There are two observations about the recent gun-violence issue that I would like to recommend. The first is by Neil Donald Walsch in the Huffington Post (See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neale-donald-walsch/its-beliefs-not-behaviors_b_2348379.html) and the second is by Rebecca Hamilton in Patheos.com. See (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/publiccatholic/2012/12/affixing-blame/ )

Walsch can best be described as a New Age spiritual teacher and Hamilton is an Oklahoma legislator who has a strong Catholic faith. Each of these individuals emphasize the importance of addressing the underlying issues in the current controversy.

But the “underlying issues” are not easily addressed for they are not seen by the naked eye. They dwell in the realm of the spirit and that dimension of life is not really recognized by our culture any more. Yes, millions profess to be “Christian”…and therefore they are, I certainly don’t doubt that…but I suggest that their real god is often consumerism just as it is with the rest of our culture. We like stuff. Our real values are with stuff. We glibly profess “Jesus as our Savior” but if we look closely Jesus is merely another item in the category of our “stuff.” He is merely another accoutrement to our persona, something we have donned to convince ourself and others that we are “Christian.” And this is not the fault of Jesus or teachings about him!

And this emphasis on “stuff” belies what C. S. Lewis called the sin of “misplaced concreteness”, a taking for real what is only ephemeral. And being guilty of this sin, being immersed in this “misplaced concreteness”, our heart hungers for Reality and so we have to have “stuff” to assuage that gnawing hunger.

(Now re the title, please remember I love irony!)

Now the gun-fetish is only one of the many examples of impoverished identities glomming onto “stuff.” And most of the gun owners, even those who really like their guns, continue to have a life (which is to say an identity) and don’t hold-forth gun ownership as the essense of who it is to be a man or an American. A gun is merely an object and like any object it can elicit a fetishistic attachment. The best example of this was during the 2008 Democratic Primary debate when a question was posed to the candidates via You Tube in which a young man asked the candidates what they were going to do to protect “My baby”, proferring then an assault rifle. I think Joe Biden at that moment put things in perspective when he chided the young man for deigning to call a gun “my baby.” But the young man revealed an emotional attachment to guns which I really think is often part of the problem.

Now sure, it is important to like “stuff” and to do so means some degree of emotional attachment takes place. But with some gun owners, this attachment often goes way over the top and it becomes the primary element in their identity. And at that point a paranoid element is floating about in our country re an “intrusive government” who is going to “take our guns away.” That gets the rabid gun owners panties in a wad immediately, especially when right-wing media is egging them on.

Let me conclude on a facetious note, playing again with cause-effect: A recent survey revealed that gun-enthusiasts were two-to-one more likely to be Republicans. Being a loyal and pig-headed Democrat, perhaps we should ban all firearms and then everyone would be a Democrat! This is relevant to David Letterman’s famous quip, “Mobile home parks cause tornadoes.”