#hes my ex but 40 and not mentally ill and with consistently good dick

[popculturebuffet]

Hickman’s X-Men One Year In: Part 2: The Dawn of X

And we’re onto part 2. Since it took me a while to talk about Hickman’s Series outside of Giant-Size and the setup here, that’s in part one if your curious, I split this little retrospective into two parts, with this part here talking about the rest of the books. This isn’t to say they aren’t great, many of them are, it was just easier to do this as a two parter so with HIckman himself out of the way how did his hand picked batch of talented writers handle the lofty status quo he set up?Find out under the cut. Pax Krakoa baby. 

Mauraders Okay just to get this out of the way this is my second faviorite x-book running, after X-Men itself and it often equals it and far and away the best tile of the run and restored my faith in Gerry Duggan.  Duggan is not a bad writer and I blame the messy finish of his otherwise awesome guardians run with infnity wars on marvel trying to cram other characters into it and then a weird mash up idea that while cool, kept the guardians out of their own damn event and from confrting a now mad gamora, but that and deadpool made me forget the guy is a good writer and can do great things. Maruaders however won me back to him with intrest.  A unique concept, the x-men as pirates helping ferry goods to krakoan allied states and ferry trapped mutants from hostile ones, is fucking awesome. The only thing missing is nightcrawler and it’s clear hickman has other plans, though I still feel he shoudl’ve been on the boat as he has both the relation to kitty pryde and pirate pedgree that fit in perfectly.  Speaking of kitty after years of writers misusing her due to having a crush on her as a kid and shoving her into half baked romances with peter quill and her ex peter rasptuin, the latter failing so badly that marvel pulled the plug on their wedding because fans clearly didn’t want it, and battling my own reluctance ot see her front and center again, Duggan makes good use of her again: Kitty is given the unique hook of the portals not working for her and no one, even her old friend Doug after he gets back, being able to figure out WHY. Though I do hope Doug does show up here and explain it more, as him being kitty’s best friend once is rarely brought up since he got back and it’s silly it hasn’t been. But rather than take this on the chin Kitty strikes up a crew consisting of big sister Storm, first class graduate x-man, badass gay and kitty’s friend and ex iceman, bishop who reluctantly joins as her bishop more on that in a second and the best of them by a mile: Pyro. The original, finally brought back and given some intresting backstory: he was the first mutant brought back and felt good about it..t ill he realized that despite sacrificing himself to save a, if your familiar with the various cartoons this will be baffling but trust me, reformed senator kelly as Pyro himself was dying from the legacy virus, only to find out they did him first because they considered him expendable basically and naturally was upset over that, drunk a bunch of the liquor kitty smuggled in, for logan naturally, and passed out and then joined in on the rescue mission that formed the team because why not and stayed because it was a great offer.  Speaking of offers with a new purpose, Kitty accepted her old enemy Emma Frost’s offer to be red queen, which includes a seat on krakoa’s council and was basically emma’s way of saying fuck you to her old cohort who she was forced to bring back on to handle the seedier side of Krakoa’s dealings via his underworld connections, sebastian shaw. Emma is the fincical  backbone of krakoa, having the shipping connections to get the flowers in and out and now having kitty to handle the stuff she can’t and do some of the shipping, as well as again tell Sebastian, who naturally wants both gone and is pissy at Emma being so far ahead of him, wants gone. And while he’s seemingly succeded with kitty I not only have every expectation that while ressuection is failing to work on her she’ll be back, but that trying to murder one of the most beloved x-men whose consdiered family to among others three of krakoa’s captains, bishop after this series, four of their council, five if you include Doug whose best friends with both his left arm which is also a deadly space robot and the very place they live on. The only reason he’s not going to die 80 times in increasingily horrifying ways is because the five can’t take on that kind of workload and one murderous ass beating from half of krakoa and krakoa itself is close enough. 

Emma is easily one of the books best parts, being written back as she should: An anti hero who while quick with a cutting quip, truly cares for her charges, and mutantkind as a whole and has grown from the monster she started as or even the kind of person who’d use a therapy session from a desperate man having issues opening up emotionally after apocalypse used his body as a rental car to convince him to fuck her.  And yes that’s how things started with Scott and Emma and yes it’s really fucked up and yes the story treats it as such, though I still wish Scott would get actual therapy, but as Linkara recently pointed out in his House of M Review the Marvel and DC universes weirdly lack therapists for the most part and thus it was left on my mind the last two weeks.. and yes I know DC tried but when your final product at trying to serious tackle mental health is heroes in crisis.. I award you no points and god have mercy on your soul.  But while Emma and Kitty get the lions share of the focus the rest of the group is enjoyable, well done and intresting, if not given many arcs to themselves, but still have enough character moments to counterballance that. The standout of the rest of the crew is easily Pyro, taken from “why is he still dead despite being super popular and used in a heavy role in X2 that’s garnered fans of that version to this day and bafflement he became a foot note in the next movie and used in every adaptation” to fun side character with a skull on his face and a love of booze and setting things on fire. He’s finally given the respect he deserves sorta and while I hope more is delved into his ressurection angst, he’s a ton of fun and it again makes me wonder why it took 20+ years to bring him back, but i’m glad the right person did it. The rest of the crew are fun with Bishop being another standout.  That being said part of the reason there isn’t a lot of focus is simply because in additoin to our brave crew the book is juggling a LOT of characters.. the morlocks and calisto, both given a proper treatment after wya too long, jumbo carnation a minor character from morrisons run who was introduced in the same issue he died is emma’s designer, shinobi shaw and christian frost, the latter I question why a main relative of one of marvel’s a-list mutants who was one of marvel’s earlier gay characters hasn’t been used in a big way till now but no time like the present, Sebastian and the people he shares his big bad spot with Homines Verde aka those tweens who ran the hellfire club during jason aaron’s run because the man is nuts and who I only seemd to liked, brillinatly revamped as a racist replacemnt for the hellfire club and so far a clever threat. The book is just stuffed iwth good characters, beautiful art, and a great tone that combines spectacular humor with really good story and worldbuilding. It’s also a nice contrast to hickman’s stuff: don’t get me wrong I love hickman’s writing style but it’s nice to have something JUST as good.. but with a cheerier tone and less weariness to it, while still not lacking weight. I can’t wait to see where this goes.. it’s a pirates life for me. 

