Men and Guns: An Affinity for Steel

Tom Matlack, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, and others

weigh in on men, violence, and America’s gun
culture.
I’ve been taking kickboxing with a mad Russian for a couple of years now,
learning the proper technique for smashing my fist through another man’s
brain stem. I’ve taken the NRA handgun course (got a perfect score on the
exam), so I could get a license to carry a concealed weapon if I wanted to.
I’ve also had long debates with friends who believe that violence in men is
not innate.

I’m not so sure.

My desire to pound a heavy bag or the rush I get holding a gun is something
I can’t explain. It scares me enough that I pursue activities—working out,
meditation—designed to control my aggression. I have to work at being the
man I want to be, rather than the animal I might be if I succumbed to my
basest instincts. Despite having been born to a longstanding Quaker family,
pacifism still doesn’t come naturally.

My instinct, though I obviously can’t prove it, is that male violence and our
affinity for guns is tied to the pressures we face. Society tells us that we
should be achievers and stay-at-home dads, breadwinners and emotionally
present husbands, fighters and peacemakers—all at the same time. When I
punch a heavy bag, fire a handgun at the range, or watch mixed martial arts,
it’s a way to unleash the rage that’s welling up inside me.

So as much as it makes us uncomfortable, guys, we all have to look in the

mirror and ask ourselves, What is going on? Why do we love guns and
violence so much?

Here are a few voices from those on the front lines of the battle over guns,
manhood, and violence in American society.

♦◊♦

I’ve owned firearms for about 35 years. I’ve used them for fun, I’ve used
them for work, I’ve been forced on two occasions to use them against other
human beings. I freely admit having to shoot a man is something that has
haunted me every day of my life. I have good friends and a stellar family,
which has helped a great deal over the decade between the event and today.
Nobody ever wants to shoot someone; if they’re normal, it’s a wretched,
heartbreaking circumstance.

—Christopher Calkins, Pojoaque, New Mexico

♦◊♦

I absolutely condemn any notion that having a gun makes anyone “manly.”
That’s ridiculous and absurd. Like many, after the tragedy with Rep.
Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona happened last month, I have spent a lot of time
evaluating how a tragic shooting like that happened. And I want to be crystal
clear—the only person responsible for that shooting is the apparently
mentally deranged, sick young man. As a country, we need to do something
about the crisis of under-treated mental illness among our veterans and other
mentally ill Americans who can‘t get the help they desperately need. We
need to ask ourselves if Americans with mental illness should have access to
firearms.

I will take the liberty to tell you that I own a lot of firearms. I hunt and fish.
Deer rifles, 10-gauge, 12-gauge, 20-gauge. I’ve been doing it for 35 years.
It’s part of my life and family. But I don’t own a pistol and I couldn’t
imagine having a firearm, because I wouldn’t know what do with 30 rounds.
Those guns are made to kill people.

—Ed Schultz, host of MSNBC’s The Ed Show

♦◊♦

I was 4 years old when a bullet took my father away from my brother and
me. He was gunned down during an argument over money. Now I’m 35 and
I think a lot about the relationship with him that was stolen from me due to
senseless violence. For many men—especially men of color—that has
become the way that arguments and disputes are handled. It’s up to
individuals like myself and those personally affected by such violence to
take a stand and speak out. Only then can we see real change.

—Cyrus Webb, host of Conversations LIVE, Brandon, Missouri

♦◊♦

Some people are violent and dangerous and that isn’t going to change. In the
absence of guns, knives, and bats, even a kitchen pan could be used to
commit a violent act with equally devastating results.

—Jordan Gottlieb, Mansfield, Texas

 ♦◊♦

On July 25, 1993, I thwarted a terrorist attack on the St. James Church in
Cape Town, South Africa. Terrorists attacked the congregation with hand
grenades and automatic assault rifles during an evening service. I returned
fire with a small .38 special revolver and hit one of the attackers. They fled.
I then pursued them on foot and fired another three shots at them at the
getaway car, which they jumped into and drove off. The attack became
known as the St. James Massacre—11 people were murdered and over 50
injured. The police said that many more would have died had I not returned
fire.

