There’s a scene in the movie “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” that I always thought was poignant to our society today, and felt pretty brave of a Marvel movie even back then, as it details how one man’s issue was solved because he loaded a firearm and carried it with him, but that was when Marvel was still capable of making solid films.
But I digress.
Nick Fury is in an elevator with Steve Rogers heading down an elevator below ground level at Shield HQ. As they ride, Fury begins telling Rogers a story about how his granddad used to operate an elevator and got good tips. Fury describes how it was when his grandfather was younger. People were friendly and polite, but as time went on, things shifted in his neighborhood and the friendliness was replaced with rudeness and thuggishness. Eventually, Fury’s grandad would keep a gun on him on his way home.
It’s a story that while taking place in a franchise filled with superheroes, aliens, and magic, is grounded in reality. America was once a far friendlier and more polite place. It has since devolved into a mess of blatant disrespect, unwarranted hatred, tribalism, and violence. As a result, self-protection is a necessary precaution.
That’s not to say these negative things didn’t exist decades ago. They definitely did, but things have been turned up to 11 since then.
There’s no communication anymore. Words have now been officially equated to violence in the mainstream culture and just saying even truthful things can be a solid excuse for anything from termination of your job to physical violence done against you. Depending on the group doing the violence, mainstream culture will label it as justified and make excuses for the attacker so they appear as the victim instead of the actual victim.
Racism has reemerged, this time with the primary target of all of society’s issues being caused by white people, and to a lesser extent, Asians. People are allowed to be openly racist toward white people without repercussion and violence against whites and Asians is oftentimes ignored by the media at large.
Then there’s the bigotry against Christians, who have been ultimately labeled the villains of today’s society. Hollywood can’t include a Christian in a film without making them a crazed lunatic, a mustache-twirling villain, or a fearful hypocrite. Online, anti-Christian bigotry is rampant to the point where it’s both subtly and overtly blamed for many of society’s problems. They’re labeled “bitter clingers” by major politicians and Christian’s good will is mocked as useless and self-serving.
This all sets the stage for what we saw on Monday with the Nashville shooting of the Covenant School where six lives were taken, including three children, at the hands of a woman claiming she was transgender. Despite the victims being Christians, the media has made it clear that the real victims of the shooting are the transgender community. Moreover, you have people stating that these Christians dying was the fault of the Christians because they weren’t giving the transgender activist community what they want; allowing children to attend drag shows and allowing parents to inject their kids with hormones and partake take in life-altering surgeries.
(READ: There Are Two Americas and They Are at War)
It’s now at a point where Christians, white people, Asians, and other groups must, like Fury’s grandfather, start carrying in a world that has shifted into a strange, unrecognizable place. We’re no longer living in a sensible world where conversation and politeness prevailed. This is the new world, and it’s not a place where you can let your guard down.
Carrying a gun is going to incite a lot of anger and fear from certain elements of our society but the problem isn’t the gun. The gun is a sad solution to a problem that was born out of a society that has lost its grip on reality and kindness. It’s lost sight of its humanity, embraced emotion over logic and violence over communication.
The gun isn’t the issue, it’s a safety response. You never know when you might have to wield it in defense of yourself or others, but the sad fact is that the chances of it being needed have risen dramatically as of late.
If people really want the gun to be put away or not even purchased in the first place, they must work to make a society that’s less divisive, more willing to talk, and less likely to place blame on one another for societal or personal ills based solely on that person’s identity.
But there are too many people, both in high society and low society, that have no interest in a better country. They have too much to gain or too much hatred in their heart.
So until society figures it out or Christ returns, carry a firearm.