portion of the public service sector with nothing more than a “lock it up”, why can’t he trust the rest of us – his colleagues, neighbors, and community leaders – to be just as responsible at securing our firearms?
4. I own and manage a “Shooting Gallery” as my occupation.
OK. Same safety instructions as with 2 and 3.
Um, a shooting gallery? This shows just how out of touch with his subject the good doctor is. For me, the image that springs to mind is one of ducktails and poodle skirts, a James Dean lookalike, Marlboro dangling from the corner of his mouth, showing off his skills with a BB gun so Mary Jo can take home the giant stuffed Teddy bear hanging on the wall above the carny’s head.
C’mon, Doc, at least do some research. You must be good at that, right? I’m guessing you put maybe five minutes thought into your script. Maybe a few notes jotted on the back of a discarded envelope.
5. I like to do target practice for sport, Olympic training, discipline, and fun.
OK. Rent your firearms at the practice facility and leave them there.
Sorry Doc. I don’t trust their security so won’t leave my heaters there. And it sure would make it easier for criminals looking for a big haul. As for renting rather than owning, I learned the hard way when renting airplanes that some people abuse things they don’t own. A gun is a precision instrument and must be handled as such. I don’t want to share one in a rental pool.
6. I like to hunt for food — you know, quail, dove, squirrel, venison, moose meat, even bison.
Come on. Buy your food at the supermarket. Or rent guns from your hunting guide, if you have one.
This is the bullet point that led me to accuse the doctor of cultural localization. Millions of pounds of meat are harvested each year by hunters in our nation’s wildlands. This meat doesn’t just feed the hunter’s family; some is given to friends, and much of it is donated to food banks and shelters.It’s pretty obvious the good doctor has never broken bread with someone that doesn’t know where their next meal might come from.
But the doc’s point fails on another level: having the guns in the hands of a select group of hunting guides. How does one become a hunting guide? Who certifies them as gun-worthy. Guess the doc didn’t think this through either.
7. I always carry, so I can protect myself, my wife, my family, and the public from attacks by criminals at the mall, at my children’s school, or on the freeway.
I respect your motivation but believe that you watched “High Noon” or “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” too many times. Get real. You are more likely to kill yourself, your family, or other innocent people than you are to kill a mall bandido by carrying. Gun permit denied.
This is where Lundberg officially leaves the realm of rational discourse; next stop: ondescending elitest bullshit. I hate going there, but the doctor doesn’t provide anything to back up his erronous statement that defensive gun use and concealed carry brings mayhem wherever it goes.
In fact, even to the casual observer, the opposite is true: places where legal firearm possession is banned are the same places where criminal gun use is off the hook. Every day, people defend themselves and their families from bodily harm and death by using their legally-owned guns. Almost all of the “mass shootings” in recent history happened in places where guns were prohibited.
Look no further than Chicago – a city with laws essentially banning handguns – and you’ll see a city where more shootings occur than in some war zones. Think about that, Doctor; more Americans were shot last weekend in Chicago than in Afghanistan. And it’s not licensed carriers the shooting, because there aren’t any.
8. I keep firearms in my home to protect all Americans from the tyranny of government, just like in 1776.
What? You are a certifiable lunatic if you believe that you, and others like you, could defeat the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps in a revolution. Trust me. I was a regular officer in the U.S. Army for 11 years. You have no chance.
And the Afghans had no chance against the Soviets, and the North Vietmanese had no chance either, right? You were there. Tyranny is a many-headed beast, and it doesn’t take the big head in the middle to come chomping down on a few natural rights to provide reasons to uphold the Second Amendment.
Recent history shows that local forces can’t be trusted when the levee breaks, and it’s up to the citizens to defend themselves. My personal paradise could go Tango Uniform in the time it takes for Yellowstone’s volcano to burp. If that happens, a gun becomes a multi-tool, able to defend my family from harm, or provide meat for the table.
But according to Lundberg, merely possessing a gun as insurance against an uncertain future, someone like me is a “certifiable lunatic.” Coming from a doctor, that’s a pretty derogatory term, one your colleagues attack whenever it’s used out of context.
9. I need my guns because they make me feel like a man.
How sad. But not a good enough reason. You would probably feel even more like a man by shooting up a theater full of normal people. Psychopath city.
There’s no real use in even addressing this. We’re talking responsible gun owners here, not two-bit thugs, right? No one I know feels this way, and any respect I had for the doctor just went right out the window.
It’s obvious at this point, he’s lumping all gun owners together. It takes a degenerate mind (or degenerating, maybe?) to suggest that millions of responsible adults have the capacity to commit mass murder. I wanted to provide Dr. Lundberg with specific cases where a responsible gun owners used their weapon successfully in defense of their lives, but I don’t think a lack of information is really his problem. Honestly, it sounds like he’s suffering from early-onset dementia.
I could talk about cases like Brianne Rodriguez, or Martha Lewis, women who took the responsibility of self-defense to heart and saved their families from certain tragedy. Or the old men and women, ending crime sprees with muscle memory and a Weaver stance in places like Internet cafes and convenience stores. But I don’t think I’d get through to Dr. Lundberg. Based on his rant, there’s not much rational thought left in that once-great noggin of his.