Running along the Charles River in the past, I have found myself in the middle the Boston University ROTC pointing their guns at people, just like the photo on the front page of Friday’s Daily Free Press. To be honest, it gave me a fright, and made we want to vomit. I think it is appropriate to have very mixed feelings about turning our public parks into simulated war zones, and before our ROTC does so, there should be a university-wide discussion about whether it something we, as a community, want.
I grew up on a farm in Massachusetts, and my family had guns, which we used for target shooting. Because the voters in Massachusetts, like voters in most other democratic republics, have decided that unregulated access to firearms is not consistent with the kind of free, open and non-violent communities in which we would like to live, I passed a police-approved safety course prior to obtaining my permit. Partly as a result of that course, and partly as a result of our daily practice handling our own guns, I developed a gut-level fear of pointing a gun, loaded or not, at another person, or having a gun pointed at me. We should be terrified of guns; in a moment of carelessness (and we all have moments of carelessness) they can be deadly.
My fear, on seeing the ROTC exercises along the Charles River, is that we are creating a society where having guns around, indeed a society where guns are sometimes pointed at us, begins to seem normal. The fact that these guns are not loaded, perhaps even fake, might register at a rational level, but does not change the emotional desensitization to the sight of a rifle pointed in our direction.
Perhaps it is only fair that we are changing our society in this way. After all, as a country we have long been exporting weapons to developing countries around the world. We are currently turning Iraq into a place where daily life, for a generation of children, now includes deadly violence on the street. If we are continually spreading a culture of weaponry around the world, perhaps it is indefensible to try to live in our own non-violent bubble. But on the other hand, perhaps one reason America, compared to most other modern democracies, seems so willing to export armed violence is because in most of the country, if not in Massachusetts, the sound of gunfire is not so unusual. In that case, we can help to break the cycle of violence around the world by breaking it at home. If taking aim at people along the Charles River fills us with disgust, then perhaps we will be equally repulsed by the idea at taking aim along the Tigris.
Anthony Patt Assistant Professor Director of Undergraduate Studies Department of Geography and Environment
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