"America roamed by angry white dudes for whom firearms are a prop for lost power" [View all]

[Robb]

Guys and guns, boys and toys

With America roamed by angry white dudes for whom firearms are a prop for lost power, what sort of message are kids getting?

America has a free-for-all gun culture, which, unsurprisingly, means that America also has a problem with children getting accidentally killed by guns. Specifically, America has a problem with boys in particular getting into accidents with guns, as reported by the New York Times. In its review of the data, the Times found that male shooters fired nearly all guns that were accidentally fired and killed a child. Boys made up 80% of the victims of accidental gun deaths of children. Reporters Michael Luo and Mike McIntire described boys as having a "magnetic attraction of firearms", and added this:

"Time and again, boys could not resist handling a gun, disregarding repeated warnings by adults and, sometimes, their own sense that they were doing something wrong."

So, what is it with boys and guns? Presumably, the same thing that defines the relationship of grown men and guns.

Gun-owning is a largely male phenomenon in the US. Forty-five percent of American men own guns while only 15% of women do. Sixty percent of adults with guns in America are white men, even though white men are just one third of the US population. Despite some attempts by gun lobbyists and marketers to try to sell more guns to women, the fact of the matter is that gun-owning isn't really about "safety" and "crime", so much as it's a very costly form of identity politics.

Gun ownership, in America, is a way for white men to assert their power in an era when they're increasingly being forced to share it with women and racial minorities.

Read More: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/01/gun-control-toys-boys