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April 21, 2007
Macho Macho Man
I haven't been blogging of late because of studies. Last exam in an hour or two, so I'll back on the horse again.
On Virginia Tech: I don't think you can prevent this. Really, I don't. I'm not really hot-blooded on this issue of gun control. I'm fine with you owning a gun because you have a constitutional right to do so. And I'm not into stripping away constitutional rights WITHOUT amending the constitution. So there you have it.
But we talk so much about laws and not culture. Let's delve into the culture. I'm not really so fond of the blue/red paradigm; I think its a gross over simplification. However, there is a culture out there that really, really loves guns. It's pretty abscent in NYC and nonexistant in England, but I see it in Michigan and we're supposedly a "blue state".
So you have the right to bare arms, why is that so fetishized? Why does the pseudo-Western libertarian "defend thyself" mindset thrive in America? (Look to John Derbyshire for the most disgusting use of this: blaming the victims of Virginia Tech because they didn't defend themselves.) I'm not judging it, or maybe I am, but I don't want to live in a country where everyone is armed. And that's not because I have utopian view of humankind; it's because I have LESS of one. I've been in situations in my life where there's a chance that if people had been armed, people would be dead. I don't trust human beings and I don't divide them into "good" people and "bad" people. Everyone can be "bad." Anyone could slip down the slope.
My brother is right in his post about guns, but it doesn't address some pro-gun people's fetish. A gun is a holy instrument. A gun is about manhood, pride, protecting oneself. That's a cultural thing, not a thing that can be addressed by a law. Being on the other side of the culture, I can't understand it for the life of me. And I wish that, instead of gun owners trying to convince me otherwise, they would respect the fact that I don't want a gun, I have no desire for one and that's okay.
Having lived in a place where guns were banned, I remember that all my fellow British classmates, conservative or liberal, first critique of the "yanks" was our guns. People actually believe that if you stepped of the plane in LaGuardia, you'd be shot. (Granted, this was about five months after Columbine.) But they weren't pointing to any laws. They were pointing to our culture. They were pointing to the caracture of the "trigger happy American."
Some people's hobby is knitting and some people's hobby is collecting guns. Fine. And if its important to you, fine. But at some point this culture war between those who want to take away everyone's gun and those who want everyone to be armed reached an impasse. I'll leave you alone if you stop pushing your gun in my face, okay?
Posted by emily at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)