When I was in France in the 90s, a waiter asked where I was from. I told him, "Chicago." He nodded and smiled knowingly. "Chicago! Jazz and Michael Jordan, right?"

It was an association I found humorous and even inspiring.

My father told me that was better than the old days when a mention of Chicago would be followed by a 'finger gun' and an exclamation of "Al Capone!" instead of a musical style and a professional athlete.

Even in the post-Trump United States, what are we known for now? Just like the good old days: America is a gun.

England is a cup of tea
France, a wheel of ripened brie.
Greece, a short, squat olive tree.
America is a gun.

Brazil is football on the sand.
Argentina, Maradona's hand.
Germany, an oompah band.
America is a gun.

Holland is a wooden shoe.
Hungary, a goulash stew.
Australia, a kangaroo.
America is a gun.

Japan is a thermal spring.
Scotland is a highland fling.
Oh, better to be anything
than America as a gun.

- Brian Bilston, 2016

Recently, I led a tour with prospective families of my kids' public elementary school when I noticed a note taped above the emergency exit direction: Lockdown instructions.

It stopped me for a moment. I know my boys and their teachers regularly do these drills, but seeing this slightly worn, innocuous notice stuck above the light switch was a gut punch this week.

According to USA Today, 240 mass shootings where four or more people have been injured have been reported as of June 5, 2022. There have been 12 mass shootings in the U.S., with a death count of four or more, based on current numbers from the Gun Violence Archive this year.

Republicans don't trust teachers to accurately tell the inauspicious history of the United States but do want them to carry guns into underfunded classrooms for defense. They are disturbingly interested in fetuses but not the mothers who might be victims of rape or incest or simply not ready to be parents. They ignore a widespread lack of affordable health insurance, housing, and childcare. They blame mental health issues for gun violence while slashing those services for our most vulnerable populations and targeting LBGTQ+ youths while courting and protecting the gun and ammunition manufacturers.

Meanwhile, the United States is a gun, armed and dangerous and ready to go off.

Parents like me send our most precious people off to school with an extra hug and silent prayer and hope that we never hear those sirens or get the worst call. That those quietly terrifying instructions taped by the door never have to be followed. That the worst part of the day is when the cafeteria is out of chocolate milk or a child is picked last for kickball.

It doesn't have to be that way.

The Washington Post reported that other nations acted quickly after they experienced a single, tragic mass murder. A 28-year-old opened fire at two mosques in March 2019 in Christchurch, New Zealand, and killed 51 Muslim worshipers with weapons that included an AR-15-style rifle. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the country would change its gun laws less than 24 hours later. Parliament made the changes official in April. They included a gun buyback scheme and restrictions on AR-15s and other semiautomatic weapons. The plans received overwhelming support from lawmakers and voters.

Australia and Britain acted similarly, swiftly passing popular legislation and revising formerly lax gun laws immediately following other violent incidents.

This could happen in America, too.

Reuters reports that nearly two-thirds of Americans support moderate or strong regulations of gun ownership, including 53% of Republicans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll of 940 people conducted online just one day after the Uvalde shooting.

We used to be known for Michael Jordan (admittedly not a perfect role model) and Jazz (also had its issues), but at least it wasn't a notorious tax-evading gangster known for machine guns and murder.

I only hope that in the future we wake up in a country where we don't live in fear for our bodies and minds, where kids and teachers are safe at school, and gun violence is a rare exception rather than a repeated headline.

And I hope that country is America.

Gun Violence Archive data

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This essay also appeared in the June 2022 issue of FLM - Fete Lifestyle Magazine.