The
"American" experience of gun culture is not monolithic. Rural and
sub-rural hunting culture, militia culture, self-defense culture and
crime culture all represent distinct cultural interactions with
firearms.
People often don't understand when I start a
conversation by saying that I grew up around guns and a gun culture,
then respond to their question "Oh, you hunt?" with - "No, I'm from New York City".
"Oh, " they reply uncomfortably.
The difference between gun racks on the back of a pickup and metal
detectors in public high schools is a wide one. Experience shapes
thought, thought shapes reality.
I am torn on the gun debate in
this sense; I know firsthand the devastation caused by the presence of
firearms in the Black communities of America. I also comprehend,
intellectually and instinctively, that guns change the course of
history, and a world where only state security agents possess the
rights, and means, to utilize firearms is not a world I want to live in.
So I guess I'll continue as a gun owner who criticizes gun culture and live with the dichotomy. Or the hypocrisy. Whichever.
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