Excalibur:  Like most of the dawn of X-Line outside of fallen angels, more on that in a minute and even then that had an intresting new directoin for betsy braddock, I was pumped for this one. A team I loved: While I struggled to find a run I loved with Claremont’s run having Brian Braddock be a raging dick whose terrible to his girlfriend and gets away with cheating on her and Claremont not really bothering to explain Saturnyne or other characters and their history with Brian well to us yanks who never had the chance to read those tales.. though why stories by alan moore and chris claremont haven’t been republished properly or in epic collections is beyond me. Warren Ellis, who I now loathe for being a scheming weasel who treated women like garbage, had a decent run with plenty of warlock, in a weird phase where he thought he was doug, Moira and Wolfsbane stuff I loved.. but also had 30-40 something pete wisdom shacking up with 18 year old at most kitty pryde, with Pete at the time being basically Warren Ellis badass self insert character, and given recent revelations i’m pretty sure he damn well knew kitty was just 18 and even if he didn’t having his own fanfic character deflower her is just all kinds of EWWWWWW. He also had Colossus, fresh of being a villian for a while for understandable reasons, nearly beat pete into a coma in a jealous rage over the ex.. the ex he dated while she was still a minor, and left because HE , and editorial, was uncomfortable with it for damn obvious reasons. I can see why fans like to see her as bisexual and pair her with Illiayna.. I mean why the fuck not? They have better chemistry than most of he hetrosexual intrests and are paried because of that and not because the writer wanted to make out iwth kitty as a teenager and forgot “oh yeah she’s fictional and i’m 40!”  Christ thank god for Gerry Duggan.  But yeah moving on from that I was still pumped as a magical x-men book with Besty Braddock now captain freaking britan, and apocalypse on the roster. And rictor and jubille? nad rouge and gambit I guess.. I don’t knokw if they fit but whatever. Sign me up. The actual result is a mixed back. I do like Tini Howard’s work here to a point: Betsy gets good character stuff and theres actually good tension from the fact that the new captain britan is no longer primarily a british ctizen, and the book brought back a character I felt marvel needed to do more with: Jamie. if you don’t know, Jamie is betsy and brian’s, her brother and the former captain britian, older brother who went insane due to his powers and thus just goes around in his underwear convinced reality isn’t real and he can do what he wants and the tension with Jamie refusing to have anything to do with his brother for no good reason is really good. Rictor and Apocalypse are likewise good sensable additons: Rictor turns out to be a natural to being a druid which is a nice twist and makes sense given when he lost his powers the biggest issue with that was loosing touch with earth after having a connection to it be a vital part of him for years. Apocalypse as an ominus chess master slowly securing magic for mutantkind with some goal we’re about to get answers to is really investing and adds a layer to his character, that much like doctor doom he’s as much sorecer as he is scinetest and given the guy’s immortal, it dosen’t feel like it was pulled out of nowhere.  The problem is the other half of the cast.. dosen’t really work. I fucking love Jubilee, a faviroite of mine as an xman despite not being a huge 90′s x-men cartoon fan, just feels kinda shoe horned in. Her son becomes a dragon and she worries about him constantly, but her worrying about her son possibly not being a mutant on mutant land could be done in any other x-book, and fraknly I feel her personality would fit better with the maruaders, and it’d be intresting to see kitty and her on the same team since both really haven’t interacted. Here she just feels like “well tini wanted jubilee and no one else did soooo I made her son a dragon to justify getting her”. I feel more could be done and hope Tini has better plans for her. Rouge is one of my faviorte x-men and All New X Factor and Kelly Thompsons work with him and Rouge made me like Gambit again, and I DO love their marriage and it was a way better idea than the one Guggenhiem had planned.. but while the idea of Rouge being reborn is intresting and all, she still dosen’t really get to do much and like Jubilee just feels weirldy out of place while Remy has that plus he’s annoying, as while he’s the only one rightfully supscious of apocalypse he also won’t shut the fuck up about it for five minutes. Ig et where he’s coming from  but it dosen’t make him less annoying. These aren’t bad characters, but sof ar they just feel weirdly out of place in a magic based book and unlike Rictor tini hasn’t made any of htem but Rouge feel in place. 

