We all know it’s gun control, even if they use phrases like “gun safety” or “gun violence prevention.” We know because their solutions are always about restricting the right to keep and bear arms. Always.
Oh, they might offer some kind of education, but even that generally boils down to, “You’re too incompetent to be trusted with a gun, so you really shouldn’t get one, and if you do, the only way to be safe with it is to make it useless for self-defense, so here’s how.”
It’s stupid.
But Po Murray, co-founder and chairwoman of Newtown Action Alliance, thinks it’s time to take the euphemisms and toss them.
In the years that followed, I embraced the language many in our movement adopted. I spoke about “gun safety” and “gun violence prevention” because we were told these terms would resonate more broadly, reduce polarization, and help us reach people who might otherwise shut down when they heard “gun control”. That strategy had value. It opened doors and helped grow the movement, but it did not change the fundamental political reality we are up against, and it has not been enough to meet the scale of this crisis. I strongly believed in that approach, and for many years, I used that language intentionally. I even castigated my husband for using “gun control” during the first year of my advocacy journey.
But as I reflect on where we are today, I no longer believe this is a choice between one set of words or another. I believe we need all of them, and we need to use them more intentionally.
At the same time, we need to be clear about what this work is ultimately about. It is about freedom. Not abstract freedom, but the freedom to live our daily lives without fear. The freedom to send our children to school, to gather in our communities, to worship, to work, and to simply exist without the constant threat of gun violence. When that fear shapes how we move through the world, our freedoms are no longer fully ours.
Of course, me being disarmed would mean I have to live in fear, which never seems to factor into their equations. It seems their fears are the only ones that matter. Strange, isn’t it?
I’m also trying to figure out how gun rights are “abstract freedom,” but freedom from someone that you’re probably never going to experience anyway isn’t abstract.
Anyway, I get that Murray wants to be safe. She even talks a bit about the benefits of “gun safety” and “gun violence prevention,” then she gets to the money shot, the one where it’s clear what this is all about, and it’s about how she doesn’t want gun control activists to keep the quiet part quiet.
Hellbound and Down 