Iāve been thinking about my driverās license lately. I donāt usually think about it anymoreāwhen I do, itās in an offhand way when Iām double-checking that I have everything in my wallet or when Iām carded at the grocery store. I have to get it renewed in a few years or so. When I was sixteen, though, I thought about my driverās license a lot. Actuallyāmake that fifteen, too. Thatās how old I was when I took driverās ed, which was a graduation requirement at my public school. It was a huge deal. Back then, being able to drive meant freedom, meant driving to friendsā houses, meant not having to take the bus to school, if you were lucky. For people in general, cars have a lot of important functions: commuting to work, driving to doctorsā offices, traveling to visit family and loved ones, lugging groceries, getting somewhere in an emergency, going to vacations, delivering goods, exploring the world. I could list more positive uses, and more, and more. The thing is, driving is also dangerous. We learned this over and over in driverās ed, from grim drunk driving PSAs to lessons on defensive driving. The vehicle that could take us to work or the grocery store could also kill an entire family if we made a bad left turn. We could plow down a pedestrian if we were texting. We could cause a highway pileup if we donāt know how to handle hydroplaning. Cars are, by nature, giant hunks of metal that can go very fast and can hit very hard. Damage is not the purpose of driving, but it is a possibility. So we are required to prove ourselves, just for that possibility. If I wanted it, I had to work for it. In Pennsylvania you have to take a knowledge test before you even get your permit. A doctor also has to sign off on a physical exam and you have to fill out multiple forms and show your Social Security Card, among other things. If you donāt pass the knowledge exam you have to retake it another day. (I panicked on the last question and had to take it twice. We donāt talk about it.) Once you have your permit, you have to log 65 hours of driving with a licensed adult. (It was 50 hours when I had my permit, it had increased by the time my sister started driving.) Some of those hours are required to be night hours or hazardous weather hours. You prepare, you prepare, you prepare, because if you donāt, you havenāt proven that you should be trusted behind the wheel. After that, you (hopefully) pass the road test and get a license. (Being under 18, I had a junior license for a while, which had passenger limitations and a curfew.) This isnāt even getting into car registration, inspection, and insurance. Itās worth noting that not only did I have to accomplish all of those steps, I had to be a good citizen while doing it. For example, if I was caught drinking underage, even if I was nowhere near a car, it would automatically affect my ability to get my permit or license. There is an understood link between my operating a motor vehicle and my attitude toward safety in other areas of life. Does having a license totally prevent the possibility of a car accident? No. But it made sure I was as prepared as possible to drive responsibly. Hereās what Iām trying to say about my driverās license: I had to earn it. Now that I have it, I have to keep earning it by following traffic laws and being incredibly, incredibly careful every time Iām behind the wheel. Even though my driving endeavors are mostly commuting, going to the bookstore, and the occasional road trip, a car is still a deadly weapon. And yet, I could buy a gun in a matter of minutes. Like I said, a carās intended use is transportation. Its potential danger is a side effect of its construction. A gun has no purpose but to be a gun. Some people, I know, use guns competitively, or to hunt. My dad hunts. He loves hunting. Itās not my thing, but I respect that it IS a thing, and that people who hunt often hunt responsibly. But using a pastime or sport as an excuse to make guns freely available to everyone is like saying everyone should be given a driverās license because NASCAR exists. This especially applies to semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15. That some people use it for hunting or believe their homes are safer with an AR-15 in them doesnāt mitigate the fact that it is an incredibly deadly weapon. It can shoot up to 45 rounds per minute, meaning it can take more lives at a higher rate than, say, a muzzleloader. It has been used to kill and wound hundreds of people in some of the worst mass shootings of the past few years (Orlando, San Bernardino, Santa Monica, Sandy Hook, Aurora, among others). Like a car, it can cause horrific damage if used improperly. Unlike a car, it canāt get you to work to justify its existence in society. That some people might still be able to get semiautomatic rifles illegally even with regulation also doesnāt hold water. It would be incredibly illogical to do away with driverās licenses and traffic laws just because car crashes still happen, or just because irresponsible drivers still exist. Instead, we do the rational thing, and we try to make the roads safer. We amend lawsālike introducing bans on texting in the car once that became a relevant issue. We build better roads. We increase the number of practice hours required for learnerās permits. āBut Iāll only use the gun on my own property, for self-defenseā is a nice thought, but is laughable when I think about my driverās license. When I finally took my license test, no one asked me what I planned to do when I got behind the wheel of a car. If I had told the hawk-eyed DMV examiner, āLook, I donāt need to learn to parallel park, Iām just going to drive up and down my driveway. The car wonāt even leave the property!ā my test still wouldāve been the same. Because once I was behind the wheel of a car, my words meant nothingāI was still operating a large machine. I could indeed sit in my driveway for hours, if I really wanted. Or I could point the car at a tree and floor it. I could drive to Canada. No amount of promises could physically stop me, so I had to be vetted, trained, and regulated before I was given that freedom. When the founding fathers wrote the second amendment, they didnāt have AR-15s, they had muskets. They also didnāt have driverās licenses, because they didnāt have cars, they had horses. Now we have cars, so we require driverās licenses. Now we have semiautomatic rifles, so we need regulation. I know people have made the connection between guns and cars before. Iām not unique. But in the wake of Orlando, in the wake of Sandy Hook and San Bernardino and the dozensāhundredsāof other mass shootings that have happened since I first legally sat behind the wheel of a car, Iāve been thinking about my driverās license. It took me over a year to get. I could get an AR-15 in seven minutes.
my soulmateĀ winnin the game
the AR-15 article
(via stormsdameron)
So logical.
