By Dave Mangene
Two weeks ago, on a bright Friday morning, a 26 year old man whom the police later described as 'confused', walked into my kids' school.
He was carrying two weapons, both concealed in a paper bag.
You know what happens next, right?
Remember Sandy Hook?
Columbine?
All the school shootings?
The script we've become used to is that the crazy man pulls out those weapons and starts killing people.
But at my sons' school, the Dr. Bosschool in Utrecht, the Netherlands, it didn't happen that way.
Our principal and a heads up dad figured out the man was trouble, and promptly led him back outside. I don't know how they did it because I didn't hear what they said, but it didn't involve violence. They talked him outta there, securing the safety of our children inside the school.
After they got the guy outside, the cops told all the parents to stay in the building. My friend Piet was there. He said our kids weren't really aware of anything except that the police were looking for a 'bad guy'. According to Piet, there was no panic. After several minutes the police told the parents they could leave, while the teachers stayed behind with the children to do the normal school day. After being told to leave, Piet said he was apprehensive because the crazy man was still out there in the neighborhood. He asked a cop. The cop said, "that guy is not going anywhere anymore..." So Piet left, knowing it was safe.
As it turns out, once our principal and the dad firmly removed the crazy man from school property, the police picked up his trail and chased him to my friend Mark's street which is about three minutes away from the school. At that point, and after being cornered by the police, crazy man pulled out his weapons and assaulted an officer. The cops responded by shooting him twice in the leg. The picture you see above, of the Utrecht police with their guns pulled, was taken by Mark from his living room.
What kind of concealed weapons was crazy man carrying?
An uzi?
An AK-47?
A 9mm?
No.
Crazy man was carrying a knife and a hammer. He had used the knife to stab another man hours earlier which is why the police were chasing him. He had used the hammer to hit that cop in the head which is why they popped two caps in his ass.
A knife and a hammer.
For me, as an American, that is so bizarre that it's almost quaint. Don't get me wrong, he could have killed someone in our school with those weapons so I'm not downplaying the potential seriousness of the incident. But since when do bad guys carry hammers? Especially bad guys that have proven to be capable of murderous violence. The dude was trouble and yet, where was his gun? That criminal was not carrying a gun.
Why not?
Most likely because he couldn't get one. It's not an easy thing to do in Holland. Sure, you can get a gun on the 'black market', but it's expensive and you have to know the 'right' people. Perhaps the 26 year old criminal that walked into our school didn't have the money. Or he didn't know anyone with access. Due to Holland's gun laws, he couldn't buy a gun at a Wal-Mart (which Holland doesn't have), or a gun show. If he had wanted to legally purchase a firearm he would have needed to get a hunting license or have been a member of a shooting club for at least one year. If he had gotten a gun, he would have had to store it in a safe, and the police would have come to his home once a year to make sure he was storing it properly. Crazy man would not have been legally allowed to carry the gun on the street, even if it was concealed. He would not have been able to use the gun in self-defense. Fully automatic guns are banned. As a licensed owner, he would only have been able to own five various guns at one time.
Obviously, crazy man couldn't live up to those requirements, so he bought a hammer and a knife instead of a gun.
We'll never really know why he wasn't carrying a gun. Did the ban stop him? Money? Who knows. But as the father of two boys, I'm relieved to know he couldn't have committed a mass murder of our children and teachers with a hammer and a knife. At the same time, I'm encouraged by the fortitude of our principal, that father, and the Utrecht police for keeping our kids safe and taking that criminal out.
Unfortunately, had the same scenario played out at an elementary school in Cleveland, Ohio, or Boston, Massachusetts, I believe the bad guy would have been carrying more than a knife and a hammer. He would have had a gun. I'm not saying he would have gunned down fifty children because, on that day, his motivation was simply to get away from the police. But if he had had a gun he could have done a lot more damage in a very short time.
Most likely, you agree with me: that the bad guy, had he been American, would have been carrying a gun. After all, we've all been conditioned the same way: watched the same news, read the same stories about guns and America. It doesn't matter where you live, chances are you believe that Americans have, and use, guns more than anybody else.
Sadly, guns and Americans seem to have become one of those no-brainers that nobody ever challenges. It's just the way it is, you know? Like child prostitutes in Bangkok and cocaine cartels in Colombia.
To me, though, the issue is not that Americans have more guns. That fact can't really be debated. The real question is why?
Why do Americans have more guns than the Dutch?
