With a gun
John Pavlovitz talked about the cult of the gun back in 2017.
Enter the seductive cowboy fantasy of “the good guy with a gun.”
It’s the deadly lie that men have been led to believe; that the world is in grave danger, and that we’re all poised to be the steel-jawed hero—riding in, packing heat, and saving the day by gunning down the bad guys and getting the girl.
It is the perpetuation of a dangerously antiquated gender trope, where men all want to save and women all just want to be saved; that misogynistic myth sold by Hollywood, Republicans, and Bible Belt Evangelicals. This fantasy is incredibly persuasive and undeniably effective—but it is not reality.
I think it’s not all that persuasive, at least not to adults. It’s a branch of entertainment, but outside that context, I don’t think most people long to see a man with a gun all over the place. But it’s persuasive to all these loonies who buy the damn things, which is what counts.
The National Rifle Association nurtures and exploits this same sick celluloid dream the in the minds of men; thereby manufacturing the very horror that these “good guys” imagine themselves rescuing people from. The NRA creates the deadly demand and simultaneously generates the violent supply. They flood the world with guns to then necessitate the need for gunslingers. They generate an endless, self-replicating revenue stream—and more and more people die long before they should.
And the actual guys with guns won’t even go in, because hey the guy with a gun might shoot them.
H/t Carrie Chapman
I would think they would at least mandate that someone swears that he is a good guy before he buys a gun. At the minimum. Then if he shoots up a school they can fine him for lying.
In California, which has a volume of gun laws twice as thick as any other state, you DO have to check a box on a form stating that you aren’t mentally ill, or have outstanding warrants, or are fleeing from justice.
The fantasy that guns are used to defend citizens from criminals is shockingly persistent. A graphic in the Graun this week pointed out that legitimate defensive shootings are almost as rare as mass killings. Accidents, suicides, domestic violence; these account for the lion’s share of the toll.