That being said I could ignore that more.. but the villians are also week. So far at least, as the return of Satyurne has given the book it’s first good antagonist.. but what I feel drags the book down the most from it’s potential is the bad guys; Morgan Le Fay is the first antaognist, being mad at apocalypse’s intrusions and corrputing Brian.. but her motives are just so boring: She wants power and to rule, she hates mutants... while “hates mutants” is a qualifier for every other antagonist so far, she just feels bland.. Tini just dosen’t make her feel like a good antagonist and it’s a shame as mutant hater or not she’s something DIFFRENT from the throngs of mutant hating conspiracies, mostly from russia in the other books... she’s just so bland it dosen’t work. And after her is Cullen Bloodstone who as far as I can tell is written out of character.. haven’t read his book but I had both a friend confirm it and having read his marvel wiki entry, it just seems like an odd turn to have him be a racist asshole. But even with all my problems and underwhelm here.. I still WANT the book to get from okay to amazing, and feel it genuinely has the potetial. I’ve seen books sharply improve after a rough first arc, Duggan himself showed me that with his Guardians run. Sometimes it just takes time for something to truly blossom and I have a feeling even with my issues, with x of swords coming up howard’s going to flip it all on it’s head and leave me standing there gasping like a moron. I have hope for that. And if nothing else the book is at least UNIQUE. And not in a trainwreck way: by giving mutants a piece of the magic pie and having them tackle far weirder threats, it’s at least doing something new and it probably lands for other people if not me, and if nothing else it does brian 80 times better than the claremont run did. not a high bar but I do like the character and it’s nice to see him take such an intresting path, and the same goes for Betsy. Tini’s still got magic to do, and I have a feeling it’s going to take me by storm very soon. 

Fallen Angels: Now for the other half of the coin as it were. Some fans weren’t happy about Betsy getting her old body back, and yes Psylocke wasn’t orignally asian but a white british woman bodyswapped iwth a japanese assasian and yes that’s as ludicrious and unteitonally offensive as it sounds, because horrible implications of said Body Swap or not, Psylocke was one of the few asian superheros of note. So to compromise , Hickman and co decided to split the diffrence: Betsy would come back and get a rank up to captain britan, while Kwannon, said assasian, would take over as Psylocke. Hence Excalibur above and fallen angels here and I was excited about it. The Body Swap thing went on a decade too long and this way fans got the character they knew as Psylocke in another book while the face they recognized would finally get some fleshing out. I was excited about that and while probably the least excited about this book of the intitial 5, it did have an intresting lead, two characters I did like (Kid Cable I grant was only under hickman who turned him from that brat version of cable who killed the one I really love to a good character in his own right), and an intresting antagonist in a sentient machine.  In practice it was okay. The best I can say is that writer Brian Hill DOES do a great job taking a mostly minor x-character and really fleshing her out and making her engaging and Kwannon’s quest to save her daughter is really compelling.. but the premise of those who don’t fit with krakoa dosen’t work with the roster given. Laura Kinney is not only sticking with the x-23 name after dropping the wolverine mantle for no reason previously, something Hickman fixed as soon as he realized how fans felt for her apperance in the main book, while Cable feels nothing like the far more fun version from Hickman’s X-Men and later Duggan’s Cable. Add in Husk and Bling who do deserve to be on a team but feel out of place here, and it just.. is okay. The book has an intresting angagonist and a great lead, but just dosen’t work as a team book and would’ve been better off being JUST about kwannon herself, who is far and away the best part about the book and i’m glad she got fleshed out. Not TERRIBLE but nothing special and it’s a shame given the antagonist, whose name I can’t even remember at this point, is intresting and ties into mutantkind’s greatest enmies being man and machine accoridng to house and powers.. basically a decent concep twith a flawed execution. Maybe hill’ sbatman and hte outisders run is better. I need to get on that. That being said the premise and idea is so far being done well in Hellions which we’ll get to, even if I’m being cautious really getting into the book with Zeb Wells track record. But more on that in a bit. 

X-Force: Time to make noise, bad guys leave us no choice.. you know the rest. But yeah X-force. The concept here grabbed me, having X-Force rather than just be the black ops squad but be literal black ops for krakoa, was really great and fit the brave new world.. what worried me was the writer, Benjamin Percy. Now a lot of x-fans probably knew him from the much beloved “Wolverine: The Long Night” podcast, which i’ve heard is utterly fantastic as is it’s followup.. but I hadn’t heard it, and had only heard of Percy from DC comics where under his belt was an okay teen titans run and a not very good and politcally unsubtle green arrow book. And i’m not against politics in comics it just wasn’t done at all well there and the “oliver queen looses hif ourture due to a shadowy conspiracy thing” was already done better by jeff lemire. So yeah I was going to give this a chance but figured like those books it’d start strong and then peter out.  I. Was. Wronnnnggg. X-Force is easily one of the best of the dawn of x and uses said premise well. It started a bit roughly, mostly becasue the first arc idnd’t make clear x-force didn’t exist yet but was a great origin story: a squad of military commandos working for a shadowy consirtum who become x-force’s big bad, plunge onto Krakoa and massacre a bunch of mutantas and assinate charles xavier. He comes back, though it’s trickier for obvious reasons, but it��s clear from this, and from wolverine and kid omega’s sucessful investigation and finding domino, that this can’t go on and thus X-Forces is formed; The intellegence and black ops arm of Krakoa and the one arm of it’s goverment exempt from the ‘dont’ kill humans rule”. What followed was nearly a years worth of fast paced adventures with good character stuff: Wolverine is in his element, kid omega, while I had my doubts due to quinten being way overused , turned out to be a perfect choice basically being a more compitent teenage sterling archer, cocky and loving this but also really good at his job, while Domino gets a great arc dealing with her trauma over her mutalation and having some of her power stolen by the shadowy masked dickheads while Colossus deals with his trauma over what went down when he rescued some Russian mutants, with the book slowly building up new threats and towards a showdown with Russia, something that’s also been built up by conflicts in Wolverine and Mauraders, which again makes the world of x feel more like an actual world instead a bunch of comics in one cast herd.  Jean Grey is good for intellegence, though by now seems to have noped out as she couldn’t take the toll, it’s not for everyone and most notably after 5 or 6 years of being treated worse and worse and written worse and worse and becoming a bigger and bigger piece of shit Beast is FINALLY put in the right spot: his darker turns aren’t ignored but he’s back to being an actually intellegent hero as X-force’s director, still a bit greasy but now for good reason and without a god complex or some such bullshit and with a tiny bit of his humor back. Not much else to say really, X-Force is well paced, enjoyable and gritty, getting the spirit of the team at it’s best down right while doing something fresh with it. 