—Charl van Wyk, Christian missionary, Springfield, Virginia

♦◊♦

I have legally carried a concealed handgun for over four years. In doing so, I
have an increased sense of responsibility, and an increased need to avoid
violent encounters. This is due to a heightened sense of awareness of my
surroundings. I carry a firearm to physically defend myself and my family if
needed, while I avoid using it to protect myself and family from civil
litigation regardless of the legal justification. Carrying a firearm may allow
me to defuse a violent encounter by drawing the weapon without actually
using it, but the alternative to not having it would be simply to fight, risking
injury to myself and the attacker. An armed society is a polite society.

—William Elsner, law enforcement officer, Sitka, Alaska

♦◊♦

I lost my brother when I was 16. A teenager, just six days younger than I
was, shot him while he was on duty as a cab driver. My brother had three
children and was just shy of his 26th birthday.

—Natalie Nicole Gilbert, singer-songwriter, Los Angeles

♦◊♦

In America, approximately 91 percent of all felons are men, or, in other

words, less than 10 percent of all inmates in our prisons are female
offenders. Men have a monopoly on crime and violence, and this includes
gun violence. There are many reasons offered by experts to explain why this
is so, ranging from a lack of family values during the rearing years, social
and cultural influences such as violent video games and movies, gang
memberships, emotional and mental imbalance, and more—and yet with all
of these ideas not one of them completely or correctly explains men’s
propensity toward violence. It should be obvious to point out that alcoholism
and drug abuse are significant factors, if not at the very core of much of the
violence.

—William C. Allan, director, Corner Post Friends, Washington, D.C.

♦◊♦

I am a female, a former law enforcement officer, and a hunter. My husband

is a retired law enforcement officer and a hunter. The vast majority of gun-
owning/carrying men are not violent and do not use weapons to bully or
empower themselves. Weak-minded and unprincipled men hit those they
believe are weaker than they are and use whatever is at hand to bully or
intimidate others, men or women. The theory that men who own and use
guns are somehow more violent than a male counterpart who does not is
ridiculous.

—Elizabeth R. Dilts, Orlando, Florida

♦◊♦

I’m 65 and not a violent person, but I am a responsible gun owner and
absolutely support the right to keep and bear arms. I’m an occasional
recreational shooter. The fact that we have police, courts, corrections
officers, and prisons shows that good intentions alone are not sufficient to
protect us; there are a lot of varmints out there and not all of them are locked
up.

Guns are why we are not still a British colony. Guns are why Hitler and
Hirohito don’t rule the world. Guns are why Israel still exists.

—Mike Arman, Florida

 ♦◊♦

I lived in Iran during the Iran/Iraq war. Discovering that there are
actually people in the world who are obsessed with guns was a jarring
realization. I mean, here I was living in a country that was actually at war
and had an actual revolution fresh in the minds of the average citizen, and
yet I can’t tell you about a single occasion where I saw someone showing off
guns or glamorizing them on TV. Guns were considered to be a horrible,
necessary tool and a fact of life.

—Arash Afshar, San Diego, California

♦◊♦

I’ve owned and shot guns for over 40 years, and I’ve trained about 22
women, most of whom went on to get a license to carry and legally protect
themselves. I will say that, without exception, every woman I have ever
taught to shoot says that she feels more empowered! And only a few of them
had experienced any physical or sexual abuse. It’s a great equalizer for
women who have felt dominated or abused—as long as they follow the law
and constantly check their own attitudes.

—Jack Cleary, Boston, Massachusetts

♦◊♦

In the U.S. we live in a society that is fear-based. Men have not been
supported in the innate ability to feel safe in this world. They are taught at a
young age that they need to conquer and destroy, and are given guns to
create this false sense of security.

