Tuesday 12 August 2014

gun culture

What sort of 'gun culture' do you have in your country?
How Switzerland Developed a Gun Culture That Works | TIME.com
Guns in France — Firearms, gun law and gun control
Hunting in Russia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Can you use a gun?

If you are going to use a gun, you should know how to use it:
How to Shoot a Handgun: 19 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow
How to Fire a Handgun Safely and Correctly | The Art of Manliness



How to shoot a pistol (1/2) - YouTube

Where's the best place to buy a gun in the States?
Best Machine Gun Range -The Gun Store Las Vegas

A programme on Channel Four last week:

Kids and Guns

Kids and Guns
The controversial right to bear arms is at the heart of American culture.
In the USA there is a huge divide among parents. Some are against the sale of toy guns while others are buying the children the real thing.
This documentary sheds light on the world of child shooters, illuminating the fascinating beliefs, ambitions and paranoia that underpin it.
Teaching kids to shoot is seen as a fun family experience and yet over 3000 children are injured or killed every year in accidental shootings.
This unique and moving film follows the stories of three American families tackling the difficult issues behind the American relationship with firearms and the compelling stories behind the horrifying statistics.
Kids and Guns - Series 1 - Episode 1 - Kids and Guns - Channel 4
Kids and Guns - Channel 4

This is a review from the Guardian:

Kids and Guns review – a terrifying look at the heart of American culture

Francine Shaw's documentary targets the relationship children and families in the US have with firearms, highlighting the appalling reality that these lethal weapons are treated like toys
Kids and guns on Channel 4
The alarming reality of kids and guns in the US. Photograph: Channel 4
Firearms companies in America are marketing guns – real guns – at children:pink for girls, blue for boys. Incredible, isn't it, in the 21st century? Gender stereotyping like that is so tired and out of date. Let the kids decide what colour guns they want.
You could say that isn't the main controversy in Kids and Guns (Channel 4), though. Little Kaylin in Kentucky has been given a .22 rifle for her fourth birthday by her dad JD, who lost his legs and an arm to an IED while serving in Afghanistan. You might have thought that would put him off weaponry. Not one bit; it made him realise his purpose, what he's supposed to do, and that's to teach his little girl everything he knows about guns and hunting.
Kaylin seems more interested in the bubble wrap around the gun than in her new weapon, but JD's going to make her fire that gun if it's the last thing he does. "What kind of animal are you going to shoot?" he asks her. "I'm not going to shoot any animal. I'm just going to shoot that target," she says. (I suspect she may feel differently to him about wildlife; later she refers to an unfortunate creature he's just gunned down out of its tree as "Mr Squirrel".)












































Kids and Guns review – a terrifying look at the heart of American culture | Television & radio | The Guardian
Armed to the milk teeth: America's gun-toting kids | Art and design | The Guardian

The Telegraph was not impressed with the programme:
Kids and Guns, Channel 4, review: 'a freak show' - Telegraph

... but the Independent was:
Kids and Gun, Channel 4 - TV review: An impressively even-handed look at America's young guns - Reviews - TV & Radio - The Independent

Here is the satirist Charlie Brooker last year on the subject:



A British Viewpoint on American Gun Control - YouTube

But whilst the British might view American 'gun culture' with scorn or even horror, perhaps a further look into its history might make the reactions more nuanced:
Jay Doubleyou: gun and violence issues

In fact, the first 'gun-control' laws were largely directed against America's black, or former slave, population:




OBAMA CARTOONS: Are "Gun Control" Laws Racist?
The Racist Roots of Gun Control



"BANNING GUNS FOR NEGROES!" Pt 1 THE RACIST ROOTS OF GUN CONTROL! - YouTube

And in 1967 during the Civil Rights movement in the States, the Govenor of California, Ronald Reagan, signed a law specifically designed to stop the militant Black Panthers from carrying arms:



Fear of a Black Gun Owner - The NRA Supported Gun Control When The Black Panthers Started Packing

By: Edward Wyckoff Williams 

(The Root) -- It may seem hard to believe, but the modern-day gun-rights debate was born from the civil rights era and inspired by the Black Panthers. Equally surprising is that the National Rifle Association -- now an aggressive lobbying arm for gun manufacturers -- actually once supported, and helped write, federal gun-control laws. 

It is ironic that the modern-day argument for citizens to arm themselves against unwarranted government oppression -- dominated, as it is, by angry white men -- has its roots in the foundation of the 1960s Black Panther movement. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale became inspired by Malcolm X's admonishment that because government was "either unable or unwilling to protect the lives and property" of African Americans, they ought to defend themselves "by any means necessary." 

The Panthers responded to racial violence by patrolling black neighborhoods brandishing guns -- in an effort to police the police. The fear of black people with firearms sent shockwaves across white communities, and conservative lawmakers immediately responded with gun-control legislation. 

Then Gov. Ronald Reagan, now lauded as the patron saint of modern conservatism, told reporters in California that he saw "no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons." Reagan claimed that the Mulford Act, as it became known, "would work no hardship on the honest citizen." The NRA actually helped craft similar legislation in states across the country. Fast-forward to 2013, and it is a white-male dominated NRA, largely made up of Southern conservatives and gun owners from the Midwest and Southwestern states, that argues "do not tread on me" in the gun debate.
 

Fear of a Black Gun Owner - The NRA Supported Gun Control When The Black Panthers Started Packing - Democratic Underground



The Mulford Act | Yvonna Russell
Mulford Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A very serious article from The Atlantic magazine:

The Secret History of Guns

The Ku Klux Klan, Ronald Reagan, and, for most of its history, the NRA all worked to control guns. The Founding Fathers? They required gun ownership—and regulated it. And no group has more fiercely advocated the right to bear loaded weapons in public than the Black Panthers—the true pioneers of the modern pro-gun movement. In the battle over gun rights in America, both sides have distorted history and the law, and there’s no resolution in sight.
The Secret History of Guns - Adam Winkler - The Atlantic
.
.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

It took me 3 months to become expert in gun shooting. However, there were several other aspects which were necessary to learn. Those aspects are the ones which only an NRA certified firearms training center can teach.

Regards,
Jacky
MA Firearms School