America’s Gun Obsession

When I was a kid growing up in the 1950s, some of our favorite games involved playing with cap pistols and toy long guns. Usually it came down to one of two games, “cowboys and Indians” or “army." In the game of “cowboys and Indians” the good guys were the cowboys and the bad guys the Indians. Playing “army” had a similar mock conflict between the Americans as the good guys and the bad guys were identified as either Germans or Japs. Given that we had just won WW II it would have been expected that the bad guys were our recent enemies. Young boys would become obsessed with getting a set of “Roy Rogers,” “Gene Autry,” “Red Rider,” “Annie Oakely” for girls or “Hop Along Cassidy” cap guns. The more ornate the set, the better they were. These toys were gender defining and a healthy interest was believed to be a sign of normalcy. Some of us eventually received “BB-guns,” but a whole set of new rules were imposed. It was treated as a real weapon demanding attention to not point it at anyone and to point it only at what were considered acceptable targets. Thus, fewer of us were granted the “BB-gun” ownership privilege, for fear of shooting someone’s eye out. The quickest way of losing the privilege was the shooting at each other, birds, squirrels or other live animals. By the time I reached my young teen years, guns were left behind and our maleness was defined by horsepower, shifting the male obsession to cars, which were somehow associated with girls.

If you grew up in a family who enjoyed hunting, it was common practice for parents, primarily fathers, to pass on and develop the hunting skills, including firearm use. Very few owned or carried handguns and most gun ownership was limited to hunting rifles and shotguns. My skills were developed with single shot weapons, teaching me to shoot with accuracy and to not waste ammunition. I never became obsessed with guns and saw them as tools for hunting. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t those who carried the obsession with firearms way too far. We all looked at those people as being odd and definitely outliers.

Over the last 40 years, there has been a significant shift in perception over the ownership of firearms and the purpose for owning such lethal weapons. I don’t think there is a single causal connection; but, I can’t but believe that the change in perceptions has much to do with a general sense and discomfort related to change and an uncertain future. This has manifested into a fear of the “other” and the need to prepare for whatever one imagines will be a worst case scenario. This ranges from a complete collapse of society into a state of anarchy to mounting a defense from an overly repressive government. All of which are possibilities, but have very low probability of actualization.

Until the emergence of the Second Wave of Feminism, firearm ownership was pretty much a male thing. However, as women have taken an active role in their own wellbeing, it is not surprising that many of them have taken the step to take up arms for self protection. In some sense this appears to be an appropriate action.

From the past to the present, residents of high crime areas have felt compelled to arm themselves. Many of the firearms are what we would term as illegal weapons, but with the obvious dangers; again it makes sense that they would arm themselves. Unfortunately many of these arms fall into the wrong hands and are directly linked to crime.

The majority of arms are now owned by white suburbanites. This group is probably the least likely to ever need self protection weapons, yet many are armed to the teeth. This brings up an interesting question; how many guns are enough? It is now common for people to own multiple firearms, some for hunting and some for self protection. I think firearm ownership has become an obsession rationalized by a number of variables. For a large number of males in our society they are manifesting their masculinity through firearms ownership, and not just any firearms, but the biggest and “baddest” guns they can lay their hands on. This doesn’t just include the firearms, but enough ammunition to make the German Wehrmacht envious who fought in the “Battle of the Bulge.” I have talked to a number of individuals who have this firearm obsession and when asked why, they standard answer is a fear that the government is going to force them to register and place limits on firearms. The fear of registration is that if the government knows who owns firearms, then it will make it easy to come and confiscate their weapons. In my opinion, this is a distorted rationalization has been continuously fed by the extreme political right wing.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has been the main proponent of feeding the paranoia that now drives firearm ownership. I’ve viewed people with their latest copy of ‘American Rifleman’ and their eyes glaze over as if they’re looking at some form of pornography. However, the NRA is not the only organization promoting personal protection firearm ownership; they are numerous publications and media all designed to grow the firearms addiction. It is interesting to note that the firearms industry has been one of the few industries to show rapid growth in the last four years while so many industries have struggled with the recession. This is an amazing statement where people’s priorities are.

Are people addicted to firearm ownership? Obviously some people are and it seems to be a growing phenomena. What is the impact of this addiction on the overall stability of our society? In my opinion, any society armed to the teeth is a much more unsafe society. If the current personal arms race continues unabated, we, as a culture, will continue to see more incidents like that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary. For those that are currently armed, it is time to honestly pose the question, how many firearms are enough? The expression of “the bigger the boys, the bigger the toys” seems relevant. Instead of pretending like a child with the “Roy Rogers” cap gun set, people are pretending and fantasying with the real thing.