Girls and Guns

One of those volatile arguments that keep everyone angry and agitated is the private ownership of guns in America. While doing research it was a shock to find out that the biggest growing group of new gun owners isn't the crazed patriots in camouflage warning us government cabals   -no, it's women. And I don't mean Sarah Palin type women who need to shoot a moose from an airplane... no I mean ordinary women like the single mom next door.

More than ever the odds are your new girlfriend is packing heat. Now for twenty years gun shops have been marketing the Lady Smith & Weston line of side arms. They have smaller grips, lighter weights and a decorative touch of pink. Other gun maker have followed that lead, letting women know that they can't always expect the police to arrive in time or their old ex will always respect a restraining order.  With more woman owning guns there's a strange undertow in the gun community, the whole thing makes some men nervous. A gun is great equalizer  

From an artistic stand point violence and conflict are major elements of storytelling. But a story is a story and when you close the book or watch the ending credits of a film roll by the conflict is over; as in the real would violent acts lead to lifelong traumas. There is some genetic link to violence and pleasure. One of the best demonstration I saw was when a first person shooter video game was hacked and the pistol was changed into an arm throwing cream pies. The splatter of blood was replaced with whipped cream but all the other features of the game stayed the same. When gamers were given a choice between the original or the hacked game, the original was like a thirty to one favorite.

There also is that odd connection between violence and the erotic. Fantasy artists have always understood the commercial possibilities of an image that combines a scantily clad woman with a large edged weapon. Of course girls and guns have a comical side too. As one man said -it's funny the same way a dancing dog is funny, it's not that a dog can't dance or a woman can't have a gun but you don't expect either.       

In past blog posting I've written about my friend Tom the Collector of Everything. About ten years ago he had a girlfriend Ivy -and she hosted a website that featured herself barely clothed and provocatively posed with a number of large caliber guns.  The rest of us thought it was tasteless and tacky until Ivy told us the proceeds of the website had paid off the mortgage on her house. As George Takei would have said -"Oh my".

Knowing what violence looks like has made me very cautious about firearms.  I like antique ones and building guns from kits. Having an operating gun in the house only increases your risk of being shot. Because of a few very targeted budget cuts by Congress -the DEA , Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Centers for Disease Control can not collect information on accidental shooting, nor do any safety studies or even report on the numbers. Like Genetically Modified  Organisms in our food, if guns are really safe then why is the information being suppressed?

In the history of guns, women have lent their images to advertise and sell them. Other woman help create a sub genre of porn matching together the power of sex and lethal force. In the mainstream more women might not buy into the gun as the icon of male dominance but actually purchase one because family, friends and society don't protect women that try to live a life on their own.     

So this coming Valentine's Day will you be giving or getting a box of ammo with that heart of chocolates?

It was once said that God didn't make all men equal it was Sam Colt who did. And today Sam Colt might be the feminist hero. Or maybe to paraphrase one of Beyonce's songs "if you really love her put a holster on her hip".