I have to say, right off, that what follows is Not the post I had planned for today. I had intended to write about a book and an author whom I and some dearest friends have a personal history with. I had mentally composed a caustic and scathing diatribe castigating our former acquaintance. But as with another recent post, I found in the end that I could not write what I intended. And the reason I could not write that bitter, ugly post? Not because I came to believe that I was wrong in my conclusions but because a friend I care about deeply, who is wiser and stronger than I am (and who rarely realizes that he is in fact wise and strong) simply asked me not to.
So there I was, shelving in Non-Fiction New Releases when I was confronted by a book that in the end seemed considerably scarier than Martians, wars or even utterly loathsome assholes. Armed America–Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes by Kyle Cassidy scares the shit out of me.
That a few of the pictured gun-owners appear to be quite poor, and one or two of them clearly not very bright and one the classic stereotypical image of a skin head did not disturb me. What will keep me awake and afraid to close my eyes tonight are the pages and pages of well-dressed, middle and upper class white Americans, pictured in clean and beautiful homes, surrounded by the sort of munitions I would expect to see only in pictures of Army depots and police evidence rooms.
In Kyle Cassidy’s America, it appears that all gun owners are white. Most are rich and articulate. And they own a staggering array of terrifying weaponry. The cover image of the middle aged couple, dressed in their Sunday best holding their rifles as their adorable toddler in the Superman pajamas waves at the camera are emblematic of the mostly non-threatening and not at all sterotypical images of gun owners, pictured in their clean and well-decorated homes, awash in cats, dogs, children and guns, Guns, GUNS.
I became quite upset when reading this book and decided today to do something a little different. What follows is a review of the book written by my partner, Ron Routzahn. His take on the book is a bit different than mine– for one thing he did not find it particularly frightening, not even this quote from a New Mexico skinhead:
"As the Founding Fathers said, sometime the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots. I will be ready, to defend my country against all threats, domestic and foreign. I have sworn eternal enmity to the forces of socialism and control. I own firearms, and have drilled myself to proficiency with their use because I have read Gulag Archipelago and I wil not let it happen here without a fight. Advocates of Gun Control think that they will someday take my arms from me. But they are wrong. I’ll own guns all my life."
From what I understand of this gentleman’s politics he most likely would likely include gays, Democrats and most of the people I care about in the world as "socialists" and I am terrified to know that he is out there clutching a machine gun suitable only for killing large numbers of humans and of no conceivable use in hunting or sport shooting, waiting for the day that he will kill me and my family, perhaps when Cheney gives the nod. Ron insisted that I take a Xanax and kindly offered to provide a less hysterical take:
This book is in essence a love letter to the NRA. It attempts to show how gun nuts are "just everyday people next door". Nice middle to upper middle class families who just happen to keep automatic weapons and Grannies with arsenals. And let us not even get into the issue of all of these heavy duty weapons kept openly around children.
And frankly some of the images are damned scary. If these people really do keep such arsenals in their homes then G_D help us all. Statistics show that people are more likely to get shot in the middle of family conflicts, ie arguments. And these people could have a family fight at the level of a small "Military incursion". There’s also a good chance that if publicly known to have large numbers of weapons, a house is probably going to be burglarized. Crooks want the guns either for their own personal use or to resell on the streets. And a gun doesn’t know who it’s pointed at. There are many stories cops can tell you about how a burgler was confronted by an armed homeowner and got the gun away and shot them.
People have the choice to keep guns. But they should choose more wisely. Being Southern I grew up around guns and people who hunt. But handguns aren’t hunting weapons. They have only one purpose. To kill humans. Even rifles should be kept cautiously. Especially around kids.
As an ex of mine once said "If you need an AK 47 to go deer hunting, then you need to find another hobby".
This is a scary attempt to disarm any efforts at gun control by putting the idea out that gun fetishists are just everyday normal people. And that "if everyone else has a gun shouldn’t you have one too?" It’s a sad thing.
A special thanks to both of the special Rons in my life without whom today’s post could not have been produced. As always, I welcome your comments.
There are plenty of nutcases in the world, we really don’t need them to be armed too. I don’t understand the obsession with guns. (I don’t agree with wars either though) I’ve heard people say (well I’ve seen on the telly) that they have a right to bear arms to protect their home. Now I may be missing something, but even if someone broke into my home, I’m not planning on murdering them.How many children have to accidentally die because another child innocently played with a loaded gun they found at their home? How many schools have to go through a massacre? How many completely psychopathic lunatics have to kill random people before someone says ok, that’s enough. No more. Guns are not widely available here. Sure, criminals can get their hands on them and that’s bad enough but I can only imagine the amount of senseless deaths that would suddenly shoot up if guns were legal here. It’s scary. I may be exaggerting or overreacting but it seems like America is full of people who have absolutely no tolerance for anyone that isn’t exactly like them. I don’t understand why anyone would be prepared to kill another person for the reasons stated. I don’t understand why people want guns near their children at all, never mind why they teach their children to use one. I can only hope that my own children never come in contact with a gun, or anyone who owns a gun or is prepared to use one.
Thank you, SweetOne. You’ll have to get a real hug from the other Ron in your life. I’ll send you a virtual one, anyway.