New Mutants (Ed Brisson) Last one, New Mutants is the odd duck of the dawn of x line in terms of how it was launched. Fallen Angels ended up being a mini series both due  to Hill being busy and it’s cast being needed elsewhere but will presmibly get a follow up later, but it’s not the ONLY mini series in the line with Fantastic four/x-men, the giant sized one shots and now Empyre: X-Men all debuting in wave 2. New Mutants however is the first book to change writers and said writer STARTED in the middle of hickman’s run, partly due to scheduling delays but even before that it was partly by design and those issues haven’t been collected yet, with hickman’s short run being collected first. So you have a run that builds off what Hickman started but with it’s own ideas that started insidei t and suprisingly it .. really works.  While I do think there are better books in the line Brisson’s new mutants is enjoyable, combining humor and character work. New Mutants focuses on the sextant, which was first brought up in hickman’s run, the series of habitats for younger mutants on krakoa that the new mutants look out for, and while the original new mutants are in space, Armor decides to try and bring some old friends in to join in paradise with the help of Glob Herman, that big pink guy with a visable skeleton and eyes, and Maxine and Manon, who in the tradition of layla miller were created for an event and not great htere but turned out amazing under the right writer.. who I think also wrote that event but whatever, a pair of empaths and telepaths who have trouble grasping the right ethics for using their powers.  The four go to get one of my faviorite x-men back: BEAK! I missed him even if he’s weirdly suddenly repowered. Beak and his wife Angel only haven’t joiend in with their kids because his dad’s sick, and things soon escalate when a bunch of criminals try holding them all hostage and it’s up to boom boom, bored since everyone left her alone, to save the day! After that we deal with Magik rangling them and the team’s new mission statment: not wanting ot mess up again like she did with beak, who did join them but not without loosing his dad and then his memory of his dad thanks to the twins misguided efforts, Armor still wants to try welcoming new mutants in with the vetrans help, and thus we have our puprose: focusing both on how these younger mutant 20 somethigns of various ages from early to late work together to make a better world nad help their own get back to this world. it’s intresting.. I’m not in love with it like mauraders or x-force, but it’s still pretty good and their first big foe so far, DoX, a blog that well.. doxes mutants that haven’t arrived yet, seems to be intresting. Not much to say just pretty good and and better at mixing comedy and character stuff, and getting the cast right. Ed Brisson had already proven himself on old man logan, but this cements him as one of the hottest new x-writers around and i’m glad he was given a book here. He’s also succeded in making me actually like Glob Herman so that’s a plus. 

Fantastic Four/X-Men The first title of wave 2 and easily one of the best, right up there with mauraders nad probably JUSST behind it and ONLY because i’ts a mini series, giving the X-Men their first real step into the rest of hte marvel universe. Sure the 4 had cameoed in the first issue and there’s been mentions of krakoa in other books and one off issues but mostly Krakoa really hadn’t impacted anything.. but that first issue also set things up with Scott’s conversation with Sue Richards

Yeah and in case those who haven’t been aware of what’s going on with the FF lately and either remember franklin as a 6-11 year old or wondered why the hell he was suddenly a teen when they read this crossover, it’s actually simple; At the end of secret wars the Richards family was put on a bus, also so marvel could shove the ff as a proper team out the door due to the whole fox rights thing, and when Dan Slott had brought them back.. and cleverly had more time pass for the richards than for the 616 proper, so he could age Franklin up to his late teens and Valeria up to her early ones, allowing the richards children to actually age since Franklin’s age always had to stay vauge due to marvel’s vage and wobbly time scale. This way they get both consitant ages and more agency.  But the return also came with a price as Franklin, who if you didn’t know is so powerful he can create whole universe and shape the sturcture of the universe, had his powers break saving his family, and thus since he came back, he’s onlyg got so much of them left in the tank before they run out entirely, and it’s been an issue for him in Slott’s run as he worries about being the normal human in a fantastic family and comes to a head here, though rather than Hickman himself, who as mentioned last time has a marvelous track record with the family or FF series writer dan slott Hickman choose a wild card for this, though had both Hickman and Slott’s permission to do whatever he wanted: Chip Zdarsky, a modern marvel for marvel who’d writtne the four in marvel two in one but for some reason didn’t get the main book and this book makes me hope whenever Dan Slott bows out he gets his turn and while this is his first x-men work, Zdarsky proves he’s just as good here as is in most of his work on Howard the Duck, Jughead and Star Lord.. a weird selection I know but all classics. 

