194 in 18 Weeks
194 breaths gone.
194
. . .
We're just 18 weeks into 2021, and already the U.S. has experienced 194 mass shootings. That averages out to about 10 a week.
The tally comes from the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, excluding the shooter. The full list can be found here.
Think about it. 194 in 18 weeks.
194 breaths gone.
In only 18 weeks.
That’s not even half the year, yet. It’s a number I’m struggling to wrap my head around. Did you know that of that 194 mass shootings, 11 of them were just this past weekend?!
This doesn’t include any individual shootings, one person against another person. Those are just as rampant. We had one last night in my town. A young college student was shot and killed.
Another breath gone.
Poof.
And yet…nothing is done about the mass shooting crisis. That’s what it is, a crisis.
Some Perspective
In 2014, while working on my graduate degree in Art Therapy, I had to do a “Found Object” art project.
The project consisted of using found objects to create an art piece focusing on the metaphor of the piece. A ‘found object’ in this context refers to a “natural or manmade object (or fragment of an object) found by an artist and kept because of some intrinsic interest or aesthetic value the artist sees in it” (Brooker, 2010). It can also be a second-hand object, an object that is given freely or purchased at a charity shop, garage/yard sale, flea, or antique market.
Using found objects in art therapy reaches our primal level of hunting and gathering and then bringing in the cognitive part of assigning meaning. Found objects create object relations and transitional objects. From the time we are infants we connect with objects around us – figuring out how the world works. With found objects, we can find new meaning and use our human tendency to “make special.” My approach to this project was to use found objects that evoke meaning in me and to create a piece that reflected a dialogue within me and the universe around me.
The majority of objects used in my found object art piece were gathered from my father’s basement. I come from a family of hunters, including my father, so many of the pieces used were related to hunting such as empty bullet casings, an orange hunting hat, used targets for shooting practice, wood acorn decoy scents, BB gun pellets, chains, and damaged bullets. My father also gave me aluminum tape that is typically used for many applications requiring moisture and chemical resistance, thermal conductivity, heat and light reflectance, flame resistance, and weatherability. Additionally, I included pieces of my own such as wrapping wire for jewelry making/sculpting, purple velvet from an old bridesmaid dress, an old key from our found object swap in class, safety pins, cut up watercolor paper, a permanent marker, a face mask, and acrylic paint.
Considering most of my found objects were related to guns and hunting, I began thinking of the relationship they had to my life. I have a multitude of memories of hunting and fishing trips; learning to skin a deer (gross) and gut a fish, dead plucked wild turkeys resting in the sink waiting for my mother to cut them up to freeze for later or cook them immediately; trying not to get literally hooked by a flying fishing hook while my brother and his friend attempted to fly fish from a boat; eating deer meat frequently for dinner provided from my father’s hunting trips and the only way we could afford meat as a family; my father trading deer meat for other perishables to feed our family, and so much more. Hunting and guns were a way of life and survival for my family. Without them, my parents would have struggled even more in trying to feed and provide for their children.
As we scoured my father’s basement for found objects, he occasionally commented that he hoped I was not creating a piece that supported banning guns and limiting the rights to own guns, and so on. I assured him at the time that was not the case, but I could not help thinking of the frequent news stories about gun violence. The images of Sandy Hook, West Virginia University, military bases, and so many more kept colliding with my positive memories of hunting and survival. I wondered how to reconcile the two seemingly disparate positions on guns. My Intention and Witness writings during the project occasionally reflected this conundrum. At other times, it focused on domestic abuse, my frustrations with the materials, sacred hunting, and hunting for survival, the spiritual essence of the relationship between man and his environment, and morality.
The more I worked on the project, the more I was drawn to the issue of gun violence and morality, asking myself, “What is the true problem?” Are guns really the issue? Or is it something more, something else?”
What’s really the issue?
Russell Madden’s essay, “If Guns Could Kill” addresses the question of “Do guns kill?” Madden shared what he believes is the real issue: Morality, and the “concerted attacks by the political, intellectual, and cultural leaders of our nation on morality.” He believes that saying, “Guns kill,” removes the responsibility of the individual firing the gun and his free will choice to do so at another person or not.