—Dr. Valerie Lane Simonsen, licensed naturopathic physican and

shaman, Hawaii

♦◊♦

My husband and I are both gun owners. We live in Virginia. I inherited my

12-gauge shotgun from my dad and I was an NRA member and sharpshooter
bar 3 with my own .22 rifle when I was 9 years old. Those of us from the
middle of the country (Arkansas and Oklahoma) grow up handling guns
safely, and many help our parents and grandparents feed the families with
hunting. Guns have always been precious tools for survival.

My husband is a retired Marine and an NRA shooting instructor. He loves

target shooting, but only last year went on a hunting trip. The antelope he
shot has fed us for six months, and we are grateful. So, yes, we are pro-gun
people. We accept that guns are a fact of life in the U.S.

—Sherrye Landrum, Virginia

♦◊♦

As a Marine I learned that guns were not bad. They were for protecting self
and others—killing only when necessary to protect life. That organic self-
others balance is not being understood or has been lost in our society; now it
is skewed toward the self. Over emphasis on self-protection insidiously turns
into self-projection. Guns are sometimes wielded by the untrained to make a
statement about personal power or invulnerability—and when I say
untrained, I mean untrained in moral values—and this can lead to
inappropriate use of them. We see the phenomenon in MMA as well. Martial
arts, which was also designed as a set of self- and others’-protection skills,
has become more about proving personal toughness or manliness—or even
womanliness. But the problem is not the gun or the martial arts skills, the
problem is values.

—Jack Hoban, subject matter expert, U.S. Marine Corps Martial Arts
Program

♦◊♦

As early as it was legal for me to do so, I began carrying a gun. I carry a gun
out of love for my wife, daughter, and fellow citizens. I don’t know if I
could handle seeing someone carry out a violent act on an innocent person,
knowing that if I had done my due diligence, I could have prevented it. It’s a
love for life and people that compels me to carry. And for what it’s worth,
I’ve gone through safety training and take safety seriously.

—Stephen Smith, Bellingham, Washington

 ♦◊♦

Men are unconsciously attracted to guns because guns are phallic symbols.
Therefore, they make men feel more manly and powerful. Men are also
more likely to consume violent media—movies, video games, TV, music—
which cumulatively makes them more aggressive. The epidemic of guns and
violence is due not only to years of violent media being consumed, but also
to men feeling increasingly emasculated in a scary world.

—Carole Lieberman, M.D., former chair of the National Coalition on

TV Violence, Los Angeles, California

♦◊♦

Louisville Sluggers are meant for playing baseball, but many are used as
weapons. Registering, licensing, or banning baseball bats or bat owners will
have no effect on crime. Our national pastime would become extremely
difficult while criminals will simply steal bats or use another tool. There are
approximately 22,000 “gun-control” laws nationally and not one can be
demonstrated to have prevented any crime whatsoever. What these laws
have accomplished is to create a huge criminal black market in guns by
making them commodities. In over 42 years as a firearms instructor, I have
yet to hear of a valid method for preventing the criminal use of firearms.
Any attempts only unnecessarily burden legitimate use. Laws only affect
those inclined to obey them.

—Craig R. Brownell, chief instructor, Minnesota Pistol Class,

Minnesota

♦◊♦

Guns don’t kill people. Absent parents (who allow violence-laced television
and Internet and juvenile-delinquent street gangs) kill people. What
percentage of those youth who trained in value-based organizations such as
the NRA, Scouts, etc., actually commit crimes of any type? Compare that to
the youth abandoned to grow up on their own.

—Dale Brakhage, father of two, Indian Springs, Alabama

 ♦◊♦

Much of what needs to happen is an honest conversation about issues related

to masculinity and violence. Many people have circled around this subject,
especially in terms of the intensifying debate about guns. The Tucson
massacre has revived debate (for the moment) about our country’s gun laws,
and the astounding power of the NRA to block commonsense regulations.
Some people go beyond the power of the gun lobby and ask larger questions
about our culture, such as MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who asks repeatedly:
What’s the obsession with guns? But few, if any, voices in mainstream
media have discussed the connection between guns, violence, and American
ideals of manhood.