With this power outage, Franklin is worried his dad is, at least subconciously, not really trying to help him and to make matters worse teh x-men show up to offer their help.. and Franklin his birthright. The arguments made by both sides are great and I will be covering the series in full soon but in a nutshell the four dont’ want to give up their son/nephew, Reed dosen’t trust Xavier and feels he wants to use his son’s powers while the x-men feel it’s franlin’s choice and he’s old enough to make it, he belongs with them and he’ll be safer there. It also works because Franklin understandably isn’t swayed by either as neither is reallyt alking to him more at him, especially his parents .. and only tries the gate when Kitty Pryde, the two  bonded back in the 80s and a young franklin stopped her from comitting suicide long story but really moving, is the only one to tell him it’s his choice. This dosen’t go quite well though since Reed Richards, father of the year, decided to make a device to mask his son’s mutant gene and no one, including his own family, is happy about htis.  Naturally Franklin, with Val’s help, runs away.. and then as if it couldn’t get worse DOOM shows up wanting to help so now it’s a three way dance between them for hte fate of franklin. The series has gorgeous art form the dodsons a really damn compelling story and great setup for further stories for both lines and feels like the best of both franchises. It’s the x-men’s first huge impact on the rest of the marvel universe,a nd it feels like it with the ending showing that and showing this might not be the last time both sides crossover. It’s everything you could want from a crossover and i’m only being so brief because I want to review it soon as a huge fan of both groups. Easily one of the best x-men stories of the line and one of the best stories for both groups period. 

Wolverine:  We’re onto the final two, and Percy’s second book and the first solo.. and it’s logan again! Makes sense though: Wolverine only just came back from the dead, and while both is daughter and alternate future self carried the woverline banner for him, the original hasn’t gotten his own ongoing in some time. And so far.. it’s pretty good> the first issues a bit messy due to it’s lenght, but overall the book is intresting and has Logan graple with being the best at waht he does and if he can be better or if he deserves paradise while also delivering a compelling solo mission teaming Wolverine up with a federal agent who resents mutants. it also does some good world building, explaning why Krakoan drugs have things like wait lists (they want to control production closely both to avoid having the flower taken away and for quality control), and expanding the russia subplot while using Dracula of all people as a major antagonist, which is clever especailly since this isn’t his first rodeo with the x-men. Just a fun book wiht loads of promise.

Hellions: NOt much to say here as it’s hard to judge after two issues, buti f nothing else this series brought back the delightfully batshit Nanny, who just with last weeks issue offered to nurse Greycrow (who had his name changed from scalphunter because of course marvel did why wouldn’t they) and falling down. It combines humor with an odd but well thought out cast and makes Alex Summers intresting without making everyone else assholes, a hard but earned feet. If it continues to be good.. I dunno, especially since i haven’t been impressed by any of zeb wells other works especially his new mutants run, good god that one’s am ess, but so far he’s winning me over with a clever concept and roster full of deep cuts.  Final Thoughts:  I won’t be covering Empyre: X_men, though I did enjoy it and i’l save that one for next time. For now this has been a hell of a year of x-men comics, with even the weaker books still having something intresting and none being outright terribule and only one had a bad grasp on some of it’s cast and for a line this big and expansive, that’s a gold medal achivment. After YEARS of stasis the x-men have finally risen again better, bolder and stranger than ever. IS every book A+ gold star etc etc, no, but what’s important.. is that it’s all DECENT. There’s enough standout books to make it work but as i’ve made clear what isn’t the best of the best is still good or decent. There’s nothing bad, no one phoning it in or not giving an effort, everyone is trying thier hardest and succeding on SOME level even if not completely and that.. that’s truly amazing and I look forward to more of it as this line continues. Pax Krakoa and hopefully i’ll see you again. 

[toussaintsteachings]

Put Down Your Weapons

“The 22nd of July” 

https://www.netflix.com/search?q=mass%20shooting&jbv=80210932 

“A Killer on Floor 32″

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVfzxLvIxi8

Gun control is a topic of discussion in the United States which many Americans seem conflicted about. People advocating against the use of gun control and gun reform have consistently expressed concerns regarding the second amendment in the constitution, the right to bear arms. Many pro-gun Americans believe this is an invasion of privacy and does not represent a democracy that we pride ourselves in. Along with the infringement of privacy those who are pro gun feel that laws involving gun control will limit the ability for people to protect themselves and even lose hobbies like hunting with the progression of gun reform. Individuals who see the need for gun reform and gun control are adamant that the presence of these guns is in fact a risk to people's safety. They stress how easy and available guns are to the public, bringing people to forget how dangerous such common commodities are to the public eye. Our gun culture as a country stems from our revolutionary roots throughout colonial history. In the second amendment it states, “ 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.” Pro gun individuals insist that the second amendment protects the individual's rights to own guns and allows them to protect themselves and their families whenever a threat becomes real. With the relevance of mass shootings in our country especially throughout the past decade, people who are not pro gun believe that having guns around is doing more damage to society than protecting individuals. The easy access along with the new technology that breeds these killing machines are not the same guns that were used to protect ourselves when the Constitution was written. They believe the answer is not to abolish all gun ownership but to look into the laws and writing of the constitution and see if there is a common ground in which we can still have guns, but be safer with them. 

