James has an excellent question at his blog: why do people fear guns in a visceral way? There is good discussion in the comments. I would simply join it, but for some reason Blogger isn't letting me comment over there.
So here is what I wanted to say:
To some degree it's the same thing driving the literary convention called "Chekhov's Gun." Any introduction of a gun into the drama, no matter how small, implies that the gun will be fired by the last act.
Real life doesn't work that way, but human beings tend to construct dramatic stories about their lives, and this convention is so well-known because it is so completely obeyed by storytellers. Seeing a gun, then, implies that violence is being foreshadowed; that it is forthcoming.
For those of us who live with guns, of course, sheer repetition proves that this dramatic tension is not a real feature of reality. I first saw a gun in my father's closet; he lived and died and never fired it as far as I know. I have that gun in my safe now, and I'm not going to fire it either because it's a cheap piece of crap from postwar Germany that might explode in my hand. I have a gun that belonged to my great-great grandfather, and another that belonged to my grandfather; whole generations have passed without them harming anything other than the occasional squirrel for Brunswick stew.
I have other guns I see or handle more-or-less daily, none of which have been fired recently (due to the expense of ammo more than anything else; it's fun to shoot for practice, and to keep in shape as a marksman). They never cause any trouble, but they're available in case trouble should appear from other directions.
Still, I suspect it is chiefly the literary and dramatic conventions. Those who never encounter the things have only those dramas to fall back on, mentally, and that is how the story always plays out in the dramas.
Here's a fun piece on that topic.
4 comments:
Being an increasingly urban culture, fewer Americans have ever handled a firearm , and the overwhelmingly leftist media has done a successful job of demonizing guns.
We see guns being used by villains and "heros"(almost always "special ones", AKA government affiliated), always in a violent context- never target shooting or hunting unless it is the villain.
People fear the unknown-and guns are disappearing from our common culture, except where that culture has been replaced by another- gangland etc. And then it is a celebration of violence.
The gun fear reminds me a lot of the covid hysteria.
It may be that guns aren't disappearing from our common culture; it may be we don't really have a common culture anymore. But guns are becoming more common, apparently. I hear that several million new gun owners have been created in the last two years -- not more guns bought by the same people, but more guns in new hands. So it may be that a new culture is forming, bringing in those who were not traditional gun owners but who now will be. That might be important in the long run.
Dave Hardy advises that ~30% of the (adult) citizens own guns, based on some survey he saw. That's about 60 million gun-owners, and likely upwards of 100 million guns.
I know one person who is so clumsy that he refuses to handle firearms. He also avoids power tools, for the same reason. A different acquaintance is a pure pacifist, to the point of not practicing self-defense, and so avoids firearms. Both those people have my respect, because they both acknowledge the down-sides of their decisions.
To me, a firearm should be respected, not feared. Yes, it has one purpose, unlike a walking-stick/club, and it can be lethal, unlike (in most cases) pepper spray. I grew up around firearms, so that probably colors my attitude to a great extent.
LittleRed1
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