Reply #144: Thoughts on gun ownership, from this gun owner...

[benEzra]

I wrote the following in response to a similar question on another thread a few weeks ago, but it may be pertinent here as well:

Contrary to popular belief, shooting is Zen, not Rambo.

As I mentioned in one of those threads, for most gun owners, guns and skill with them are a well-practiced martial art, a tool of personal security, a symbol and tangible reminder of political and personal freedom, a Zen-like discipline, a fun hobby, and a locus of camaraderie that crosses political, social, and ethnic lines. It is not "all about killing," or about wanting to "blow somebody away on a moment's notice," any more than serious study of Isshinryu, Tae Kwan Do, Kenpo, or Kuk Sul Won is about killing people with your bare hands, or wanting to kick people's asses. Certainly, any martial art (including the study of the gun) gives you the ability to use potentially lethal force in the gravest extreme of self-defense, but it is about much more than that.

I hope you'll read the following with an open mind, even if you don't agree with it:

(benEzra)
my wife and I don't own guns out of fear, and I don't think many people do. As I have mentioned elsewhere on DU and on CGCS, the defensive utility is part of the picture for most people, certainly, but it's largely a competence thing, just like skill with any other martial art.

Here are some thoughts that I've posted before here on DU and CGCS, in no particular order.

Proficiency with firearms is a martial art just like isshinryu karate, tae kwan do, kenpo, or tai chi, and can gives a sense of accomplishment and competence just like any other human discipline. The Japanese concept of bushido applies just as much to the gun culture as to other martial arts cultures. I have some moderate experience in the Asian martial arts culture (isshinryu), and there are a lot of similarities between the gun culture and the traditional martial arts culture, and just as with empty-hand martial arts, proficiency in self-defense is a symbiotic benefit that is a worthwhile purpose in its own right.

Just as with the other martial arts, IMHO training and skill development are an end in itself, very much a Zen thing, if you will. To shoot well you must view shooting in a very Zen-like way; breath control, minimization of muscle tremors, concentration, sharp focus on the front sight, smoothness... A lot of the shooters I know also have a thing for archery, which is pretty much the same thing, and my wife did fencing for a while.

Some people pride themself on how well they can smack a small white ball with a stick on a golf course. Others pride themselves on how accurately they can shoot a firearm.

Also, I am a certifiable physics geek, and there are very few inexpensive hobbies that are more physics-intensive than rifle shooting. (Aviation is more physics-intensive, but it's not inexpensive...) Many shooters are mechanically inclined, and I'll bet the percentage of photographers and engineers among shooters is higher than in the population at large. My younger sister is a shooter and she also happens to be a professional engineer, with degrees in both engineering and mathematics.

Gun owners also tend to lean individualist rather than collectivist, and generally tend to have a high view of individual rights, though there are certainly exceptions. If you hang around most gunnies much, you'll find nearly as much disdain for free-speech restrictions and 4th-amendment violations as for the latest gun-grab attempt, and you'll find a lot of sympathy with the ACLU except for their dyslexic view of the Second Amendment. Note that individualist does NOT mean conservative; Big Brother communitarian conservatives are as antithetical to the individualist/libertarian mindset as any Big Brother communitarian liberals.

So I suppose it's also a freedom thing. The guns in my gun safe are a tangible reminder of political and personal freedom, a Zen-like discipline, a fun hobby, a tool of personal security, and a locus of camaraderie that crosses political, social, and ethnic lines.

(benEzra)
Here's the root of the disconnect, I think. A lot of prominent gun-control activists are people who have both been impacted by criminal violence, and have not been particularly exposed to the positive side of gun ownership. I think to some degree, they have come to see "guns" as the entity who victimized them, and see gun control as a way to lash out at that enemy. That victimization by people misusing guns also taints their view of gun owners, I think, that we must somehow be either ignorant, or evil, or some selfish mixture of the two, possibly with some sort of sexual deviancy thrown in (because some of those victimized see guns as sexualized power objects). As a for-instance, Sarah Brady's husband was shot by a nut with a .22 revolver; while I don't think that justifies her attempts to ban my rifles, it at least helps me understand it. I have gotten the impression in the past that billbuckhead had some connection with the 1999 Buckhead (Atlanta area) shootings, in which a day trader murdered his wife and two kids with a hammer and then killed nine people at a brokerage firm with a couple of handguns. And I think you said that you saw somebody murdered in front of you.

