The Common Good & Gun Control

A shocking picture, and the only time I've ever held a gun. 

In the past week, the same idea has crossed my path twice.

The first time, you write the idea down on a piece of paper and forget about it. The second time, you pay attention. When an idea keeps coming around, it wants your attention.

It wants OUR attention.

It’s the idea of “the common good”. It means we’re all in this world together and we take care of each other. Even if it means some of us have to give up something to make life better for others, we do it because it is morally right.

The idea of “the common good” has never been popular with human society, and its certainly not popular with some of our politicians and many of those running corporations. Jobs & the economy and payouts to shareholders seem to take precedent over social programs that support of our most vulnerable.

Just look at how our nursing homes are ravaged by the Covid-19 virus.

We pay huge amounts of money to professional athletes and CEOs but don’t pay our health care workers or grocery store workers enough – and who contributes more to the common good?

The common good refers to what is beneficial to as many people as possible in a community. It’s about what we, collectively, can achieve as one human society. It’s the idea that we all share certain interests in common and thus we have an obligation to make sure everyone gest a fair share. Health care is a good example.

Life is another.

Nothing has brought this to the forefront more than the pandemic and our isolation. Nothing has given us a greater sense of the common good than watching most of our leaders work together to take care of the residents of each province and the citizens of this country. We’ve actually been proud of most of our leaders throughout the past two months as they set aside political differences for the common good.

Into this new enlightenment dropped the mass killings in Nova Scotia. And after years and years of watching these kinds of shootings in the United States, and no one doing anything about preventing them, Canada is doing something. For the common good.

The common good is what this new, and long-overdue, ban on assault weapons is all about. And it’s about bloody time. They are killing machines, glamourized by movies and video games, but they serve no purpose in our communities. They do not serve the common good. They are not for the greater good of our community, our society and our world. They are for the egos of the few, not the well-being of the whole.

I’m married to a law-abiding, firearm-owning Nova Scotian and no one is more supportive of this ban than he is. Because he knows what most of us accept: There is no place for assault weapons in our society; in our communities; in anyone’s gun collection. No one needs these guns. He also knows no one is coming for his guns, including the .22 he gave me for Valentine’s Day ten years ago.

I’m prouder than ever to be a Nova Scotian and to be Canadian. We are putting the needs of everyone – our common interests of safety, health, and dignity – before specials interests when we “stay the blazes home” and ban assault weapons.

Let’s hope we inspire others with our truth, strength and freedom.

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Notes exclusive to the blog:

Dwayne gave me that gun nine years ago because he felt, if I was living in a rural area, I needed to know how to use it. He expected me to take it with me on my walks in case I ran into coyotes. I could never shoot an animal, and I never held that gun after that day. To this day, it remains unfired. I'm not a gun person, never will be. This photograph makes me uncomfortable even though it is a legal and legitimate firearm.

And for those who say "Banning these weapons right now is too soon after the shooting rampage in Nova Scotia": What better time? Do we wait, like they always do in the US, then never get around to it? I actually believed these assault weapons were already banned in Canada, so it's already an overdue ban.

And for those who say "What about the illegal guns getting into Canada? Shouldn't we deal with that problem?" Yes, of course. Let's do both. NO ONE (outside of the military and police service) NEEDS AN ASSAULT WEAPON anywhere, in any country. I'm proud of our prime minister, who, like the prime minister of New Zealand, reacted and acted immediately to ban assault weapons after a shooting massacre. There is no better time.