When it comes to guns, it’s ‘monkey-see, monkey-do’
High on the altar of American values lies the “macho” culture. Part and parcel of this “culture” is its revered symbol—the golden gun.
One cannot but think of childhood practices. As a boy in grade school and early high school, I had toy guns. My favorite was the replica of the six-shooter, which had twin barrels, a cylinder that fired a disc of six caps or “shots,” and the plastic imitation white furrowed handle. Aside from the toy cowboy pistol, I also had a Red Ryder BB gun, which was shaped after a real one, the famous Winchester carbine. The BB gun, like the Winchester, was also cocked to firing readiness by means of snapping the trigger guard, except that it was not possible to cock the rifle with a simple finger action while aiming it, as with the Winchester. One had to bring the rifle down to use both hands to cock it. No successive shots.
Once, in a moment of misplaced curiosity, I purposely did not put the trigger guard back in place preparatory to firing, and left it half-cocked and perpendicularly pointed downward; I wanted to see what happened when I pulled the trigger.
I fired with the trigger guard down … and something did happen! When I pulled the trigger, the metal guard jerked upward and made its mark on my right pinkie and two other fingers. The BB gun almost hung momentarily from my trapped fingers.
Nothing more need be said. I’ve had my “thing” with toy guns of varied sophistication. But it ended there. The childhood “gun experience” did not turn me from a “kiddie kowboy” into a “mature” gunslinger. Starting from second year in high school, the “gun thing” simply vanished.
Fortunately for me, I do (did) not live in a culture that places guns on a pedestal, a culture that has spawned incidents of uncontrolled gun use, simply because guns are acquired as easily as buying a pack of cigarettes—and without the “special” taxes one supposes.
On several occasions over the past few years, the “safe haven” of the classroom has been invaded by demented gun-wielding maniacs firing at and killing teenaged students, children and, of course, teachers. Yet these apparently gun-crazed people have all done the “rational” thing in the end. They shot themselves. The power of “the individual” over guns!
Now comes the issue of gun control, featuring two American political parties and the proverbial two sides of the question: (a) The Republicans, who uphold that “inalienable right” to avail of the facility of guns bought over the counter regardless of gauge, caliber or whatever, and to use them freely in the “land of the free and the brave”; and (b) the Democrats, who are espousing “gun control,” so-called, but of course on a selective basis. Democrats are, at heart, also American worshippers of the gun, after all.
And we, the brown ones? We have our way, not as much with guns as with bolos of varying length, sharpness—and degree of corrosion. That adds to the “effectiveness”! And do not claim that this kind of thing is a matter of “income class.” It seems actually to have become a “monkey-see, monkey-do” thing. We see it on TV and in the movies … and we do it!
—BOBBY G. KRAUT,