My father is a retired marine and correctional officer at the maximum security prison, Sing Sing. My dad is a Republican and is very conservative in his views, but gun control is always something that he has been relatively progressive about when we talk. When I was growing up we never had a gun in our house, specifically for the reason that my dad associated guns with violence and having them in the house increases the likelihood they will be used in a time or place when they are not needed. After he retired he did armed security for a while. This was a job that required him to have a license to carry and own a handgun and was the first time that we had a gun in our household my entire life. In my family we never hunted or use guns as a hobby, so it is tough for me to acknowledge and understand the persistence of people who support guns for this specific reason. This helps me shape the severity of my stance when it comes to gun control and how I feel as if this is a major cause of violence in our country. Being someone who completed their K-12 education, lockdown drills, and active shooter drills was something that we rehearsed a couple of times a year. This was one of my biggest fears growing up, being involved in a school shooting, and how that would cause so much trauma to the individuals involved. Mass shooting alone fuels the fire when it comes to gun control and reform. This is not a matter of guns or no guns, but a middleground to please both parties. I believe that there are ways to allow us as Americans to feel safe and protected that do not involve arming every citizen. In addition, the accessibility level is another major issue when discussing gun control. 

My friend from home called me over a week or two ago to hang out.  I walked into his house and my friend Chase was standing in his living room with a semiautomatic rifle, with a smile on his face. My immediate reaction was to ask him where and how he got it. He proceeded to tell me how he walked into Dicks sporting goods, traveled back to the hunting section, provided an ID, followed by a quick background check, and walked out with the rifle all in the same hour. This is when I decided that I would write about gun control for my final paper and blog post. I wanted to write about this because in my eyes, guns scare me. I have never shot a real gun, or quite frankly even want to. I have grown up with an officer as my parent, and have heard many stories about how my dad almost lost his life with all of the gun violence he has encountered. The amount of damage that a gun causes, does not correlate with the difficulty of getting and owning a gun. The elimination or ban of guns would not address the problem. We have seen that throughout history when you tell a group of people or an individual that he or she may not do or partake in something, it only increases the likelihood of them disobeying. This was most popularly proved when the prohibition of alcohol was instated. People found every way in their power to not only consume, but illegally sell alcohol, regardless of the prohibition. This is not a way to cure the gun problem we have in our country, eliminating all guns will not work, and is not even a possible idea. People who are pushing for this need to realize that compromise will be the only way that we can properly address it and take into account society as a whole's belief, not just one side or the other. The need for reform is simply based on the amount of time that has passed. In the constitution guns were used for hunting and were oftentimes not even efficient or trustworthy enough to complete their original task. Now, technology has advanced these guns into killing machines that need active reform. The question is will these gun laws actually be effective. 

  An article I read from the National Center for health research, explained how guns are a part of U.S. culture. However, public opinion polls show that “85% of gun owners and non-gun owners support gun control laws like background checks.” Regardless of your take regarding gun control, the everyday citizen will agree a background check to own a gun is more than necessary. What was shocking that the article brought forward was that, 40% of gun sales do not go through a background check because they take place online, at gun shows, or through classified ads.(Manier, 2018) This was a shockingly high statistic, and even more reasoning for more efforts than a background check. Background checks are originally required by law under the “Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993.” The bill allows states to decide whether local law-enforcement or the FBI will do a background check for the individual attempting to purchase a firearm. The article stated how the “Brady Bill stopped 2.1 million gun purchases between 1994 and 2014—an average of 343 purchases per day. The law blocked 1 million felons, 291,000 domestic abusers, and 118,000 fugitives from purchasing a firearm.” The bill was extremely effective and the checks done at the local level were said to lower gun related suicides close to 25% and lower gun related murders to roughly 20%.(Manier, 2018) Although we see the effectiveness when conducting background checks and how it affects gun related crime and violence, there are still holes in the system that peak through. The bill has had times where it has failed to report felons to the federal databases. The story regarding Devin Kelley in 2017, explained how he entered a church in Texas and killed 26 people. “The Air Force failed to report Kelley, and other service members charged with serious convictions, to the federal gun background check database. If Kelley had been reported, he would have been stopped from buying a gun because of his previous domestic violence conviction.” I thought this was interesting that many of these stories include retired or ex military, and are often a demographic that slips through the cracks when discussing responsibility of gun violence. It was reported that the Army fails to report roughly 40% convictions, followed by the Navy, with a striking 36% of convictions not reported (Manier, 2018). I also believe there is a hole in background checks when it comes to mental health. A lot of the time individuals can go decades before being diagnosed with a mental health disorder that would not show up in a background check if they are not diagnosed and have had any convictions involving this illness. Someone who is bipolar, living with their parents but has not been diagnosed may just come off as an adolescent struggling with anger problems or behavioral issues, but when a background check is done this will not come up on paper even though this is a clear characteristic of someone who our society deems not fit to own or purchase a firearm. The data and statistics have proven that we need more than a background check for an individual to own a gun, period. It has proven to be a step in the right direction, but there are too many holes, and non reported conventions for this to be the only limit of gun control in a country with the highest prevalence of guns. 

