Are Men Preoccupied with Guns? |

Tom Matlack, a venture capitalist-turned-writer, contributed an article to The Good Men Project Magazine about why guns are more synonymous with men than women. The piece was actually a compilation of public statements about guns, made by men and women - pro-gun, anti-gun and neutral - from across the country.

The collection of statements were revealing at worst and encouraging at best. Here's one of the more enlightening statements, made by Arash Ashfar of San Diego, California:

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.

This says a lot about gun culture in the United States, about the extent to which manufactured fear and pride affect our citizens. Right now, people are rising up all over the Middle East, starting revolutions in support of democracy. Here in the U.S., we have people insisting on their right to bear arms to be prepared for an armed revolution, which they deem necessary because we may soon have universal healthcare. Our 'revolution' is not comparable. And even in Egypt, where the revolutionary movement was widespread and critical, citizens were unarmed.

Why do we believe we need guns so badly in the United States? Do we all daydream about that hero moment, when we're going to save a stranger's life, such as Charl van Wyk, of Springfield, Virginia did in South Africa?

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.

Mr. van Wyk is certainly proud of this encounter, and the people whose lives he saved are grateful, I'm sure. But I think Christopher Calkins, of Pojoaque, New Mexico makes a more important point about using guns for self-defense:

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.

We don't know the circumstances surrounding Mr. Calkins' shooting, but his reverent attitude means a lot. He does not seem to glorify the day that he used a gun against another person. I want to believe he is right, that no man should want to use a gun against another person, and I want to believe that eventually we as a nation can stop believing that guns are essential to freedom.

To read all of these statements, check out Why Do Men Love Guns?