Johnny ,
Get Your
GuN ?
By JOHN TARABORELLI
I ’ VE NEVER BEEN A GUN PERSON . I DIDN ’ T GROW UP AROUND THEM .
I was never particularly interested in them . Furthermore , the culture around guns — or at least the stereotypical American gun culture , as I perceived it — is something I always found off-putting : aggressive , maximalist , militaristic , even fetishistic .
My own admittedly skewed preconception of gun culture is personified in a photo from the horrible events on January 6 : A man standing alone , Trump flag draped over his shoulder and assault rifle slung across his chest . He ’ s wearing a tactical vest with a gas mask dangling from his neck . But the part that will haunt me forever is that he chose to complete that outfit with shorts and sandals .
I have so many questions . Who could possibly think it ’ s acceptable to pair a weapon of war with open-toed footwear ? Is this guy too nonchalant about carrying a firearm or too aggressive about going to the beach ? In what situation could one possibly be in danger of getting shot or teargassed , but not be in danger of stubbing a toe ?
He was a flagrant one-man pastiche of all the most distasteful cliches of gun ownership : the pseudo-militaristic cosplaying , the cavalier weekend-warrior attitude , the oppositional-defiant politics and dick-swinging bravado . Those aspects of the culture are significant reasons why I had always been perfectly content not to exercise my constitutionally enshrined right to keep and bear arms . Until …. Well , there isn ’ t one moment or particular situation that caused me to reevaluate gun ownership , but I might trace it back to the start of the pandemic .
In times of great turmoil and change , gun sales spike . It ’ s particularly common around presidential elections . When Democrats are
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