             More effective laws and control appear as the article continues, starting with Missouri's “Permit to Purchase” this law requires people to get a permit from local law-enforcement before purchasing a gun. Oddly enough Missouri repealed its permit to purchase Law in 2007, resulting in roughly a 60% increase in the firearm homicide rate per year following the repeal (Manier, 2018). Connecticut had a similar permit to purchase law instituted in 1995. This installment of the permit to purchase resulted in close to a “40% drop in firearm homicides. There was no drop in non-firearm homicides, indicating that it was likely the permit-to-purchase law that prevented gun deaths.” Requiring a permit before purchasing a gun could help a substantial amount in efforts to reduce gun-related homicides. It is an additional safety net to ensure the buyer is an appropriate holder of a firearm. Another issue in gun control is the accessibility of automatic and semi automatic assault rifles. In 1934 the transfer of machine guns was taxed under the national firearms act in effort to discourage their use. Semi automatic weapons, which are categorized as burst guns, are illegal in most states but banned in California Connecticut Washington DC Massachusetts Maryland New Jersey and New York (Manier, 2018). What I thought was really interesting that the article touched on after stating that semi automatic weapons are legal in most states was the ability to turn a semi automatic rifle into an automatic rifle. It went into further detail of explaining accessories like a bump stock that was added to the exterior of the gun to make the gun shoot faster similar to an automatic rifle. The Las Vegas shooting in 2007 was an example of someone who purchased the accessories, like a bump stock, to modify the semi automatic rifles so they would fire like a machine gun. The technology of present day people allows there to be loopholes in many of the gun laws and reform. 

I did a lot of research regarding other countries' gun laws, and how they change and additional reform has led to a decrease in gun violence. I watched a video produced by global news regarding where one of their examples included  the “Australian Port massacre”. I also researched an article, titled “Are Gun Control Laws Effective in Reducing Gun Violence” where they touch on this example as well. A gunman armed with semi automatic weapons killed 35 people, while wounding 23 others. The country responded with fast reform and some of the most comprehensive firearm laws in the world.  They started by buying back around 700,000 firearms (Semple, 2019). In addition, they banned civilian ownership of semi automatic rifles and shotguns. They also implemented background checks when purchasing a firearm. Unlike the United States, Australian did not see “self defense”as a valid excuse for owning a weapon and one must have a more reasonable need for ownership. Although the right to bear arms is not in the constitution like what we have in the United States with the second amendment. When the laws passed, the firearm homicide rate dropped by more than 40% in the 7 years following. Also, “within 20 years from 1996, the odds of being murdered by a gun decreased 72% from 0.54 per 100,000 to 0.15 per 100,00 people”. They closed this section of the article with somewhat of a “jab” at the United States says “ many supporters of gun control believe the United States could follow Australia's successful and effective gun control rules and regulations.” In the video,  South Africa has a similar reform of gun laws that took place in 2000. South Africa banned powerful weapons and implemented a background check system. They also required gun owners to have permits and licenses.  A study found that gun deaths in five major South African cities decreased by nearly 14% per year for the next five years (Semple, 2019). Similar to the reform that took place in South Africa, Austria had a similar gun law implemented in 1997, that included background checks, limited access to powerful weapons, and a change in how people who owned guns wore store and carry them. It has been statistically proven that those cross countries with harsher gun laws and more restrictions have had less gun related deaths and are responsible for a much smaller percentage of gun violence, like mass shootings. 

In the article, “Are Gun Control Laws Effective In Reducing Gun Violence”, the author explains how other cultures deal with guns and gun violence. Honduras has shown to have a different outlook on gun culture, but not by choice. A statistic provided stated that “Astonishing 80% of deaths in Honduras or a result of gun violence. Honduras is an underdeveloped Third World country and is a victim of gun trafficking.” Due to its location it is home to see routes in airdropped zones for gun trafficking. Corruption mixed with drug cartels is the perfect recipe for gun violence.  Israeli gun culture is much different from the United States due to the fact that it requires military service from its citizens. When they are 18, they take a gun safety course along with other military training. Israel does not allow citizens to have guns unless they have a reasonable need to carry a firearm or are in a military practice (Paulsen, n.d.). That being said if you are employed in a security job or someone who cares about objects of high value, this deems fit as well. Due to the location of Israel and the neighboring countries like Iraq and Syria, citizens take personal protection very seriously. Many people believe that due to the high gun usage and access in Israel it would produce the same number of gun related deaths as the United States but this is not the case. This is because of the common practice of gun safety in the familiarity with guns on a day-to-day basis for reasons like personal safety. Finally, Japan was introduced to the discussion, which is practically a “gun free zone.” Japan practices an extremely strict set of laws and requirements when purchasing a gun. People who want to own a gun in Japan must complete a plethora of steps. These include Taking an all day safety course in passing your written exam followed by the requirement to shoot 95% on their marksman test. After this a rigorous background check which includes criminal records, drug use, both illegal and prescription based and mental health screenings (Paulsen, n.d.). The buyer is even checked at an employment level and colleagues are checked for links to extremist groups. In addition, yearly inspections are required and license expiration every three years are just some of the many rules Japan has in place for gun laws. Due to the vast rules and requirements, the ownership of guns and gun related death are extremely low. The author states how “In 2014, only 6 deaths by gunfire occurred in Japan, compared to the 33,599 deaths in the United States.” The stigma around guns has held true and allowed Japan to have success containing gun violence. I really enjoyed this article and how it was outlined. The main theme used the other countries, and their gun laws with the results, constantly comparing them to the US. This helped exploit and highlight the fact that we need reform and how that will lead to a progression when dealing with gun violence.  

