He's among the gentlest people I know.A hardworking medical professional, Jonathan obeys the law, loves his family, and wouldn't hurt a fly. Unless, of course, it tried to hurt him first.Which is why my nonviolent son-in-law recently purchased his first-ever handgun. Thus, joining scores of Americans arming themselves in anticipation of what they fear may soon come.'It started as part of my worst-case-scenario planning,' says my daughter's husband and granddaughter's daddy.For Jonathan, 37, the tipping point came Oct. 7, 2023, when savage terrorists attacked Israel, murdering more than 1200 Israelis and seizing 251 hostages. A Jew like me, he correctly predicted a worldwide upsurge of anti-Semitism. And the next day visited a local gun shop for the very first time.'I wouldn't want us to be without a way to protect ourselves,' the young husband and father explains.In fact, those early days following Oct. 7 saw lots of Jews updating their heartfelt aversion to guns. 'I never thought I'd be a gun owner,' New Yorker Jeremy Garelick wrote, 'but I also never thought I'd wake up [with] my wife...saying: 'Israel was attacked. It's bad.''Author Joanne Fedler wrote that events in the Middle East made her question her lifelong commitment to pacificism. 'To be an ideological unremitting pacifist,' she wrote, 'is a privilege of someone who has never feared for their survival.'Jews aren't the only ones whose views on violence have changed. Many lifelong liberals, historically unfriendly to the acquisition of personal weapons, have softened their opposition. Kamala Harris, Donald Trump's Democratic opponent for the presidency, trumpeted her ownership of a gun. 'I am a gun owner,' she said, 'for probably the reason a lot of people [are] — personal safety. I was a career prosecutor.'And, in the wake of Trump's victory, another group has recently jumped onto the gun-waving bandwagon: gays, transgenders, and other beleaguered members of the LGBTQ+ class.'Minorities that are armed are more difficult to oppress,' one new gun owner, identified only as A., told The Philadelphia Inquirer.Matthew Thompson, a 36-year-old gay man in Oakland, New Jersey, practices with his handgun at home. Liberals and gays 'purchasing guns for the first time,' he told the newspaper, are doing it out of 'self-defense and fear. We're not looking to arm up and storm the capital. We just don't want to be put in concentration camps.'Newly minted gun-toters' organizations include the Liberal Gun Club, Pink Pistols, and Socialist Rifle Association.Gun ownership in America, of course, is a time-honored tradition enshrined in the Constitution. About 40% of Americans say they live in households with a gun, including 32% who personally own one, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey. The vast majority, 72%, cite personal protection as their primary motivation, with 32% citing hunting, 30% sport shooting, 15% collecting, and 7% professional obligations.A more recent survey showed the personal protection motive increasing to 80%, an astounding figure compared to the 26% who said the same thing in1999. And yet, ironically, a majority of US adults, 54%, view the increasing gun ownership as bad for society.Personally, I have never owned a firearm nor envisioned needing one. Which is convenient given that, here in the Philippines, foreigners are not allowed to legally own or carry guns. Some expats, I'm told, get around those restrictions by purchasing and registering weapons under their Filipino wives' names.Which might seem like a good idea, save for one sometimes-overlooked fact. 'Despite widespread perceptions that a gun in the home provides security benefits' most research suggests the opposite: that residents of such homes 'are at higher — not lower — risk,' says Dr. David Studdert, a Stanford University professor who conducted a 2022 study showing that people living with gun owners are seven times more likely to get shot by a spouse.Bottom line: if your wife owns the gun, you'd better be nice.* * *David Haldane is an American author and journalist with homes in Southern California and Northern Mindanao. His latest book is A Tooth in My Popsicle and Other Ebullient Essays on Becoming Filipino.