Amazingly, this connection has not been part of the mainstream coverage of
Tucson or any of the rampage killings in recent years. The trouble is, you
can’t change a social phenomenon until you can at least identify and name it.
Each time one of these horrific acts of violence occurs, commentators and
editorial writers hone in on every relevant factor they can identify—mental
illness, the availability of handguns, the vitriolic tone of talk radio and cable
TV—and leave out what is arguably the most important factor: gender.

—Jackson Katz, Ph.D., educator, author, and filmmaker

♦◊♦

I’m so sick of people blaming guns for all the violence that goes on. If it
wasn’t guns it would be something else. Do we try to ban knives when
someone gets stabbed?

Not having a gun is just irresponsible. Being a man means being able to
defend yourself and your family. It’s in our nature; we’re not meant to be a
bunch of metrosexual pansies. We were put here to provide for our families
and protect them. Having a weapon is just part of being a man.

I think there is an epidemic of people over-reporting sensational gun stories

to advance a political agenda. It’s not law-abiding citizens who are killing
people; it’s criminals who have grown up to believe they have no hope for a
better life. We have become a culture that does not value life.
I think the problem is we don’t have enough men in our current culture. We
have become a society that dismisses the value that men play in a child’s
life. If you look at the people who are committing crimes, it’s usually ones
who grew up without a father.

—Robert Richardson, Off Grid Survival, Las Vegas, Nevada

♦◊♦

It is clear to me that guns are an extension of manhood for so many of us

American males. In a world where we’ve been taught via school, mass-
media culture, sports, and our communities that to be a man is to be
aggressive, in control, and, yes, violent, being obsessed with guns is its
logical conclusion. Until we begin to change definitions of manhood to
peace, love, nonviolence, and the ability to settle conflicts or beefs civilly,
gunplay will remain a very viable option for far too many of us.

—Kevin Powell, activist and writer, Brooklyn, New York

♦◊♦

I lost my husband and a brother-in-law to guns.

My husband was killed near our goat ranch not far from Flagstaff. He was
shot at close range with a sawed-off shotgun by two white men who both
held grudges against him. The men did no time for the shooting, not even a
full night in jail. Everyone I know out here owns a gun—everyone. Up to
that point we did not. Needless to say, I own two big guns now, and
wouldn’t want to live here without them.

—Sandra Benally, Navajo Reservation, northern Arizona

♦◊♦

We’ve got to have a dialogue on guns. We never have a discussion because

it’s so polarizing. We should all agree there’s no earthly reason to have a 30-
shot magazine.

—Ted Kaufman, former Delaware senator

Tom Matlack

Tom Matlack is just foolish enough to believe he is a decent man. He has a

16-year-old daughter and 14- and 5-year-old sons. His wife, Elena, is the
love of his life.

Comments

1. Tom Matlack says:

February 21, 2011 at 7:22 am

One postscript on guns, manhood and war.

As members of a volunteer army in a country at war almost a decade, the men who are at the front
lines don’t get there by accident. They seek out the adrenaline rush of daily fire, and accept the
risk of death freely.

Seb Junger and Tim Hetheringon have produced perhaps the most vivid account of modern
American warfare in the film, Restrepo (http://restrepothemovie.com/), which chronicles the
deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on
a remote 15-man outpost, “Restrepo,” named after a platoon medic who was killed in action.

“For the first few months of the deployment, we’d get rocked hard,” recalls Specialist Misha
Pemble-Belkin in the film while in the background the sound of guns echoes through the valley.
“They’d hit us from—they’d ambush us at 360 degrees.”

“I remember thinking holy shit, did everyone from the entire country come to this valley?”
Specialist Kyle Steiner asks. “Is nobody else fighting anymore? Is every bad guy in my face?”

