“You fasten all the triggers for the others to fire. Then you sit back and watch as the death count gets higher.” – Masters of War by Bob Dylan

17 children were killed recently by a deranged gunman at a Florida high school. As hurt turned to anger at yet another senseless attack, an inescapable conclusion was that a sick and unstable person should not have access to assault weapons. Yet in the United States, he had easy enough access that he bought 10 rifles within the last year. An astonishing 97% of the U.S. population, people from all political persuasions, believe in universal background checks for all gun buyers. More than two thirds believe semi-automatic/assault weapons should be banned, and yet they remain on our streets.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and the Apocalypse Now movie that it spawned are icons of literature and cinema, respectively. They both focus on a character, Kurtz, who has gone rogue and become an enigmatic symbol of evil. In Conrad’s novella, Kurtz is a European imperialist in the Congo who no longer answers to his company superiors, while Colonel Walter Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola’s film is a former Army Special Forces officer who has formed his own private army in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

In each case, morals gave way to power a long time ago. Murder, slavery, torture… both Kurtz characters are open, obvious, and unapologetic about their dark behavior. That makes them evil, but perhaps less evil than the people who enabled them and were glad to support them as long as they got the job done silently.

They are the killers, but who fastened their triggers?

“You hide in your mansion while young peoples’ blood flows out of their bodies and is buried in the mud.” -- Masters of War by Bob Dylan

The most perfectly written character in Heart of Darkness is not Kurtz and it’s not the protagonist Charles Marlow who goes searching for him. The best written character in the story is Kurtz’s counterpart at the Company. It’s the man known only as “the general manager” of the imperialist company’s Central Station.

Here is how Conrad describes this man. See if it sounds like anyone you know.

He was commonplace in complexion, in features, in manners, and in voice. He was of middle size and of ordinary build. His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold… Otherwise there was only an indefinable, faint expression of his lips, something stealthy—a smile—not a smile—I remember it, but I can’t explain… He was obeyed, yet he inspired neither love nor fear, nor even respect. He inspired uneasiness. That was it! Uneasiness. Not a definite mistrust—just uneasiness—nothing more… He was great by this little thing that it was impossible to tell what could control such a man. He never gave that secret away. Perhaps there was nothing within him. Such a suspicion made one pause. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/219/219-h/219-h.htm

That is one of the best descriptions of a person in all of literature. Why is it perfect? Because you know that person and so do I. We both know someone who fits that description. Is that your boss? It’s also a corporate tycoon, a mid-level manager, a faceless bureaucrat, or a politician who maddeningly keeps getting re-elected even as we know we can do better.

And it’s the person who enables the killers. Someone is happy to make money or to benefit politically until their whitewashed scheme is exposed. Maybe Kurtz was crazy, but the enablers were willing to put up with him until either his actions became public or he went rogue.

“You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly.”
--Masters of War by Bob Dylan

Assault weapons are not made for hunting or for defending oneself; they are meant to inflict massive human casualties.

If their manufacturers cared more about saving lives than selling guns, they would not let criminals and deranged people purchase them. However dark is the heart of that killer, it’s not as dark as the heart of whitewashed politicians or manufacturers who continue to allow these weapons on our streets, in the hands of people who should not have them.

I don’t hate anyone; I want common-sense solutions. I do not hate the killers or the enablers. I do not hate the libertarian-minded people who will comment on this post with the view that government should not exist or that people have a right to own guns. Both of those things can still be true. And I’m not asking you to shave your feral beard either. :)

As a society, we had a right to come to consensus decades ago that drunk drivers were killing people and that some limits on this behavior were necessary to save lives. We can agree that shouting “fire” in a crowded theater or that advocating violence are both forms of free speech that have the potential to do more harm than good – hence, some limitations are in society’s interest. Convicted felons and mentally ill persons already get many of their rights curtailed, including their right to own a gun. When society steps up and says ‘enough is enough’, there’s plenty of precedent for reasonable limitations on fundamental rights. That does not make them any less important or less fundamental.

So too with guns.

Keep your right to bear arms; it is not being threatened here. If you think I’m giving into government’s slippery slope agenda, I happen to believe you’re being manipulated by a gun manufacturer’s trade association that pretends to have your interests in mind – it doesn’t. The cigarette makers tried the same thing, but they killed enough people that society stepped up and said we’re tired of this bull****.

Gun advocates are fond of saying that the problem is not the gun, but the person behind it. Why, then, can we not have background checks for everyone, which would simply implement that view, which is supported by 97% of the country? Criminals and sick people do not need access to guns. And no one needs semi-automatic guns on the street. Making those changes does not take away the Second Amendment right. Those are the right things to do.

http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/masters-war-mono/
http://www.businessinsider.com/assault-weapons-ban-poll-gun-reform-2018-2
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/20/politics/gun-poll-quinnipiac/index.html
http://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/02/23/gop-poll-in-florida-shows-strong-support-for-assault-weapons-ban/

“You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world…”

“Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good?
Will it buy you forgiveness?
Do you think that it could?
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.”
--Masters of War by Bob Dylan

Sorry, Bob. You may be the greatest songwriter of all time, but your songs sound better when other singers cover them. Let’s try Pearl Jam, Ed Sheeran, and Tatiana Moroz (in a gutsy performance at the Ron Paul Veterans March event in 2012):