Americans and their gun culture: attached at the hip (Spectator.co.uk reviews "Gun Baby Gun")

[Electric Monk]

[font size=+1]Americans have an almost mystical belief that guns are synonymous with freedom, says Michael Moorcock, reviewing Gun Baby Gun. Every time there’s a call for stricter arms control, the sales of guns rocket.[/font]

Gun Baby Gun: A Bloody Journey into the World of the Gun Iain Overton
Canongate, pp.358, £18.99, ISBN: 9781782113423
http://www.amazon.com/Gun-Baby-Bloody-Journey-World-ebook/dp/B00O45B8OO

Like the documentary journalist Iain Overton, author of this book, I was taught to shoot and maintain a gun as a boy. As an adult I joined a campaign to monitor, curb and limit the arms trade. I taught my children good gun protocols and how to shoot. There is an undeniable pleasure in shooting.

When I moved to Texas I immediately bought a black powder Navy Colt with which to practise the cowboy spins, rolls and shifts I had learned as a boy. The thing Bible-belt Baptists, Bedouin tribesmen, Brazilian drug-barons and Boer farmers have in common is a love of guns. Guns are in our DNA. Yet statistics prove that, wherever they proliferate, murder and suicide rise and children are killed. The mantra of the NRA (National Rifle Association) of ‘guns don’t kill people; people kill people’ sounds convincing until it’s changed to ‘guns don’t kill children; children kill children’. The statistics are overwhelming.

Unlike Michael Moore, who in Bowling for Columbine fudged his statistics and loaded his arguments so much that he weakened his own case, Overton has checked his facts and his statistics thoroughly and wherever possible interviewed all concerned, whether in the Americas, Africa, Europe, Australia or Asia. As a result his book is chilling.

(snip)

Overton presents a compelling argument for gun control as he follows the money back to the makers, dealers and men of violence profiting from what is essentially an addiction. Men respond as fiercely as speed freaks to any threat to take away their porn, cars or guns. You don’t have to be a committed Freudian to work that one out. And the ‘liberties’ most Americans seem to be defending have very little to do with the right to vote or equality under the law.

much more
http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/9505462/americans-and-their-gun-culture-attached-at-the-hip/

Sounds like an interesting read.

[Buzz cook]

1. Unlike Michael Moore, who in Bowling for Columbine fudged his statistics and loaded his arguments...

Moore has been accused of misstatements and out right lies in Bowling for Columbine, but the accusations tend to be false themselves. It seems the author has bought into the right wing noise machine on that score.

[GayPleb]

2. My Narrative About Guns

I don't associate guns with freedom rather I associate my ability to own and carry guns unmolested by the government as one of the freedoms I enjoy.

My pistol, I believe, has saved my friends and I from a violent encounter only a few years ago. I carry a pistol because my profession DOES NOT make me popular with criminals and may require travel into economically distressed areas to tend to victims and witnesses. While my profession is not a police office or prosecutor, I am a Victim and Witness Services Coordinator for the County's DA's office.

The department I work in provides basic psychological support (until they get cleared for a licensed therapist), court assistance, transportation, and emotional / physical assistance in / out of the courtroom.

Needless to say, it does NOT make the employees popular with the defendants, when we consul victims and witnesses of violent crime from highly emotional states to where they can testify effectively.

My license came with training from the DA investigators, the PD firearms instructor, a private course, and regular classroom time. As the the background check, that was a foregone conclusion.

Coming back to my narrative, I had decided to visit a gay couple in the gay "district" of my city. When had a great meal and decided to walk our was back, through a park instead of calling a cab. As we neared the park, a car of immature young 20 year old's crawled by the four of us: me , my boyfriend, and the other gay couple. I believe that the reason attention was payed to us is because it was a cold night and we were holding each other (arms draped) as we walked.

Continuing, the car came to a crawl and the window opened up, Out came the word F----T and a beer bottle landing nowhere near us. Not wanting to ruin a good night filling out a police report amid "other" reasons it was universally decided to ignore it until the work week where I could report it at work.

As we exited the park, following our walk, the same car pulled up and stopped. Out come four drunk but very fit 20 somethings. We tell them to leave us alone and attempt to walk away but another beer bottle (empty) lands near us. As we turn two of them had grabbed additional beer bottles and were beginning to throw them at us.

At this point I upholstered my CCW pistol and pointed it at the violent group. Now call me a tech nerd but my pistol does have a strobing light and laser on it. The pistol temporary blinds them and I direct the laser towards the center mass of the individual that seemed less intoxicated.

The once hostile confrontation immediate deescalates as the less intoxicated person grabs the beer bottles from the hands of the two other individuals and telling me they don't want any trouble.

Needless to say a good night ruined and no hanky panky as dessert.

Now, had my state been very restrictive (less freedom) in relation to whom it gives CCW permits to (in some states, I would not have "good cause" / NYC, SF, or LA) I could have had to spend the night at the ER either holding my partners hand or being in the hospital bed myself.

So while I do not directly associate Freedom with guns; I do associate my ability to own a legally carry a firearm without onerous regulations as a type of Freedom.

[Electric Monk]

3. Cool story, Bro

You might feel more at home in http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1172

[NoGOPZone]

5. Upholstered guns are a powerful deterrent

I was once able to fend off a gang of bloodthirsty racists by brandishing my Ruger Redhawk trimmed in Western Striped Indigo chambray.

[GayPleb]

4. Thanks.

I was naware of that forum but I just wanted to start a discourse on the topic.

I understand the importance of affinity groups but feel that it additional voices that do not reflect a constant narrative prevents "star chamber" syndrome and bad decisions.

I am sometimes reminded of an early gay rights case called Bowers where one of the Justices stated:

Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. was considered the deciding vote during the case. He had initially voted to strike down the law but changed his mind after conservative clerk Michael W. Mosman advised him to uphold the ban.[8][9] In a concurring opinion, Powell voiced doubts about the compatibility of Georgia's law with the Eighth Amendment as it related to the prison sentence for conviction, but joined the majority opinion in upholding the law against a substantive due process attack. It has been argued that Powell's decision to uphold the law was influenced by the fact that he believed he had never known any homosexuals, unaware that one of his own law clerks was gay.