“Big Jim been drinkin’ whiskey/And playin’ poker on a losin’ night/Pretty soon ol’ Jim start to thinkin’/Somebody been cheatin’ and lyin’.
“So Jim, he commence to fightin’/I wouldn’t tell you no lies/Big Jim done pulled his pistol/Shot his friend right between the eyes.
“Mr. Saturday Night Special/You got a barrel that’s blue and cold/You ain’t good for nothin’/But put a man six feet in a hole.”—from “Mr. Saturday Night Special,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, 1974.
By 1880, the town of Tombstone, Arizona was a hot mess. Local mines were in full swing and the population was exploding. The silver pouring in from the surrounding mines flowed throughout dozens of local establishments that featured non-stop gambling, drinking, and prostitution.
This, of course, was having an impact. Enough local residents were killing each other by gunfire (that is, dying with their boots on) that the local cemetery was named Boot Hill.
The city fathers had had enough. They passed an ordinance outlawing the carry of guns by Tombstone residents, and further ordered that anyone coming into Tombstone must check their guns at the Marshall’s office. They couldn’t be picked until the owner was leaving town.
And who better to enforce this process than some part-time lawmen who’d come down by way of Dodge City, Kansas—the Earp Brothers.
To say that Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp were flawed individuals would be an understatement. Today, it’s pretty clear that they were probably more interested in mining operations, gambling, and running saloons than keeping the peace. But Virgil Earp was hired as city Marshal, and would later deputize Morgan and Wyatt. Wyatt, of course, would go on to become legendary.
But the gun ordinance in Tombstone was nothing new. Dodge City had instituted a similar ordinance a few years earlier, that was credited with helping tame the rowdy Cowtown. Other cities followed suit.
Yes, guns were a part of the old west. Riding alone, or camping in the wilderness of the southwest with a range of dangers, was reason enough to be armed. But when you came into town? That was a different story. You checked your guns. No exceptions.
Were the laws 100% enforced 100% of the time? No, but they made a huge difference. Killings, especially involving drunken arguments, declined.
Anyone who tells you “The West wasn’t won with a registered gun” is frankly wrong. In truth, it was. The guns that truly “won” the West were in the hands of law enforcement.
Ironically, Tombstone, Arizona today has far more open gun laws than it did in 1881. It also has a population less than one-tenth of its silver-boom peak. But maybe there’s a lesson here.
Human beings are prone to doing some incredibly dumb things. And nothing illustrates this better than humanity’s most dangerous subset (the group that comprised the majority of inhabitants of 1880 Tombstone)—young males. The world over, they’re best described as muscle-bound containers filled with a toxic mix of testosterone, bravado, self-doubt, and insecurity. The last thing one of them needs is a gun.
Historically, male aggression was channeled through fists. Two males would argue, shout, threaten, and insult each other until one would throw a punch. A fight ensued, and the worst that would come of it might be a broken nose or a loose tooth. Generally, no one died. (Full disclosure, this never happened to me. I was the runt of the litter when it came to my classmates, and generally ran).
Today, guns are now a part of the equation. Insult someone’s family or put a kid in a position in which he feels he can’t back down? Someone’s likely to get shot. And they probably won’t just walk away with a bloody lip.
But of course, there’s a different scenario that sometimes plays out in American schools. Someone feels bullied, pushed around, or disrespected. They seethe about it for a while, then bring a gun to class to get even. You know what happens next.
Nothing will make teens change their body chemistry. But if we can keep guns out of their hands, tragedy can often be prevented. But when I hear people like Donald Trump, Jr. crowing about how his son assembled “his” rifle, it makes me cringe. He’s basically giving kids across the country carte blanche to put themselves and their classmates at risk of being killed.
That’s right—old enough to kill before you’re even old enough to drive.
The gun lobby frequently tries to divert attention from itself by claiming that the magnitude of firearm death is simply a mental health issue. Keep guns away from these crazy people, they say, and we’ll be fine.
I won’t dignify this comment about “crazy people”—especially when it’s coming from the NRA. The fact is, mental illness is no different from physical illness. It can come and go. At any given time, at least 20% of the American population is significantly depressed. Does that make them (us) “crazy?”
