Gun Control Without Laws and Violence?

Last week I got another fund appeal - with survey of opinion.  I usually
answer the questions on those surveys - in my own way, with plenty of
comments added, and send them back to the groups in the postage paid
envelope.  I figure that if they really wanted my opinion I'd let them pay
the postage for getting it. Most of their GOALS seem good enough to me, but
since the action programs are usually some coercive action to be taken by
armed government I usually don't favour their programs.

Sometimes I give some thought to how, if not through coercive legislation,
people might work towards the goals.  And occasionally I write those
thoughts, and here we are.

This appeal-survey was from a group working for "gun control" ("Coalition to
Stop Gun Violence").  I favour gun control by people, each controlling
themselves, refusing to have or use guns (except I guess for sustainable food
hunting if they're into eating that way!), becoming skilled in the use of
what is better than guns (all the forms of nonviolent confrontation, and
anti- violence work).  But as for government action - that would be endorsing
the use of some guns (those of the state) to deprive people of other guns,
and that's a violation of nonviolence rather than a furthering of it!

Of course this doesn't fault those who, in their experience of being under
fire in the urban war zones, want some relief wherever they can get it, and
ask for help from police or get guns of their own.

But the total effect reminds me of the neighbourhood in Beirut where some
people told my fellow visitors a few months before the area burned, "Here we
are safe, we all have guns."

My proposed program for the reduction of violent crime:
1. Instead of enforcing disarmament on the citizenry, the governments could
set a positive example instead of the negative one they set domestically and
internationally, and get busy disarming (themselves).  Convert the militaries
to something else, maybe nonviolent action specialists, or emergency service
teams.  It is a losing morality which sanctions the mass murder of warfare
and goes nuts about the relatively small-time - though impactful and
terrifying - destruction by gangs and crime syndicates.

2. Social justice.  The problems of social injustice and cruelty are both
source and result of anti-social activity.  Fixing it means more change than
rounding up certain weapons.  It means changes in virtually every institution
and in every life.  Sorry, no short cuts.  The struggle for it will require
our use of the skills of nonviolence and constructive struggle (see #4
below).

3. End all the laws against drugs, and with a little bit of the expense of
the "drug war" make treatment accessible.  The drug laws drive up prices and
are a factor in a large part of other crimes like burglaries and robberies,
and are a source of at least as much misery and more violence than the drugs
themselves!

4. Promote conflict resolution skills and community services to help people
and groups deal constructively, safely, and early with conflict.

I'd be interested in responses from other networkers.
Joe Maizlish
from the Pegasus conference nonviolent.action