Time for Serious Gun Control

“People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.”
― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

I watched the announcement of the Grand Jury’s decision in Ferguson with interest. I had the DA on television, the street scene unfolding on my iPad, and the Ferguson Police and Emergency scanner traffic on an iPhone. I don't think I ever believed any of it was ever going to go another way.

This next phrase is difficult and I've had to struggle with the phrasing: I don't believe the officer involved did anything wrong criminal illegal unnatural surprising. He felt threatened; his gun was available; he used it. He had no reason to believe he'd be seriously sanctioned for it (Note: media circuses, while unpleasant, don't count). A layman’s balancing of the details of testimony isn't particularly satisfying.

Brown appears to have been a thief. The stop wasn't handled well. Volumes could be written about the secrecy-laden proceedings which followed, and the incompetence of police handling of unrest. Other volumes could document the damage done to minority communities by protesters. This should have gone to a full jury. But none of that actually changes the underlying problem.

I don't own a gun, but I'm a strong advocate of second amendment rights. It’s ironic then, that I am beginning to see the gun in this case as the problem. If Officer Wilson was at risk of death, it’s because Brown was close enough to grab his gun, the one Wilson shot him with instead. I have to wonder: what if Wilson hadn’t been carrying one?

Take everything else as Wilson describes it (I’m not sure I do, but just for the sake of argument). Brown and a friend were walking in the street and Wilson pulls over to tell them to get on the sidewalk. Brown immediately swears at Wilson. Wilson notes he is carrying cigars like those stolen in a strong-arm robbery reported earlier and calls him over. Before he can open his door, Brown slams it and begins punching Wilson through the open window. Should Brown be allowed to do that? Of course not. Is Wilson allowed to defend himself? Absolutely. So it’s good he had a gun to put a stop to it, right?

Well, this is the weird part. Brown stopped in the middle. According to Wilson, he stopped and turned to his friend to hand him the cigars. “Hold these,” or some such, he says, before returning to the beating. The officer has mace. No Taser—they're uncomfortable. But he also has the gun. Time to misfire it twice, but no time to use the mace, he says, without spraying himself in the face. Even when Brown turns to hand his stuff to somebody else.

So let’s take the gun off Wilson’s belt. Michael Brown isn't dead anymore. That’s no small thing, because suddenly we have his testimony of what went down. Is Officer Wilson dead? I don’t think so. I think Wilson suddenly becomes more resourceful. I think he rolls up the window more quickly; I think he pulls away instead of pulling toward Michael Brown; I think he calls for backup.

I’m not sure he even stops.

If we can remove the assumption of deadly force as an available option in comparatively benign circumstances, cops get smarter and so do criminals. The image of a crook waiting to murder a policeman during a traffic stop--does that even make sense if the policeman doesn't have a gun? What percentage of incidents are made safer, are inherently de-escalated when the policeman is unarmed?

To be clear, my position on private citizens possessing weapons hasn't changed. I’m just increasingly less certain the police should have them. But that can’t surprise you; I've long believed the people should have more power than the government. This is taking it to its logical conclusion.

I'm not suggesting that police should never have lethal weapons under any circumstances. I'm saying something needs to fundamentally change the way we are policing in this country. So let them keep their weapons in a lockbox in the trunk. I’m suggesting patrolmen shouldn't be relying on them to “keep the peace,” though nowhere has that phrase been more laughable lately than in Ferguson. One badly managed city, though, does not make the rule. Like you need more examples.

In Cleveland this week, a young boy with a bb gun was killed by police. A caller who alerted the cops said, “There’s a boy with a gun, I think it’s a fake.” The dispatcher passed it along. Oh, except the part about the gun being fake. The boy moved wrong. They killed him.

For all the adoration we give to our first responders, heroes each of them, so everyone seems to say, I don't see a lot of sacrificing. I see a lot of shoot first and ask questions later.In Northern Kentucky recently, another deputy was not indicted, after firing four shots at the 19-year old driver of a car leaving the scene of a party. He says she tried to run him down. Others say he jumped on the car to stop her from leaving. Malice or panic, she accelerated. So he killed her. Whether or not her death will put a stop to the horrible crime of fully grown adults drinking, is unclear.

President Obama is protected by people who will kill for him. They will also die for him. The United States is protected by soldiers who will kill to preserve the nation. They will also die for it. No one is protecting society the same way.That 12 year old in Cleveland should not have died. He didn't have a real gun. But if he had—well, he still shouldn't have died.So, beat cops everywhere, turn in your guns.

You can keep the nightstick—for now.