I told the receptionist at the University of Colorado’s Institute of Behavioral Science that I needed to talk to someone about why young people carry guns to parties.
Like this is new? she asked.
No, I replied, but it is news.
In an hour last weekend, seven young people in their late teens and early 20s were shot at two different Halloween parties in Denver. Three of those seven died.
Sadly, the idea that you need to arm yourself when going out to have fun is as predictable as it is baffling.
“The basic reason kids carry guns is out of fear; the other is for status,” said Jane Grady, assistant director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at CU-Boulder. “It has to do with the norms created in society. If it’s something accepted, something cool, it becomes the norm.”
Americans so love their guns that Congress just voted to protect firearms manufacturers from lawsuits stemming from murders and maimings. In Virginia’s governor’s race, the Republican candidate runs on a platform that many think will become the next gun-lobby battle cry: allow people to carry loaded, concealed weapons in bars.
Out here in the Wild West, you can legally carry a gun in your car for personal protection, even if you drive in a city that has passed laws to keep guns off the streets. State law also allows most anyone, anywhere, to get a concealed-
weapons permit if the person doesn’t have a felony conviction and takes a gun-safety course.
Most Coloradans 18 and older can openly carry handguns. But this state and country are awash in weapons that no one can track. In fact, anyone of any age can easily get a gun, whether or not it is legal for that person to have one.
The message Colorado sends to its young people is the same message America sends:
Get strapped.
So when Dave Fisher, Denver’s chief of detectives, this week pleaded with parents to counsel their children about the deadly mixture of guns, alcohol and attitude, I wondered what parents were supposed to say – “Do as we say, not as we do”?
Of course, Fisher is right. He and his investigators see firsthand the carnage wrought by casually carrying firearms.
But guns are a status symbol across this state and country. They’re integrated into video games, movies and other media, Grady said. They’re praised as the be-all and end-all of security by the National Rifle Association.
Guns are an “in” thing.
Liability protection for people who make machines whose only function is to kill people does nothing to discourage that notion. Neither does pushing to let loaded weapons be carried anywhere, anytime, even where people drink.
Who doesn’t want to be cool?
Or, if being cool isn’t all that important, who doesn’t want to feel safe?
As Grady said, “If you’re afraid, you take care of yourself, regardless.”
At one of Denver’s deadly parties, said police spokesman Sonny Jackson, two groups of men shot at each other. In other words, more than one person was armed. Denver police have yet to make arrests in last week’s party shootings. It’s not known if the killers were legally allowed to have handguns. The dead, ages 23, 21 and 21, were unarmed. The fact that they weren’t carrying weapons at a social function threatens to send the worst message of all.
Everyone from Police Chief Gerry Whitman to Mayor John Hickenlooper has implored young partygoers to help solve last weekend’s shootings. Although charges of accessory after the fact hang over their heads if they don’t cooperate, partygoers remain reluctant.
So the trigger-happy, firearms-worshiping society we have created continues to take its toll. Young people believe they need to carry guns when they go out to have fun. They believe muzzle flash constitutes conflict resolution.
Congratulations to the gun nuts. They’re winning the culture war.
Now, if only we could interest them in picking up the bodies.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