I'm on the other side of the coin. My great-grandparents were married in 1900, and one of the wedding presents was a nice his-and-hers set of defensive revolvers. My grandparents grew up owning handguns, rifles, and shotguns; so did my parents. My dad had a "save" with a semiautomatic pistol in the early 1970's, when I was around 5 years old (he didn't even have to draw it; the guys who approached him late one night in rural NC saw his holstered gun, looked at each other, and left).

Like most semi-rural thirtysomething people I know, I grew up with guns, learned the rules of gun safety and marksmanship while still in elementary school, wandered the woods with a BB gun by age 10 (not hunting, just plinking), was shooting .22's regularly at 16, had a semiautomatic .223 carbine and 30-round magazine at age 18 and a handgun at age 21, and obtained a carry license at 26 or 27. I shoot recreationally and competitively (IPSC pistol and carbine). My wife, from Maine, is a shooter who owns a Glock and an SKS. My sister (who graduated with degrees in mathematics and engineering from N.C. State) is an avid shooter. Most of my coworkers and friends are shooters. Pretty much everyone I know owns guns, and no one I know personally has ever been murdered, or participated in one. I'm 36 years old, I've never participated in so much as a fistfight outside of martial arts classes, and I would never even think about hurting an innocent person.

Most gun owners haven't experienced guns as a tool of oppression, but as a tool of liberation and a symbol of freedom and camaraderie; some (like my dad) have actually had "saves" with guns, but for most of us, guns and skill with them are a well-practiced martial art, a tool of personal security, a symbol and tangible reminder of political and personal freedom, a Zen-like discipline, a fun hobby, and a locus of camaraderie that crosses political, social, and ethnic lines.

It's not "any and all guns" that are involved in criminal mayhem; it's actually a tiny subset of guns, mostly illegally possessed handguns, in the hands of a violent few. And in fairness, it's not all gun-control activists that dream up creative deceptions to try to outlaw our most valued possessions, either. I think most of us on our respective sides are not as far apart as our legislative positions on the issue would appear to make us; I think we just have a huge knowledge and communication gap (on both sides).

As I've mentioned upthread, there IS common ground to be found. The bedrock of that common ground is, NOBODY wants to see criminals misusing any guns. People who hurt other people piss me off just as much as they piss you off. We all agree that bad guys shouldn't have them. The disagreement comes in when people on your side of the issue decide to slap sweeping restrictions (AWB, handgun bans, pre-1861 capacity limits) on everybody in order to affect the bad guys (so they hope), and we respond by opposing all new restrictions to avoid having wrongheaded restrictions slapped on the good guys. Hence the impasse.

The thing is, the misuse of guns gets a hell of a lot more publicity than their responsible use. Part of that, I think, is merely ignorance on the topic from the MSM, and part of it reflects active MSM bias on the topic. But responsible use is FAR more common than misuse, just as responsible car use is far more common than drunk driving. American shooters collectively fire several BILLION (yes, with a "b") rounds a year in target shooting and training, with a safety record better than that of golf.

And I'm not kidding about shooting being Zen. The best shooting advice I have ever received is "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast." The reason Hollywood shooting is always John Freaking Rambo is that J.F. Rambo doesn't have to actually hit what he's shooting blanks at; they'll produce the "hits" in the editing room.

I shoot competitively (IDPA/IPSC style, both pistol and rifle, against the clock, 12 to 18 rounds per stage). The winner of the most recent match I competed in was a guy in his 60's who looked like a college professor, bespectacled, with a short white beard and white hair. The key to shooting well is the same as it is in any other martial art, the ability to maintain a placid mental focus in a dynamic environment; it's a mental game, and adrenaline and testosterone are hindrances, not helps.

If you weren't so far away, I'd invite you to go shooting at the local range here. I think you'd find it much different than you probably imagine.