Of course not. Nor do we somehow become “uncrazy” when our depression improves, then “crazy” again when the depression worsens. If everyone reading this is perfectly honest, this has happened to all of us at one time or another. And often, we won’t know it until we sink pretty low.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve talked to a patient struggling with depression. “How are you holding up?” I’ll ask.
“Doc, last night was really rough. I was in the living room, staring at the clock. It was three in the morning, and most of the whiskey bottle was gone. I felt more beaten down than I’d ever been. I didn’t want to go on.
“But I’m better today, Doc. I think I can make it.” At this point, the patient will look away for a moment, then shake their head. “But Doc, all I can say is thank God there wasn’t a gun sitting beside me last night. I would’ve used it.”
The number of times I’ve heard something like this would give you chills.
It’s not just murder and “bad guys.” It’s also “good guys” who become “bad.” It’s people who are depressed. And of course, it’s “accidents.”
Enough guns around enough people and there will be “accidents,” through fear, carelessness, or stupidity. The example in my last post of the Father who “accidently” killed his daughter thinking she was an intruder was a true story. So is the experience of a grandfather, well-trained in gun safety, who nonetheless nearly shot someone he was sure was breaking into his house in the middle of the night. The “someone” turned out to be his grandson, who was raiding the refrigerator looking for a snack.
“Only I know how close I came,” the grandfather said.
But hey, if he had pulled the trigger, it would’ve just been one more tragic “accident,” right?
As I mentioned in my last post, these “accidents” are nothing new. In researching his novel “Centennial” the author James Michener combed through records of wagon trains and military forts along the Oregon Trail. Wagon Masters constantly warned those traveling the Trail to keep guns loaded and ready in case of an attack by indigenous tribes (“the Indians,” they were called). What was the effect of all of this, Michener wondered?
What he found was startling, but perhaps not surprising. Nearly ten times as many emigrants were killed by their own weapons as opposed to “the Indians.” Michener’s review of medical records from Fort Kearny, Nebraska, a major stop on the Trail, included enough gun-related trauma to nearly fill a surgical textbook.
When confronted with all of these facts, gun proponents have another fall back. “But we need to own these guns if we’re going to defend ourselves against a foreign invasion! That’s what the Second Amendment is all about!”
And around this time, they will always bring up Switzerland.
If you were to believe everything the Gun Lobby says, you’d assume Switzerland was a gun owners’ paradise. Everyone owns a gun. Everyone is trained to shoot. Guns are everywhere. And they have no crime. So why can’t America be like Switzerland!
So let’s talk about Switzerland. I’m kind of partial to the place. My Great-Grandfather, John Jacob Frey, left the country with his two brothers to come to America. They were basically draft dodgers.
After a month in the states, John Jacob headed for Kansas. He never saw his brothers again. Years later, when someone asked him if he ever missed his brothers or wondered what happened to them, he responded by saying, “Why, was I supposed to?” This perhaps explains why my family was never exactly touchy-feely.
So I’ve been to Switzerland a few times, but couldn’t really find anyone I was definitely related to (even though the name Frey in Switzerland is about as common Smith or Jones in the United States.) But I do know some things about their gun laws.
First, the Swiss are a people who pride themselves in marksmanship. Their greatest folk hero, sort of a combination of Paul Bunyan and George Washington, is William Tell. He’s best known for shooting an apple off his son’s head in order to win a bet to protect his town from an evil Austrian sheriff.
It’s all probably fiction, but don’t tell that to the Swiss. Precision with a crossbow transitioned to precision with a rifle, and every year the Swiss have a national target shooting competition to determine the country’s best shot. Even the President participates.
And all of this folds into the Swiss view of the military. A small country (its largest city, Zurich, is only slightly bigger than greater Omaha, Nebraska), it’s landlocked and surrounded by larger numbers of potential invaders. In addition, Switzerland is resolute in its embrace of neutrality, meaning it has absolutely nothing in the way of allies.
The Swiss deal with this by maintaining a relatively small full-time army, staffed by conscripts, as well as a larger number of reservists. Before 2001, virtually every Swiss male was drafted. Women could join voluntarily.
During military service, soldiers frequently went home on weekends, etc. They took their (unloaded) weapons with them, and even today it’s not uncommon to see a uniformed Swiss soldier on public transportation with a rifle and a back pack.
