Freedom, American-Style: Guns Over Healthcare

It says a lot about the state of America when you point out that the U.S. has fallen to 57th place in the global freedom index, and the response you get from a Trump supporter is: “Yeah, well, I get to own guns.”

This is the American illusion of freedom distilled into a single sentence. Forget healthcare, forget workers’ rights, forget privacy, forget the surveillance state, forget the crushing weight of debt—because hey, you can still buy a gun. That’s supposed to make us the freest country on Earth.

But what kind of freedom is that, really? Is it freedom when millions can’t afford basic healthcare? When a medical emergency can bankrupt a family? When corporations own politicians, and workers are trapped in jobs just to keep health insurance? Is it freedom when your choices are narrowed down to which corporate brand you’ll consume, which billionaire will own your data, and which politician will fail you more slowly?

The gun argument is really a confession. It’s saying: “We’ve lost so much freedom that the only one we cling to is the ability to arm ourselves.” Guns have become the consolation prize in a country where every other right and protection is chipped away.

You can’t afford insulin, but you can afford an AR-15. You can’t get mental healthcare, but you can stockpile ammo. You can’t get your child’s asthma medication covered, but you can walk into a Walmart and walk out with a weapon of war. This isn’t freedom. It’s a parody of it.

Real freedom isn’t just the right to own a gun. Real freedom is the right to live without fear of medical bankruptcy, to have control over your workplace and your government, to exist without being exploited by corporations or surveilled by the state. Real freedom is collective, not individualistic. It’s not about clutching a weapon in the ruins, it’s about building a society where weapons aren’t necessary.

The sad truth is that when a Trump supporter says “I get to own guns,” what they’re really saying is: “This is the only freedom I have left, and I’m going to cling to it no matter what else is taken from me.” But clinging to a single hollow freedom while the rest are stripped away isn’t liberty. It’s defeat dressed up as patriotism.

And that’s why America is 57th in freedom. Because we’ve traded healthcare for hardware, dignity for firepower, and genuine liberty for a cheap illusion of it.

Guns, Blood, and the Empty Comfort of “Thoughts and Prayers”

Yesterday in Minneapolis, two children were murdered inside a church during Mass. Seventeen others — kids and elders — were wounded. The shooter was a former student armed with a rifle, pistol, and shotgun. He opened fire on a congregation gathered for worship. That’s the bare fact of it. And like every other time, we already know the script that follows: politicians, pundits, and parishioners offering “thoughts and prayers.”

But here’s the truth: thoughts and prayers don’t stop bullets. They don’t bring people back. They don’t stitch wounds. They don’t disarm shooters. They are nothing but a ritual; an empty, performative hymn for a country that has decided mass shootings are just the price of being “free.”

I say this not as someone outside gun culture, but as someone who — as you already know if you’ve been reading my blog for a while — owns guns. I grew up with them. I have an AR-15 in my closet. I keep them around “just in case.” I know guns. And because I know guns, I don’t pretend they’re holy. They’re tools. They’re dangerous, powerful machines designed to kill. They’re not symbols of freedom. They’re not the cornerstone of civilization. They’re not worth more than the lives of those people in the pews.

In America we’ve turned guns into idols. We treat them like sacred objects, untouchable by law or criticism. Our culture doesn’t just allow mass shootings, it fuels them. We raise generations of people who see killing machines as toys, as symbols of manhood, as birthrights that matter more than the lives of strangers.

Gun culture is the sickness. And “thoughts and prayers” are the cover-up. They’re what we say when we’ve already decided we’d rather keep our guns than keep children alive.

If you own guns, you have a responsibility to break this culture. Don’t hide behind the excuse of “responsible ownership” while staying silent. Silence is complicity. And if you don’t own guns, stop letting your leaders hand you Bible verses instead of policies. Stop letting them offer condolences instead of consequences. If we keep swallowing “thoughts and prayers” as if they’re medicine, the shootings will keep coming. The funerals will keep coming. The blood on the church floor will keep coming.

America doesn’t need thoughts and prayers. America needs to choose: guns or children.