It's a difficult question to answer, one that has forced me to do much soul searching in order to find some kind of satisfactory answer. In fact, I've tried to write this chapter three times, getting stuck each time. But when that fuckface crazy man walked into my school, crazed and dangerous, something inside of me rattled. Something came loose, allowing me to tell my story of Americans and guns.
Here's the answer I came up with:
Americans have more guns than Dutch people because we:
1. Live our lives in more fear than the Dutch.
2. Can get guns easily.
I think it's that simple.
Americans are taught to be more scared of the bad guys, and that our bad guys are worse than everybody else's, and by buying guns we think we can alleviate that fear.
But why do Americans live in more fear than the Dutch?
Some of it is history.
When America started it was indeed a desolate and scary prairie. There was nothing to stop anyone from attacking, stealing, or trespassing. It could have been an Apache warrior protecting his land. It could have been a French-Canadian trapper protecting his traps. It could have been a British soldier following orders. Whichever, America at its start was wide open and it was always shoot to kill.
A second reason we live in more fear is because we watch too much television. And read too many newspapers. And watch too many movies. 'If it bleeds, it leads.' That's what sells and selling is the biggest American way. There is much money to be made in trafficking fear and nobody does it better than Americans. It's a 24/7 onslaught of media terror.
In addition to the media coverage, Americans have never been a moderate people. We are maximalists, to the max. All or nothing baby. Big, loud, and brash, we live life with a bang. So when we get scared, we really get scared. It's a big-time kind of fear. We build the biggest walls, we build the biggest prisons, we turn half the state of Florida into a gated community. We indulge our fear with the same vengeance that helps us to win gold medals, or create revolutionary computers. But when it comes to being afraid, Americans are all fear, all the time and Fox News is laughing all the way to the bank.
When we Americans are afraid, many of us pop down to the local gun shop to buy ourselves some peace of mind. Buying a gun is different in every state but it's pretty fast and easy no matter where you are in the country. You'll have to pass some background checks and you may have to store your gun in a safe, and you may need to conceal it if you carry it on the street, but if you want a gun you can get a gun. Bada bing, bada boom.
The Constitution of the United States of America vehemently protects this right. Even so, I don't think Americans buy guns because the Constitution says we can. It's the other way around - Americans get scared, buy a gun, and use the Constitution as legal justification. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Would it help to just change the Constitution and ban guns?
I don't think so.
Because a document written by the founding fathers back in 1789 doesn't change a culture of fear. Until we resist the temptation to stop creating monsters out of everything we see, we will continue to shoot to kill.
Do the Dutch have fewer guns because they live in less fear than Americans?
The simple answer is yes.
Examples?
This summer, when I was swimming at the local public pool in Utrecht, a fierce thunderstorm hit. Lightning was flashing and thunder was booming. The management asked us to get out of the water, but the pool stayed open. We all waited for the storm to pass and then got back in the water.
Compare that to when I was visiting my brother Scott in Pennsylvania back in the summer of 2012. We went swimming, kids and all, at the local public pool. When the summer thunderstorms inevitably hit, the pool immediately got closed. Like within seconds. They closed that fucker down and sent us home. We got our money back, but the pool was deemed too dangerous and the whole deal got shut down.
Another example?
If you come to Holland, you'll see almost no children (mine included) wearing a helmet when they ride a bicycle. Even when they're riding on busy city streets. Dutch people, unless they are serious Lance Armstrong competitive cycling types, do not wear helmets.
Ask a soccer mom in suburban Chicago if her kids have to wear helmets when they ride bikes. She will answer a resounding yes.
My point is this: Dutch culture doesn't do the knee-jerk reactions to potential dangers. They are not stupid, so they take precautions when necessary, but the overall vibe is to stay calm. It's part of their Calvinist legacy.
As for guns, I was born and raised in the USA, the son of a Vietnam veteran. My dad killed people with guns. He didn't talk about it much, but he didn't have to. We all knew. And yet, he never had a gun in our house. He didn't teach us that fear can be wiped out by owning a gun. He didn't think we needed one, so we didn't have one (even when we lived in Texas). As an adult, I have never owned, or even fired, a gun. I just don't feel the need.
Am I lucky? Naive? Too liberal? A pussy?
Depends on who you ask.
But one thing's for sure, I'm pretty happy that I live in Holland where, in the off chance that a madman walks into my kids' school, he will only be carrying a knife and a hammer.
~ DAVE
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