Here we are in Arizona, now famous around the world for its violence and death, and I have to tell you that in early January I felt a bit like an angel of death myself. Friends visiting from Italy very much wanted to go to San Francisco, so that is what we did for three days in the early days of the new year. One of our goals? Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. We met our goal on a crisp, breezy (read ‘cold, windy’) afternoon, and it could not have been lovelier.
On almost every bridge support we were somewhat surprised to see one of these signs:
The blue sign says, “Crisis Counseling – There is Hope – Make the Call. The consequences of jumping from this bridge are fatal and tragic.” Also, the bridge railings are surprisingly low, making it very easy for would-be suicides to clambor over and make the leap.
On our walk back across the bridge, with the wind mercifully behind us, we noticed a small commotion at rail side. Indeed, someone had just jumped to his or her death moments before we arrived. The people responding to the tragedy were extremely low-key and very, very professional. I doubt many bridge-walkers that day knew that anything untoward had happened. There’s a reason why they were so good – they get a lot of practice. Someone jumps off the bridge about once every ten days. No one survives.
Flash forward a few days to January 8 – what a good day for our visit to Tucson to look for a church my friends particularly wanted to see. There was a fair amount of traffic in the outskirts of the city, and as we waited in an accident-caused traffic jam the Captain called to tell us there had been some kind of assassination attempt somewhere nearby and we might want to head home. We didn’t want to head home, so we pushed ahead and eventually arrived downtown. Downtown Tucson on a Saturday is a very sleepy place – most of the shops were closed and there were very few people about. I don’t think it had anything to do with the terrible events that had unfolded at the suburban Safeway Market a few hours previous.
These two experiences with our friends, one right after the other, made me feel extremely uneasy – is America really and truly such a violent place? More violent that the rest of the world? I’ve waited a long time to write about what happened because it’s taken a while to sort out my thoughts on this question.
Here is a picture of Jared Lee Loughren, the unrepentent man who shot and killed six people and injured twelve others (including the now famously and miraculously recovering Representative Gabrielle Giffords) in Tucson the day we were there:
This is what insanity looks like, at least in one of its iterations. And my point, I guess, is that insanity is all around us, not only in the United States, but on every continent in the world, even in our beloved Italy. It is a difficult to find hard figures, but according to Wikipedia there were 5.7 murders per 100,000 population in the U.S. in 2006 and in Italy there were 1.06 per 100,000. The difference between the U.S. and Italy, I suspect, is the ease with which one can get guns and the number of guns that are in private hands. Here in Arizona, which is one of the gun-totingest states, it is legal to carry licensed guns both openly and concealed. I can’t tell you how disconcerting it is to be in a store and see a fellow swagger in with a pistol on his belt.
The NRA will tell you that it is not guns that kill, but people who kill. They will also tell you that it is our Constitutional right to arm ourselves. The first is a nonsense. People cannot kill nearly as effectively without guns – it is guns in the hands of people like Mr. Loughren that kill, and kill often and very effectively. The second assertion is open to frequent debate. The second amendment of the U.S. Constitution says, ” A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Some say that it means anyone and everyone has the right to own and carry guns. Others say that the framers intended that guns be owned privately but used in a militia setting to protect the country.
It doesn’t matter who’s right – what matters is that as things stand now there are a lot of guns in the hands of a lot of people. Most people are responsible and careful. But there is a small percentage who are not, and they are the ones who are deadly.
So why the description of the suicide at the beginning of this screed? Only this. It is disturbed people who kill – either themselves or others. Some take their own lives, some decide to take the lives of others. It all adds up to the tragedy of senseless death. These deaths, all of them, are tragic to the close circle of family and friends around the dead and the killers; but they are also tragic and harmful to the fabric of society as a whole.
So… what to do? One of the men taking care of the suicide on the bridge told me that if only the authorities would put up a wire fence high enough to make it difficult for people to jump the number of jumpers would decrease. And it seems logical that if only we could keep guns out of the hands of those who are not stable enough to have them we would all be a lot safer. The first isn’t happening because the bridge authorities do not want to ruin the view from the bridge. The second is not happening because no one knows how to do it.
An Ex-Expatriate 
I chanced upon your blog just now and found this post very moving. I wrote about Tucson myself–from the perspective of someone who’s lived abroad for many years (unfortunately not in Italy but in the UK and Japan) and then attempted to repatriate. I agree with Judith’s sentiments: the level of violence this country is willing to tolerate is shocking. Although my post, entitled “Charity Is Harder Than You Think,” was not about gun control, many of the comments were (I had a record number).