People who are anti-gun control often use the defense of protection. To them having a gun is the ideal way of protecting their families but statistics have shown that this is just simply not true, or a valid excuse to disregard gun reform. An article from ProCon.org states that, “The United States has 120.5 guns per 100 people, or about 393,347,000 guns, which is the highest total and per capita number in the world. 22% of Americans own one or more guns (35% of men and 12% of women).” The second highest country, Yemen, was at 52.8.  We are also the highest in mass shootings. Mass shootings are one of the main indicators our country should note in regards to the gun control discussion. I found an article by SabRang, which showed a graph of mass shootings from the years 1983, to 2003. 119 shootings occurred, 78 of them in our own country, with the seconds closest being Germany with 7. We account for close to 65 percent of those shootings (Lemieux, 2018). People who believe this ideology that more guns equals a higher protection rate are not reading into gun related crime and deaths. If you read that graph, it helps you visualize the severe difference in ownership of guns in the United States, but this directly correlates with the amount of mass shootings taking place. This is a major area of concern when dealing with gun reform. This is especially important, because we see the amount of damage that these guns can cause and how more recently how they have affected schools. Are you supposed to arm everyone or teacher in a school setting? Will this result in a dramatic drop in school shootings and actually serve as a preventative measure? No! The most simple analogy, two wrongs don't make a right, can be applied here. More guns are not the solution when it comes to gun control. That is at the very bottom of the priority list, compared to making it harder to access these killing machines, and taking a look at which guns we should even have access to as everyday citizens. The only way to take a hard look at our issues with gun control, is to take into account how other countries who have had success with this dilemma, and try to model our society and begin to practice their restrictions. The common theme of countries like Japan, and Austria, include severely reducing the amount of guns available for the public, rather the implementation of more guns as a defense mechanism. 

     “Guns don't kill people. People kill People'', is something you commonly hear when discussing the argument of gun control with someone who is against reform. An article by the Rolling Stone titled, “4 Pro-Gun Arguments We’re Sick of Hearing”, by Amanda Marcotte, states that this is a logical resonse when dealing with one death, but to rack up a death count of 10-20 people, you need a weaopn, a gun. Appointing and reflecting the blame is a lackluster way of going about such a serious dilemma. It highly suggested that if you do have any sympathy or feeling toward the recent trend guns have attached to themselves, then you should have no issue in implementing laws that make it harder for individuals to obtain. A little further down in the article it touches on a similar blame tactic pro gun individuals use when defending guns, which is mental health. I thought that the author did a great job of highlighting the neglect of mental health from the republican party, until something like a mass shooting comes alone. Statistics show that 1 out of every five Americans are diagnosed and deal with a mental health disorder (Marcotte, 2018). Due to the abundance of shooting incidents, we have a lot of information on these individuals. “Data shows it is hard to predict when someone suffering from mental health is going to go off, and only 23 percent of shooters have a diagnosis. Even if all of those individuals got gold-star treatment, the system would only stop a few shooters.” (Marcotte, 2018) Although I felt that these were the major takeaways from this article, the author did have additional information exposing limitations of the argument that guns are the only way to protect us from gun violence.  No mass shooting in the past 30 years has been stopped by armed civilians. Only in 1982 did an armed civilian successfully kill a shooter, but it was only after he committed his crime (Marcotte, 2018). The idea is that shooting back during the chaos of a mass shooting or a school shooting is unrealistic and oftentimes makes matters worse. We saw this with the example given in the article when in 2011 Gabby Gifford nearly shot the wrong man when attempting to take out the active shooter.

       To come back to the original question will gun laws be effective, I think there is a clear-cut answer. Yes! Throughout the extensive research there has been an abundance of articles, and videos that thoroughly support the enforcement of stricter gun laws in the United States. Just like any other topic of discussion the best way to bring awareness to a dilemma is through comparison. I saw by researching other countries and getting familiar with their gun laws that there was a common trend that led to successful gun control; low amount and accessibility of guns in the first place! This is not an object or a commodity that should be taken lightly, since we have seen its potential and how it is only growing through the revamping of technology and the progression of time. It is fair in every Controversial topic to take both sides into account, and try to come to a middle ground rather than in this case abolishing the right to own or purchase a firearm.   

References: 

History of Gun Control - ProCon.org. (2020, November 03). Retrieved November 13, 2020, from https://gun-control.procon.org/history-of-gun-control/

Lemieux, F. (2018). “5 things to know about mass shootings in America”. Retrieved November 13, 2020, from https://www.sabrangindia.in/article/5-things-know-about-mass-shootings-america

Manier, L. (2018, April 12). “Does Gun Control Really Work?” Retrieved November 17, 2020, from https://www.center4research.org/does-gun-control-really-work/

Marcotte, A. (2018, June 25). 4 Pro-Gun Arguments We're Sick of Hearing. Retrieved November 23, 2020, from https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/4-pro-gun-arguments-were-sick-of-hearing-194212/

Paulsen, M. (n.d.). Are Gun Control Laws Effective in Reducing Gun Violence. Retrieved November 13, 2020, from https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=4a1b03cf5575487190772768259d653d

Semple, Jeff, director. Gun Control: Do Firearms Laws Actually Work. Gun Control: Do Firearm Laws Actually Work?, 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODwRtjN13No.