A Gun Is Not A Penis
“But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Matthew 18:6
To the folks out there who think of guns as Magical Totems of Manly Power (and for the record, I speak as a gun-owning deer hunter, okay?): A gun is not a penis.
It is also not, by the way, a remotely realistic means of countering government tyranny (you have 12 gauge shotguns and hunting rifles; the government has B52s and nuclear weapons and the Air Force and napalm and the 82nd Airborne Division. Capisce?)
I’m going to be blunt here: I read a fair amount of gun-nut postings on the intertubes, and lots of it seems to be a bunch of childish guys with manhood issues talking about what flinty-eyed badasses they’ll be when The Shit Hits The Fan. I knew guys like this…in junior high school. They were the ones bragging about some guy they “totally whaled on” … in another school across town where it would be impossible to check.
Personally, I like guns because, when it is time to take a deer, using a rifle (specifically, a Remington Model 700 in .270) is way easier than throwing rocks. I have a healthy respect for the (actual, as opposed to mythic) power guns have, and am something of a stickler for safety. For example, my strict rule on hunting trips is: when the first beer is cracked open at the end of the day, all guns are locked in the truck for the night – period.
But, look: when all is said and done, a gun is a thing – just…a tool – nothing more.
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As someone concerned about the increasingly violent and possession-oriented portrayals of human sexuality in our culture, I would add that the reverse is equally true.
For example, last night I was speaking with a group of Catholic teachers about these issues. One thing that concerned them was their student’s use of language. When I was in high school “bitch” meant grouchy or confrontational. Now it means a person who I own or dominate sexually.
I think we kid ourselves if we try to isolate the different ways our culture disrespects life as if there is no real connection.
Not a word there I disagree with, Brett.
I used to know a guy who was a child in occupied France during World War II, and he once told me about being in bomb shelters while the Allies were bombing. He said that French school children at that time all carried a certain kind of ruler, and he said that in the shelters, with the bombs falling, the boys played war, pretending their rulers were guns.
We love war. As I was coming to work this morning I passed many groups of sailors assembling for the Veteran’s Day Parade. There’s something thrilling about the military, and part of it is that they fight and kill.
David – I suspect those kids in the bomb shelter made heroes of people their parents admired; if it were America in 1910, they would have lionized maybe baseball players.
And while I think there is something inherently dramatic about the subject of war, I don’t actually think “we love war” at all. What we actually love is what is mythologized as “war” by the folks who benefit from all that killing.
Matt, just some thoughts here. My friends who have sons do not let them watch tv and are careful about what they are exposed to. And yet these little boys play guns. The moms have given up in trying to correct them and I don’t know if it is something in the culture or if all boys around the world play this game.
But I have to wonder if David is not correct. A friend of mine recently decided to buy a handgun and take shooting lessons. She was moving back to where her violent ex lived and she wanted to feel safe and have a backup . . . in case. What she said though was really interesting. She said “it feels so good when I shoot this gun. I feel empowered.” That gun makes her feel “empowered.” And why? Because with it she can “level the playing field” so to speak. I asked her if she wasn’t scared of the what that gun would mean if she had to use it and she said “nope.” Now, I understand she is needing it for self-defense. But I have to wonder if the temptation to feel empowered isn’t what woos many to want and own a gun.
In AK–where I live–most people I know who own a gun use it to put food on there table or for protection against the bears. But there are many who just want to feel safe. I don’t know.
RCM – Yeah, there is definitely something to what you say. Guns are seen (with some reason) as “the great equalizers.”
I guess the point of the post is to highlight the almost fetishistic fascination with guns as Long, Hard Power Signifiers by a certain contingent of crazies, and to offer the reminder that a gun is, in reality, a few pounds of metal and wood.
A gun in reality is a few pounds of metal and wood/polymer like a human is a couple hundred pounds of water and protein.
Not sure what you’re getting at there, Sean – a human being is a person, has a personality, loves, desires, and so on.
What else is a gun, in reality, besides “few pounds of metal and wood/polymer”?