Much has been written about the gun in America and who would wonder why? Persuasive, provocative, protective and problematic - in private and in public – the gun is akin to a religion in America and few can stand outside its trajectory of influence. Indeed the gun has had profound impact upon the historical and modern American mind. At times explosive in its power to incite reflection upon the true nature of American society, the gun is perhaps more powerful as an idea than it is an instrument of lethality. Like a watchful ancestor its imagery is everywhere in America, calling to mind remembrances of things past and the value of identity and historical narrative in forging the nation’s sense of purpose.
Far beyond its own symbolism the gun rests assuredly within the evocative mix of myth and truth that defines the incredibly complex national identity of America, and to a lesser extent that of its northern neighbor, Canada. Like it or not, fear its symbolism or extol its practicality, worry about the gun as symbol of erratic violence or trust it as protector of self and home, none of us can dismiss the near mythology of the gun in America. Consider, for example, that we honestly cannot envisage the move to frontier without imagining the bold adventurer, cradling his firearm as though trusted friend, the iconic symbol of his self-reliance and capacity to forge certainty in a world of unpredictable challenge but certain peril.
Indeed the gun - artistic beyond all necessity, communicative independent of individual experience, and forceful beyond the normal physics of human capacity – is a remarkable instrument. Since its earliest invention in fourteenth century China it has been of near immeasurable influence upon the march of world history. It has decided the fate of rulers, nations and empires. From local rebellion to world war the gun has been the predominant instrument of engagement, the decision-maker for the reality on the ground. Within this wider context the gun in America may be seen as an idiom for the nation’s relentless march to influence, its delivery vehicle, in many regards, of Manifest Destiny and for the inevitable reality that the nation’s reach would extend far beyond its grasp.
Indeed, can we not draw a direct line to the very independence and ascendency of America, the greatest global force of change and influence history has yet offered us, from the entirely improbable defeat of the world’s greatest army by backwoods marksmen, men who learned their shooting skill in the hunting of wild food, the defense of person and property from predatory beasts, and the rough, terrible injustice of cultural clash with the American Indian cultures? And who can deny that the militarism of America, its forcefulness with the gun so to speak, has had calculable influence on denying world hegemony to the terrors of Hitler? Surely the gun has had influence; that much we must accept in defining America, past and present. And like all complicated matters, the gun’s signature embraces the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Guns of Conservation
By: Shane P. Mahoney
8 APRIL 2014 2AO Nation