Toy guns

I saw a kid at Costco today sitting in a shopping basket waiving around a toy gun as he pretended to fire it while making "bang" noises. And I cringed. And then I cringed that I cringed. Let me explain.

I'm an avid target shooter, strong supporter of gun rights, enthusiastic supporter of reasonable gun control, adamant supporter of gun safety, tepid supporter of most anti-gun legislation as proposed and often passed, and an ardent detractor of the intellectual dishonesty and agenda of most folks who advocate such laws. That said, you can probably guess why I first cringed. Firearms ought to be respected for the lethal weapons that they are and we should no more let our children fantasize and play-shoot toy guns than we should let them play at killing the neighborhood kids. Besides, as a target shooter I want to be a responsible ambassador of the sport to the uninitiated. Allowing a kid to run amok with a toy gun is absolutely the wrong image I want to present.

So that's why I cringed at first. The second time I cringed was because I realized that others would cringe too---for all the wrong reasons. There is a stigma associated with, for example, drug paraphernalia. So most of us, when we walk into someone's house and discretely spy a crack pipe lying on the counter would have a visceral negative reaction. We're just socialized that way. I'm afraid that many folks would have the same reaction to guns--toys or otherwise--because they've been socialized to associate them with all the negative stereotypes attributed to them, especially here in Southern California. There certainly are some negatives to be attributed to guns, but I'm afraid that the visceral reaction is biased and often based on a certain amount of ignorance. That's why I cringed the second time.

Let me give you another illustration of this. I once saw a journalistic report on "the gun culture" done with pictures alone, what they dubbed "photojournalism." Obviously, the pictures are meant to convey a story so they're loaded with implicit meaning. To a large extent the journalist has to rely on the viewers' experiences and preconceptions to bring meaning the photographs. There was one photograph in particular I will never forget. The picture showed a man bent over his young son at the shooting bench while the son held and fired a Ruger 10/22 rifle. Here's what I saw: a safe environment (range with supervising range officer), proper eye and ear protection, a young kid properly learning to handle a weapon and learning to respect its power rather than cavalierly and naively playing cops and robbers with a toy pistol, a responsible and loving father bonding and sharing with his son a passion that they're apt to share for the rest of their lives.

Of course, in the context of all the other photographs I saw, and because I too have listened to all the rhetoric on the other side of the debate, it was clear to me that the photograph was meant to elicit exactly that negative visceral reaction that made me cringe the second time. Here we have a hick father indoctrinating his son in this culture of violence. Look at the domineering way he crouches over his son (it's a matter of safety, to make sure he's in control of the direction of the muzzle, among other things). And look at that rifle, sized for a child! Can you believe the evil gun manufacturers make such a thing that specifically targets innocent children?! (Good fit=control=safety.) And look at the way they're dressed--like they're about to invade an innocent country or something! (again, strange equipment can illicit a negative visceral response if you're not familiar with it)

I'll just close with this thought: we're sometimes a little too quick to undervalue the rights and liberties of others when we ourselves do not choose to indulge in them. How often do you hear stuff like "They shouldn't be allowed to do that!" or "The government should stop people from doing that!" The "that" often has nothing to do with guns at all, but I'm afraid it's the same attitude that affects the perception of gun rights. A little education can make a world of difference and that's one reason I love to take folks out to the range. Well, I'm begining to go off on a tangent here. I'll just leave it that.