A Gun Owner Who Wants Gun Control

I’ve already posted once today, but I felt like I had to post this in lieu of the recent shooting in Florida. Your thoughts and prayers aren’t enough.

Let’s get this out of the way: I own guns. Plural. I’ve owned them for years. I even own an AR-15. Some were gifts, some I keep around for “just in case,” and no, I don’t sleep with one under my pillow whispering sweet nothings about the Second Amendment. But I am a gun owner.

And I want gun control.

Cut the screeching “Traitor!” “Liberal!” “You just want the government to take everything!” bullshit. Calm down, Yosemite Sam. Nobody’s kicking in your door to confiscate your tactical Hello Kitty rifle. But let me explain this in a way that even your average ammo hoarder can understand: owning guns and supporting regulation isn’t hypocrisy. It’s sanity.

I don’t want everyone’s gun banned. I want people who think a Red Bull and a grudge is a personality to have a slightly harder time buying an AR-15. That’s it.

See, the problem isn’t gun ownership–it’s the wild ass fantasy roleplay that’s metastasized around it. Some of you treat the gun range like a cosplay convention for failed protagonists. You’ve got more gear than the National Guard and a brain that could maybe pass a middle school civics test if it was a group project. And these are the people we’re supposed to trust with zero oversight?

I’m not buying it.

We regulate everything else. Cars, food, prescription meds. Hell, I need a license to fish. But guns? Nah, let’s just let any twitchy rage troll waltz into some store and suit up like it’s Call of Duty. Seems smart.

Gun nuts love to say, “If you don’t know anything about guns, you can’t talk about gun laws.” Cool. I do know. I’ve shot them, cleaned them, owned them, and locked them up when I wasn’t using them. And that experience is exactly why I know how dangerous our current free-for-all is.

The truth? Guns are fine. Gun culture is diseased.

It’s built on fear, fantasy, and fetish. It’s no longer about self-defense or even sport–it’s about ego, paranoia, and performative patriotism. Half the guys screaming about tyranny wouldn’t last five minutes without DoorDash and a cell signal, but sure, let’s arm them like they’re about to liberate Nakatomi Plaza.

You want to call me a “bad gun owner” because I want regulation? Fine. I’ll take it. You know what’s worse than a bad gun owner? A delusional one.

So yeah, I support background checks. I support waiting periods. I support red flag laws. I support licensing and training. And I still own guns.

If it breaks your brain then good. Maybe it was already cracked.

I’m a gun owner and I want gun control.

Share this. Re-post it. Piss off your relative with a Punisher decal on his lifted truck because the only way we fix this mess is if the “responsible gun owners” actually act like it.

Another Day. Another Death.

Three shootings in less than three days and people are focusing on what’s really important: being right. “It’s the gun’s fault!” “It’s the shooter’s fault!” “Well I blame Trump!” “I blame the liberals!” I even saw one person who decided to bring abortion into the argument for some fucking reason. I’ve given my opinion on why these shootings happen. Take from that post what you will.

The bottom line is that they’re not going to stop. We continue to give more airtime to the shooters and are more concerned about their motives than we are the victims. “A child that was only two died in the shooting, but let’s talk some more about why this person committed this shooting.” Who gives a fuck? He’s a piece of shit. Stop giving him the recognition.

That’s what’s wrong with America. We praise those we shouldn’t while mocking those we should. We no longer strive to be better. We strive to be famous or infamous. It’s just a matter of being well-known, it doesn’t matter what we’re well-known for anymore. No one cares that you fed millions of hungry people in a matter of days. Kill a few million people in a matter of days and people want to give you the cover of Rolling Stone and are trying their best to get a jailhouse interview with you.

I hate to sound pessimistic about the situation because it’s terrible when these shootings happen, but Americans are more concerned with being right about why they happen and screaming louder than the opposition instead of joining together to fix the problem. For Americans to claim to be the “greatest nation on earth” they sure don’t seem to give much of a fuck about the atrocities like this that happen in their country on a daily basis.

I guess all I have to say is continue to sit back and blame each other, point fingers, and do absolutely nothing since that’s obviously your idea of doing something.