The notion, for the Swiss, was pretty straightforward. We need a trained army that is prepared for call up if we are forced to defend the country.
Upon completion of service, a soldier was allowed to keep his rifle (after the automatic function was disabled). Many ex-soldiers joined shooting clubs, where they practiced marksmanship skills. That’s all changed since 2001, too.
So what happened in 2001? The Swiss experienced an event Americans know all too well.
A mass shooting.
Granted, by American standards, it was a pretty wimpy mass shooting. “Only” eleven people were killed, and several others maimed. Something that wouldn’t cause much stir here in the states, and probably wouldn’t even get the flag lowered to half-staff.
But it shook Switzerland to its core. A deranged, ex-soldier had taken his Army issued SG550 rifle and devastated the City of Zug.
The Swiss acted quickly, and it was more than just handwringing and sending thoughts and prayers. Mental health screening prior to accepting military conscripts became more intense. Questionable recruits were rejected—and thus unlikely to ever own a gun. Upon discharge, a soldier now had to buy his rifle, and could do so only after passing an additional mental health exam. Anyone unwilling to join a sanctioned Swiss Shooting Club (which are all closely supervised) was likely to have their rifle purchase rigorously questioned.
More and more Swiss started leaving their rifles at the Shooting Clubs. Others might take them home, but were required by Club rules to leave behind any unused ammunition. Ammunition could still be purchased outside the club, but was strictly regulated as to quantity. All guns in the country were registered.
Even before the Zug massacre, concealed carry was prohibited for ordinary citizens. Carry a loaded gun in Texas? You’re considered a hero. Carry a loaded gun in Switzerland, either on your person or in your car? You’ll go to jail.
For the Swiss, firearm ownership is about one thing and one thing only—being able to defend the country and the government. It’s not about self-defense, stand your ground, road rage, or conspiracy theories (buy into any of that in Switzerland, and you’ll probably have your gun confiscated).
In Switzerland, as in most other developed countries, when you talk about America and guns, you get the same response. People won’t exactly come right out and say “you Americans are out of your freaking minds,” but they’ll come close.
And despite what you may have heard, Switzerland doesn’t have the highest rate of gun ownership in the world. That would be the United States. The Swiss are actually 4th, behind the U.S., Iraq, and Serbia.
And while it’s true the Swiss have a lower murder rate than the U.S., their gun homicide rate is higher than Italy just to the south, and more than twice that of Ireland and Finland.
So much for gun ownership being a miracle cure for crime. But guns in the home do have an impact in Switzerland. It has the second highest suicide rate in western Europe. And domestic violence, when it occurs, is more likely to involve a gun than in most other European countries.
The irony is pretty obvious. As the United States has seemed hellbent to overturn any regulation of firearms over the past decades, the Swiss, viewed by some American gun advocates as a gun utopia, has been tightening its gun laws. Packing heat, stand your ground, open carry, concealed carry, non-registration, no-regulation gun laws are viewed as unthinkable.
Even more ironically, firearms and firearms training in Switzerland is much more aligned with the intent of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution than are our current laws in America.
And it’s likely to continue. Recently, nation-wide referenda prohibiting possession of ammunition in the home, as well as stipulations that all government-issued rifles must be stored in armories, have lost by only narrow margins. Many observers say in a few years, they will likely pass.
When this happens, the myth of Switzerland as Gun Heaven will be completely shattered. And where will we be in America by then? Who knows?
At the rate we’re going, we may have pretty much killed ourselves off by then.
Again, I apologize to anyone I may have offended, either because you think I am too pro-gun or too anti-gun. What I’m trying to do is start a discussion, and make people think. We all need to be doing more of that.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the last verses of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Saturday Night Special that I used to open this post.
After all, if one of America’s greatest redneck bands sang this, maybe we ought to listen. . .
Handguns are made for killin’/They ain’t no good for nothin’ else/And if you like to drink your whiskey/You might even shoot yourself/
So why don’t we dump ‘em people/To the bottom of the sea/Before some ol’ fool come around here/And wanna shoot maybe you or me/
Mr. Saturday Night Special/Ya got a barrel that’s blue and cold/Ya ain’t good for nothin’/But put a man six feet in a hole.”