“In the entire country of Afghanistan, we dropped something close to 70 percent of all of the
ordnance, and all of the bombs that were dropped at that particular time were dropped in the
Korengal Valley,” Major Dan Kearney reports in the film. “CNN dubbed it one day ‘the ugliest
place on earth.’”

What would make boys, not even men, travel around the world to voluntarily get their asses shot
off for a valley the United States eventually abandoned as impossible to conquer? (The film was
shot between May 2007 and July 2008; U.S. troops left in April 2010:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/14/AR2010041401012.html.)

“Growing up, you know, I wasn’t allowed to have sugar until I was like 13 because my mom was
a fucking hippie,” Specialist Misha Pemble-Bilkin recalls of his childhood in Oregon. “She always
had us doing hippie children things, I guess, like making paper and painting something or going
on nature walks. It was a nice childhood. I just wasn’t allowed to have toy guns or anything like
that, like boys should have, I guess—your little toy guns or, like, violent videogames or any
 violent movies at all. Like, I had a toy squirt gun that was a turtle and my parents took it away
because it was a squirt gun.

“But to my family, I never really told them much until about halfway into the deployment. I didn’t
tell them when Vimoto died. I didn’t tell them when Sergeant Padilla lost his arm. I didn’t tell
them when Pisak got shot. I didn’t tell them when Restrepo got killed. And then when Restrepo
got killed it was a few days before my mom’s birthday also. So I had to suck it up when I called
my mom on her birthday and act like everything was OK and say, hey, Mom, happy birthday. You
know, like yeah, I’m doing really good out here, everything is fine.”

Even after he returned from the Korengal, Specialist Pemble-Belkin wanted to go back, despite the
death of his friends. (Specialist Misha Pemble-Belkin on life after deployment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpF9ljgQXfs.)

I asked Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer and photographer Michael Kamber, who has spent much
of the last decade in exactly these same war zones, about the connection between manhood and
guns. “A gun sure makes you feel more secure!” he told me. “But more manly? I think the
opposite: You have to be truly hard to walk around without one when you know the bad guys have
them. But there is something so comforting about them. I think when we have a weapon, we walk
around cockstrong, as they say in the Bronx. It’s like, come on, fuck with me, I’ve got something
for you.”

I asked him about whether it manlier to fight or walk away from a fight, thinking about my pacifist
parents and Specialist Pemble-Bilkin’s “fucking hippie” of a mom. “I just moved back to the
Bronx after a 15-year hiatus and the rule was always that you don’t want to get into it with some
idiot that has nothing to lose,” Kamber told me. “They will kill you, literally, without a thought to
the consequences, so better to walk away if possible. But there are a number of real assholes out
there that need an ass-kicking occasionally.”

Reply

o Don Saxton says:

February 21, 2011 at 1:13 pm

Hold the phone right there! Take a step back and look at the last few thousand years!
Here is Steven Pinker at TED with “A Brief History of Violence.” Could it be that we are
magnitudes less violent than ever before? http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ramBFRt1Uzk

Reply

2. Hugo says:

February 21, 2011 at 7:36 am

 I include myself fully in the problem: men who have yet to sidestep the combined impact of
evolutionary instincts to hunt and a society that tells us that we should be breadwinners, stay-at-
home dads, emotionally present husbands, and peacemakers all at the same time.

That implies that violence is innate rather than socialized. Society tells us as boys we need to
pound each other, dominate each other; football and G.I. Joe aren’t in our DNA, they are cultural
forces at least as much as they are biological. You set up a false dichotomy here: biology violent,
society non-violent. I think it’s biology neutral, society with mixed messages. Appeals to
evolution always strike me as a kind of “I can’t help it, I’m just a guy!” strategy that’s really
unappealing.

