The New Arms Race: Guns

This was first published in June 2015


Every era has its fears and the present is no exception: fear of terrorism, fear of warming climates, fear of government spying, fear of business spying, fear of guns, fear of modernity, fear of gay people, fear of black people, fear of Latino people, fear of minorities in general, ahhhhh, you get my point. 

Look at what has happened with guns. The post World War Two era produced an arms race, with western democracies, led by the United States, trying to keep an edge in weaponry over the Soviet Union (later also to some degree over China), fearful that otherwise we would all be under the boot of totalitarian communism. I don't recall the numbers, but the amount of weapons produced, and especially of nuclear weapons, reached a point where both sides had enough weapons to destroy the world 10 or 20 times over (after one time over, who's counting?). In more recent times, gun advocates, led by the National Rifle Association (NRA), have essentially used similar tactics with the basic argument being, "Government can't protect you from every crime, but you can protect yourself by having a fire arm, or firearms, in your possession, wherever you go." The general argument has continued that no longer are guns necessary just to protect you in your home, but anywhere: a bar, a restaurant, your car, a store, a school, any place. Then mass killings with guns took place in increasing numbers, often perpetrated by people with various mental problems, and when many Americans (polls seemingly indicate a large majority) wanted some regulations about mental qualifications for gun buyers, the argument by gun advocates essentially became, "We now need more guns to counter all of those guns already out there." It's the new "arms race," but now it's no longer about nations, but about each of us individually.

WORD HISTORY:
Gloss-English has two words "gloss," but this is the one meaning, "sheen, glistening." It is closely related to both "glow" and to "glass," thus taking it back to Indo European "ghel," which had the notion, "to shine, be bright." An Old Germanic form is lacking, but it may simply have been derived from a form of "glow" or "gloss," as German once had "glos" (glowing, bright), from "glosen" (glow) and Icelandic had "glossi" (flame, spark). English borrowed the word in the first half of the 1500s, likely from German. The word is commonly used to describe various grades of paint, and there is also the expression, "gloss over," used to describe something that has been treated with little emphasis or detail, likely with the idea of covering up flaws and thus making it look better than it is (give it a "glow").