Sometimes I think we Americans have a fixation on guns and tragic death that rivals the Romans’ gladiatorial habit. We pretend to be shocked and upset when something God-awful happens as in Tucson, but then we run out and buy more weapons and dig in our heels about changing the laws. How would we entertain ourselves if we didn’t play Russian roulette every so often and allow some deadly weapons into the hands of the criminally insane?
Sorry if I sound cynical but that’s how I feel after years of living in developed countries with much more restrictive gun laws (and hence less violent crime resulting in the deaths of victims). I mean, it’s not rocket science…
Last but not least, I have a question for you: have you repatriated, or will you return to Italy?
Your blog is terrific – I found your Tucson post especially thought-provoking and well-written. It’s true, isn’t it? We think we are so educated, experienced and altruistic, and then it turns out we’re just as biased as everyone else. And I like your working hypothesis for the reasons behind the Tea Party. What I always remember is that America is still a very young country – we’re like a rambunctious teen-ager, rougher and more dangerous than we may actually mean to be. My hope is that as we ‘mature’ as a nation we become less violent and dangerous. But I’m a cynic too, and I’m not at all sure that will happen. I fear we may be more ‘the empire’ – there and on top until one day we are not. No, we haven’t repatriated permanently, but we now spend a part of each year in the States. Thanks for stopping by.
Thank you. From the first visit back in the USA I noticed the level of violence. Not that I hadn’t known it before, but the comparison is shocking at first. Funny that Americans sometimes think of Italians as passionate people apt to knife or choke the unfaithful lover, when in truth one’s chances are almost 6 times as high in the US of getting offed for those motives or even just that you unwittingly took someone’s parking place.
Once upon a time people who were a threat to their own or someone else’s safety were confined, but so were a lot of just plain inconvenient people, so that can no longer be done. What is the answer for a nutjob like that one grinning from your article? What is the answer if a mother thinks her grown daughter is going to kill herself, or a lover believes those threats against a third party? Why haven’t we ever really argued this through?
There is always the tragedy that no one could predict, but a lot of the stories look like they were happening a long time before the jump or the gunshots.
I am in the US now too, not packing, however, and not in places where it is the doner thing! I’ll be back in March, so wave hi when you return home.
You ask complex questions. I guess if a would-be suicide is lucky someone notices and friends/family do an intervention. But all too often the clues seem to be too subtle and are overlooked (I’m thinking of the high rate of teen suicide in the US – such a tragedy). As for the nut-cases, sometimes they just slip between the cracks. The Tucson shooter had been suspended from school and people had spoken to his parents; his peers sensed there was trouble afoot. Somehow we never imagine how terrible it can turn out to actually be. Enjoy the rest of your US stay, and enjoy even more returning to beautiful Italy!
Hi Farfalle –
What a thoughtful post! You present the dilemmas very clearly.
My question is – is there a “middle way” (that you mention in your response to Pat Smith) when violence against oneself or another is involved?
Where does one draw the line between Right and Wrong? Is the movement into violence the point of change? Or do we escape into the relativist camp and not acknowledge opposites? If we do acknowledge Right and Wrong, do we have the privilege of moving backwards in time from the point of violence to the purchase of a gun in order to try and contain harm? I’m assuming that violence is Wrong. Do I have the right to make that choice for society or just for myself?
Obviously, like you I find gun control an immensely complicated issue. I have not found my way through the morass intellectually, but emotionally I know that human violence against oneself or another is Wrong.
Then my next question to myself is – is suicide violence against oneself? Might it be an act of kindness under some circumstances (unceasing pain)? I think it sometimes can be.
So I would separate in my consideration the two death events you present. They are “apples and oranges” for me. The only common denominator is death. And we’re all going to get there.
I really appreciated the thoughtfulness of your post!
P
And I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your comment – I think I’ll respond via e-mail instead of here – or perhaps even in person. Short answer: I’m in the relativist camp. And I guess I wasn’t thinking of ‘assisted suicide’ or the suicide of a desperately ill person – I was thinking more of the person who carries himself off without realizing, perhaps, how hurtful his action is to those left behind.
Bravissima. Very well put. I will post it to my Facebook page…..thanks so much for this.
Thank you, Pat. The questions/problems are so complex and the answers people come up with so various (and frequently incompatible) – it is hard to see the middle way.