Reply

3. Seif-Eldeine Och says:

February 21, 2011 at 7:38 am

The one time I went to a driving range I shot a glock and the worlds second largest barreled
cougar magnum among other guns. The magnum had such a huge kickback that the gun almost hit
me in the face when I shot it. I was so scared that I put the gun down right in front of and in the
direction of my father and his business partner. Huge gun no-no. About guns and violence, there
have been numerous studies that have shown that guns decrease violence, increase violence and do
not have an effect on violence. Studies on socioeconomic factors have shown disparity in class
and a large poverty rate are much more important than laws on the books in determining the crime
rate of an area.

Reply

4. Michael R. Shannon says:

February 21, 2011 at 7:39 am

Three URLs you need to visit for context:

Majority of deaths in US by firearms are suicides:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States

List of countries by firearms related deaths:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

List of countries by murder rate: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-

murders-per-capita

Reply
5. Keagan Pearson says:

February 21, 2011 at 7:40 am

“Simplistically, guns seem to bolster a male sense of protectionism and to some extent, a sense of
increased confidence”

Keagan Pearson, Fatherhood Factor, http://www.fatherhoodfactor.com

Reply

6. Chris Blanchard says:

February 21, 2011 at 7:41 am

I’m not into guns, I’m into archery, but they’re similar: you shoot at things. I think it’s related to
the hunter gatherer thing.

Chris Blanchard, Author, 1 Story a Week

Reply

7. Eoghan says:

February 21, 2011 at 7:51 am

Mothers have the monopoly on early socialisation and violence perpetuated against children and
partners. In order to discuss violence is society properly, you have to go back to the root of it. and
to hell with taboo.

Reply

8. Eoghan says:

February 21, 2011 at 7:57 am

Very interesting article here

 “The Science of Success
Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost
anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of
blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics,
which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that
are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and
evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up
depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—but with the right environment and good parenting, they can
grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and happy people.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/12/the-science-of-success/7761/

Reply

9. David Wise says:

February 21, 2011 at 8:12 am

Canada ranks third among the developed

western countries (behind the US and Norway) in gun ownership, and yet only 800 people died
annually from gun-related deaths there. In the US, 30,000 people died each year from gunshots.
The US is truly the wild west. A very violent culture.

Reply

o Catullus says:

February 21, 2011 at 8:32 am

A neat trick that, considering there have been less than 20,000 annual homicides for the
better part of a decade now.

Reply

 David Wise says:

February 21, 2011 at 1:41 pm

Listen, don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. Hee, hee. I guess you
can’t trust stats you find on the internet either. That’s the figure I found anyway.

Reply
  Catullus says:

February 21, 2011 at 2:43 pm

I think you didn’t need to include gunshot suicides to make your point.
We are both absolutely and proportionately far ahead of Canada in
gunshot homicides. Michael Moore may have a point; we may just
plain nuts, not gun nuts. But the homicide picture is improving and
guns are easier than ever to procure. Food for thought.

Reply

 David Wise says:

February 21, 2011 at 4:46 pm

Maybe.

10. Denis says:

February 21, 2011 at 8:55 am

“Why do we love guns and violence so much?”

-I think it has to do with showing off for women. Women love tough, strong and violent men to
protect them.

I love steel, made by men for the good of society.

Reply

o Catullus says:

February 21, 2011 at 11:50 am

I don’t love my particular steel, but since the ruling class won’t give in without struggle,
I’m willing to use the Second Amendment. For the good of society.
 Reply

11. Eoghan says:

February 21, 2011 at 8:58 am

The majority of gun related deaths in the US are men committing suicide
ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/ncipc/10LC-2003/PDF/10lc-violence.pdf

and the main driver of men killing themselves is the family court system.

Reply

o Catullus says:

February 21, 2011 at 2:44 pm

Where do you find the time to read all these suicide notes, Eoghan?

