So If You Don’t Get Off On Guns, I Can’t Have Them Either?
BY Herschel Smith
8 years, 10 months ago
Shooting a gun reaffirmed my belief in gun control:
I’ve never understood guns — why people love them so much, why they think it’s fun to shoot them, why they collect them. I was always simply terrified of guns — which was extra difficult, given that I grew up in the South, nearly surrounded by them. My mother claimed to have one tucked away somewhere in the house when I was growing up, but I never believed her, because I never saw it. My cousins used to shoot BB guns in the backyard on holidays while I would stand on the porch and watch. I went to parties in middle school and high school where we hung out in some basement next to someone’s ridiculous gun collection. As soon as anyone started to get the guns out to show them off, I hightailed it out of there. I hated being in the same room as a gun, and I didn’t want to know or understand how they worked. I didn’t think you needed to know how a gun worked, or what it felt like to use one, in order to know that they were dangerous.
[ … ]
They assured me that everything was safe, we made sure the area was clear, and I shot a gun at a target for the first time in my life. I didn’t feel a rush or a sudden sense of power. I felt nothing. I shot again. Nothing. I shot another gun, and I still felt nothing. There was no thrill here. This is what people were defending? I felt a disconnect. Sure, I’ve wielded weapons before. I taught archery for many years, I’ve chopped wood, and I’ve fenced. My entire family is military. I love so many aspects of Southern culture, and I am proud that our rights to personal property are protected in the United States.
But that moment confirmed that for me, the risks and the repercussions of owning guns greatly outweigh the fun, culture, and tradition associated with them.
Hey. I see how this works. If you don’t get orgasmic over guns, I can’t have them either. Because you’re the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong and good and bad and pleasure and boredom. Got it.
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