If the government ever decides to take our guns away, how will they be sure they get them all? They couldn’t possibly. You’d have the criminals finding ways to get their hands on one and the rest of us would have no way to defend ourselves. The whole situation is pretty scary.Great post!
I’m from Canada, and we do have strict laws on fire arms, for instance you cannot register a handgun. As far as I know, the police are the only legal carriers of handguns in my area. Granted there are a lot of nut cases in the world, I cannot condone the use of any fire arm, in my opinion it takes far more courage to attack and defend oneself with only the appendages that our creator gave us then to pull a trigger. However I did like some of the points you discussed in your post and respect your point of view.
Interesting review. I note that you must have glossed over the photos of African Americans with firearms. One of said photos (African American gentleman with rifle, and his dog) is my personal favorite in the whole book. I’m not goin to dispute your political take on this book. It seems to be, more than anything else, a litmus test on one’s feelings about guns. Either you like the family photos, or you find them deeply and vicerally frightening. As far as I can tell the differences between the two camps are axiomatic and irreconcilable.
i’d have to agree with ron on the scariness of the “skinhead”. the sort of neoconservative to protofascist views you’ve read into his appearance and remarks just don’t seem consistent with being literate enough to read solzhenitsyn.from the sound of it, he simply has a healthy distrust of government, though perhaps with a slight leaning towards overly distrustful. the homophobic Cheney-ites you compare him to, on the other hand, tend instead to be too trusting of any government that makes loud enough claims to conservatism. liberal democracy does rely on a modest amount of distrust; that’s why we have accountability, transparency, verifiability, and all those other nice things.
maxomai,As it happened I became so engrossed in several of the photographs that it was not until after I had posted the review and went back to look at the book again that I even Saw the picture or the African American man with his dog.I suspect you are right that these photographs do serve as a litmus test of sorts. Certainly my reaction was visceral as I suspect was the author’s intention.Striking as the book was and much conversation as it has generated I do find it a bit sad that the book seems to offer no bridge for the members of the two camps to find a way to talk to rather than past each other.
kiwano,I have plenty of distrust for the government. And the guy with the huge machine gun whose politics I find strange, alien and frightening and which I readily admit I do not begin to understand, scares me badly.
As a conservative friend of mine is so fond of saying, “We call people like these ‘liberal’ because calling them an ‘idiot’ is considered politically incorrect.“When I see knee-jerk comments like these, I can’t help but agree. The arguments against owning firearms listed in these posts sound like they came straight from (former) Brady Center wind-up drones.clairec23 says, “Now I may be missing something, but even if someone broke into my home, I’m not planning on murdering them. while completely missing the point that the housebreaker in question probably has no such qualms. Even Gandhi advocated self-defense.clairec23 also says, “How many children have to accidentally die because another child innocently played with a loaded gun they found at their home? How many schools have to go through a massacre?” The first statement is a “straw man” and could just as easily be applied to cars (drunk drivers) and quad ATVs (which actually kill more by far of all ages per total owned in the U.S. than firearms.) She also conveniently fails to mention the school massacres that have been interrupted because a law-abiding gun owner was present and intervened. Think about the Dunblane (Scotland) school shooting in 1996. What to have been the outcome if there had been an armed teacher or other school official? We’ll never know that answer but statistically, some of the victims would probably be alive today. On the other hand, Finland is country of widespread private gun ownership and the recent school shooting in Tuusula is the first of it’s kind to ever occur in that country.Saying that America is full of people who have absolutely no tolerance for anyone that isn’t exactly like them seems, at least in this case, to be the pot calling the kettle black.
I grew up in the country around rifles and shotguns and have no overall fear of people owning them. I think guns have their uses, like when backpacking in bear country.
But I agree that it is scary to read about people that have their homes full of them for political reasons. Maybe I would feel differently if I lived in a more dangerous country. Although I know people that would say the reason I feel safe in America is because of the right to have guns.
-Will
You probably have 100′s of fools behind the wheel’s of cars, endangering lives everyday in the states, than you have with any gun issues.
Guns are banned here in Australia, makes no difference, those people who want them still get them on the black market, and those who intend to do harm still do so, gun laws or not.
there are no simple answers and probably can not even possibly be any answers that will work for all peoples everywhere. but I do have to point out that the United States has vastly higher levels of gun violence than, say, Europe
I hate guns, I wish they could be removed from society throughout the world.
There is another side to this though. Here in South Africa the criminals are armed to the teeth, the police force is crippled because of a lack of funds and they do not have the resources to do anything about the situation. The normal guy in the street faces legislation that makes it very difficult to own a firearm. The only winners here are the criminals.
I share your frustration, Lyndi. while I agree with and support the aims of gun control advocates where they are successful often does come in reducing the honest guy’s ability to protect himself rather than the criminal’s ability to do him harm
I support the Right to Bear Arms to a point. There is no need for someone to own some of the more sophisticated semi-automatic weapons that are out there.
I live in Japan, and gun crime here is very rare. It is one less thing on my mind.
I feel frankly unqualified even to speculate why gun crime is so much less of a problem in Japan. what are the laws about gun ownership where you live?