FOREWORD

By Mike Farrell

Years ago, probably the late ’70s, I went to a fund-raising event in Los Angeles to hear Rev. George Regas, one of the founders of the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race. I remember being struck by a unique part of his fund-raising pitch that day. He said that our society’s priorities are upside down: human existence is being endangered by the makers of war, so in a rational society those working for peace should be funded by the government while the Pentagon has bake sales to raise its budget.

He said it better than that, but the idea stuck with me. And when I think about it, so many of the things we do in this country tell me he’s right. The “official” policies are too often counterproductive in a society that claims to respect the dignity of each individual, in a state that claims to believe in equality and says it intends to “promote the general welfare.” The general welfare means, roughly, taking care of the needs of the common citizen. And that’s us, folks.

But take a look at poverty, climate change, health care, racial and gender equity, the proliferation of guns; name your issue. Whatever it is, we clearly seem to have gone pretty far off track in a lot of areas in a lot of ways and find ourselves wondering why we’re stuck in opposition to one another.

When that happens, I’ve found it helpful to look for thoughtful, clear-eyed people who are capable of taking a dispassionate look at a troubling issue or situation and parse it, take it apart logically, and in so doing provide a better understanding of not only the issue itself but its history, the factors or elements that have led us to a place that is so obviously deeply wrong but somehow seems too overwhelmingly complicated to ever get right.

Happily, there are such people in our world. They are leaders, but not necessarily part of formal leadership. Think of them as thought leaders. One of the best of them, I believe, is Thom Hartmann, the author of this book.

Like Rev. Regas, Thom recognizes that we have inverted our priorities and wants to do something about putting us back on our feet. Thom does it by first educating himself, and then reading more, debating, learning, studying, assessing, questioning, and challenging. Once his ideas are formed, he puts them out there by talking, speaking formally, broadcasting, studying more, challenging more, and writing. His books, more than 20 by now, cover a wide range of subject areas. But you’ve picked up this one because it deals with a very current, very deadly national dilemma: gun violence.

Typical of Thom, he doesn’t simply leap into today’s debate and make a well-thought-out argument on one side of a thorny question. Instead, in The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment, he lays out a path of paving stones, asking you to look at the way in which firearms were introduced into our world, by whom, and for what. He walks you through a history replete with the ugliness of the worst kind of human behavior and allows you to see the processes by which a culture within a culture can develop. He explores racial attitudes, the extremes of colonialism, the demands of exploration, national expansion, and the costs of the assumption of white supremacy.

Much of what he relates about the development of our country will make you wince. But all of it is presented without fear or favor in order to create an understanding of who we are and how we came to the place we find ourselves in today.

And then he offers insights and ideas about what might be done to ease the pain, to find a way to resolve the apparent dilemma posed by the tension between those wanting to live a completely free and independent life and those living happily and productively in a free society that imposes necessary constraints. He points us toward finding a way to resolve it all in a manner that allows those with differing philosophies to respect themselves and one another, while living comfortably together.

Enjoy the trip. I did.

Mike Farrell, best known for playing Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt on M*A*S*H, is the author of Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist and Of Mule and Man.