Reply

 Eoghan says:

February 21, 2011 at 4:42 pm

Kposowa 1999

Reply

12. mordicai says:

February 21, 2011 at 9:03 am

Responsibility & education. I know that sounds cheesy, but they are the balm to many ills…
whether we are talking about the dangers of guns or the dangers of automobiles.

Reply
13. Natasha says:

February 21, 2011 at 9:25 am

It’s crap to turn this into a gender issue.

I’m a woman, and I own guns. Moreover, I’m a woman and I own guns and I enjoy shooting them.
My favorite thing to do at the gym is use the heavy bag. I’ve played (and liked) GTA. I also
meditate and do yoga to de-stress. Do any of these things make me a man?

NO

They make me a member of a personality type. A more assertive (which does not autimatically
translate to violent) personality with a penchant for adrenaline.

Reply

o Don Saxton says:

February 21, 2011 at 1:46 pm

One step further, it is neither an issue nor a gender issue. It is polemic used by the “Man
bad, Woman good” crowd. Another of their examples, “domestic violence is the number
one reason woman seek emergency rooms,” when in fact bee stings are more likely. We
live in a time when fear is easy currency, and fear-mongers have license. Thus politics
and The Media…

Reply

14. Henry Vandenburgh says:

February 21, 2011 at 11:38 am

Because only criminals and government will have guns if they’re radically controlled. We have
two and they’re always loaded. I’m a liberal, but agree with Woody Guthrie on this score. I favor
open carry for those who want to have guns on their person, but not closed carry.

Reply
15. Mister-M says:

February 21, 2011 at 3:40 pm

I always find discussions like these interesting because they’re almost entirely devoid of any shred
of mention of the violent women and girls in our society… the same females who initiated half (or
more) of all domestic violence incidents, the young girls who kick the ever-lovin’ crap out of one
another on youtube, and all of the other violent, controlling tendencies of women.

As an aside, you then have the “female sentencing discount” in terms of punishment meted out in
criminal courts and the fact that an untold number of women commit heinous acts of violence by
proxy – they get men to do their dirty work.

Women are more likely than men to use a gun for protection. Approximately 45% of all men own
guns and about 15% of all women own guns. Do women like guns because of the feel of the
“phallic” symbol in their hands? That’s more than 15-million gun-owning women in this country.

The Good Men Project is about as annoying as any other man-bashing site. The stories here tend
to slant towards what makes men bad… how men need to change to appease women… what more
men can do for the benefit of women…

Add this to the pile of wretched refuse being put out by what I originally thought was a potentially
solid site for real men’s issues. You would think that only men own guns, use guns as a tool for
protection, and use guns to commit crimes.

Women are violent, too. Maybe the Good Men Project can do an expose’ on how violent and
controlling women contribute to the demise of men and how often they get away with it.

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16. Sandra Benally says:

February 21, 2011 at 8:35 pm

Because of the recent shooting in Tucson of a female U.S. Senator, Gabrielle Giffords, owning
and carrying a gun is a big issue in Arizona. As I said in the above article, I wouldn’t want to live
without a gun. I just wanted to emphasize that my husband was not killed on the reservation. I
have been a professional journalist for 15 years and in my younger days I was a Military
Policeman. Despite my experiences, my late husband and I chose to live in the upper Painted
Desert without weapons. It was a conscious choice by both of us based on our belief that
possessing a gun contributes to the use of a gun. I’ve had to rethink our philosophy. Since his
death 11 years ago, I have moved into the deep reservation. At my ranch and here on the rez, you
would be lucky to have police response to an emergency after an hour. Here on the rez, that might
be several hours…not because of lack of police interest, but because officers here may cover a
beat extending a hundred or more square miles. I don’t pretend to have the answers. I also wanted
to add that I have always enjoyed shooting, grew up on a farm in Illinois, and ate game as often as
beef or chicken. My brother and I spent hours target shooting with his pump b-b gun, and I loved
firing the big stuff in the military. Yep, women can love their steel, too…but I have no desire
whatsoever to use one on my fellow man…or woman.

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