How ‘Gun Culture’ happens

[RedHoundTargets]

I came across this article which goes over one mans experince going from no guns to owning one to carrying one to spreading the enjoyment of firearms to others.
https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/554351/?__twitter_impression=true
I think it is a very well written piece that can serve two purposes: if you’re already into firearms, it helps drive home the point that introducing others to firearms in a non threatening manner is the best way to strengthen the community. Someone who may not even know you own firearms but thinks you’re a good person will be more likely to give firearms a chance if you’re the one introducing them. Community is the operative word.
Second, I think the opening of the article describing this family’s reasons for getting into firearms does a great job of illustrating the valid reasons for owning their firearms. It really humanizes the firearms community which is often demonized by its opponents.
The best part is that it doesn’t get political or preachy. Figured it’s a good article that could be shown to those on the fence.

 

[Rachen]

Very nice and well thought out article right there. Thank you for sharing.

In my opinions and observations, what creates "gun culture" or any type of culture, is necessity. Pure and simple.

When a certain society needs to survive in a certain environment and must deal with life altering situations whether it be natural or man-made, it tends to create institutions necessary for the survival of it's kind. Such institutions are then passed down through the generations and may remain a very potent identifier of that society, even if the conditions which threaten it's very existence in the past is no longer valid.

For example, I am from northern China. People in the west tend to associate many, if not most Chinese, with being extremely tech-savvy and partakers of pop culture, mostly in the form of K-Pop or it's Chinese equivalent. However, that phenomenon is primarily strong and influential in the southern part of the country, where there is a long history of proficiency and patronage in the arts, education and literature. Thus this creates the modern tech-savvy population that distributes this culture around the world, thus making this side of China much more viewable and accessible to the global population.

In the North, there has always been and still is a history of rugged individualism, simply due to the fact that the north is cold, bleak, teeming with dangers and is located in an area where military powers often collide with very bloody results. Thus, the northern part of China has created a "gun culture" of it's own. Many people own hunting rifles. Archery is the dominant form of outdoor sports and there is a pervasive culture of hunting and horsemanship. Most recruits of the combat wings of the various departments of the People's Liberation Army are from the north, whereas the technical prowess and scientific sectors of national defense are recruited from the cultural South.

Such is the effect of necessity in creating any kind of "culture". Complacency and hedonism often produces a very negative form of popular influence seen in a lot of western and East Asian societies. Things like dependency on junk food, laziness and addiction to video games, the common complaint against "millenials", both in the US and places like South Korea. On the other hand, the rural USA is still marked by ruggedness, individualistic freedom and hard work. People there have to break their backs and toil for the necessities of life instead of having them handed to them on silver platters, or Amazon drones. For these people, the gun has always been, and still is the symbol of personal liberation, putting food on the table, defense against predators, and preservation of national identity. That is basically why "gun culture" does not really exist in places like New York or Sacramento. But just travel north of the Bronx for about 45 minutes and the average complacent New York white collar urban dweller may be in for some culture shock.

 

[doofus47]

Well-written.

Rachen makes a good point: culture is born of need and shared experience and history. The 2nd amendment didn't drop from the sky last month. It was written by a bunch of guys who had faced a (their) government that didn't respect them and worked to block their political voice from being heard. That group had enough wisdom (and humility) to recognize that the government that they were building could very well end up becoming that same type of bad guy.
I suppose it's a good thing that not everyone feels the need to have an AR in the closet b/c the government is a danger. I mean we only reach for life flotation devices when we are going boating, right? If 200 million people were buying ARs, AKs and stocking up on ammo, that would say that the average Josephine in society has some real fears for her safety. Still, the appalling lack of historical awareness that this issue has existed (and could return someday to any nation) and that any suggested fix needs to refrain from hamstringing the effectiveness of the 2nd Amendment floors me.

I think of Senator Daniel Moynihan's adage about everyone is allowed their own opinion but not their own facts and I'm wondering if we are seeing the same thing about "own history." I've often thought that the modern heresy is that everyone thinks that everything in history "has led to me." I'm not sure if this is a natural result of generations of cultural positivism ("everything is always getting better!") or the way that popular culture realizes the idea of evolution ("We're here b/c we're the best of everything that's gone before.") or just a willful ignorance and dismissal of history and its importance ("Doesn't matter; we're just here. YOLO!"), but I think that an important part of the conversation is being missed/dismissed. What progressives wave off as "paranoid fears" aren't recognized as "verifiable historical precedent that governments fail and tyranny might recur." I don't have any good, short term solution for this lack of perspective. As Mr. French and Rachen point out, culture is born of need. The most effective "Come to Jesus" event might be if Donald Trump declares the Constitution void at the next state of the union speech and then everyone in the #RESIST movement might recognize that they would have been better off preparing for real resistance by having a firearm rather than just an extra Twitter account.