And it’s hard to argue against it. Yes, guns kill. But it is the people behind the guns that are doing the killing. Or at least that is the premise of the NRA’s slogan, “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” And according to Madden, it’s the lack of morality that’s causing people to use guns to kill people.
I buy it to some degree. But I still don’t believe it’s the full story.
As I mentioned before, I grew up around guns and was taught to respect them. I own guns. I’ve gone to firing ranges to shoot guns. When you hold a gun, and ultimately shoot it, I can tell you from experience that there is a rush like you’ve never felt before. You suddenly realize the immense power you hold in your hand. You now have the ability to inflict damage, severely, or not.
When you carry a gun publicly, people will walk a wider circle around you. You have implied respect. Even carrying it concealed will still give you a thrill knowing you have a gun on your person and no one else knows. With a gun, the world takes on a distinct shape. It not only offers people, animals, and things to interact with but also potential targets. Gun possession makes it easy to be bold, just like bullies sitting behind anonymous computer screens.
French philosopher Bruno Latour goes far as to depict the experience of possessing a gun as one that produces a different subject: "You are different with a gun in your hand; the gun is different with you holding it. You are another subject because you hold the gun; the gun is another object because it has entered into a relationship with you."
It’s not such a far-fetched idea. When walking around prestigious colleges such as Harvard and Yale, it’s easy to feel that one has suddenly become smarter (or dumber). Likewise, museums and sites of religious worship can do more than induce a momentary inclination towards reflection; they can allow you to view artistic and spiritual matters as a “contemplative being.” I had this exact experience while walking in the Sistine Chapel.
Would there be fewer mass shootings if it was illegal to purchase semi-automatic and automatic guns? Maybe. I do believe that there is no reason for a person to own those types of guns as they were only made for one purpose - to kill people. Ask any person who was in, or is currently in the military. They’ll tell you the same thing.
But that still won’t solve the problem of people being killed by guns.
Back to my found object art piece. . .
The foundation of the art piece is an old wooden box that contained chocolate candies at one time. I wrapped the box in aluminum tape to cover the wood and to give it a reflective, metallic surface. The used target was glued to the lid as a background, and the white mask was glued on top of the target. Then I attached numerous BB gun pellets to the mask with hot glue. I created a torn, peeling pattern, not fully covering the mask. The exposed parts of the mask I painted with black and red acrylic paint. I glued the purple velvet to the inside of the box, with a piece of the orange hunting hat glued to the center of the velvet. I took an unused bullet without the casing and wrapped in red wire, forming a heart surrounding the bullet. I used one of the chain clips to secure this heart on top of the orange fabric nestled in the purple velvet. I knotted the chain and draped it so it would fall outside of the box. I glued damaged bullet casings to the four corners of the box to act as supports for the lid. I did not attach the lid permanently as I wanted the inside of the box to be seen by viewers. I glued the wood acorn scent markers to the underside of the lid to evoke the earthy scent of being in the woods as a person viewed the box. I cut the watercolor paper into small strips and wrote parts of the article on it titled, “If Guns Could Kill” by Russell Madden.
The weighted mask bears witness to the bullet hole-filled target. The mask is only partially covered, waiting to be finished. It is the top to a wooden box, unsure of what is contained within. It’s a mix of earth, woods, hunting, targets, and humans, impacted by the power of bullets. It is exploring our natural landscape and interpreting the spiritual essence of the relationship between man and his environment. Good and bad, all part of the whole. Memories flood of times with my dad, happy memories of my childhood, the rare moments of bonding with my father. But it conflicts with new memories of children screaming, mothers and fathers crying, wounds blown open wide. How do we keep hold of a sacred, native ritual in the face of a massacre?
“What these people need,” says Simons, “are alternatives to violence. They are often unable or unwilling to articulate to themselves that there are alternatives to violence. They have shut that door. Our job is to open other doors for them so that they don’t go through the last door they think they have left.”
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