In all of my conversations with men who own guns for “self-defense” (the vast majority of them being white men, btw) every single one of them comes out at some point trying to save face (presumably not wanting to sound like a complete monster) by saying something like, “I’d never want to kill anyone, it’s a last resort….”

So, I take them at their word; they’re like me in this sense because killing humans to solve problems is a solution I have personally taken off the table. So I feel comfortable assuming that most morally upstanding citizens would never want to kill anyone, not even a “bad guy,” necessarily (If someone thinks there are actually one-dimensional “bad guys” out there, like Skeletor from He-Man or something, well then that’s another conversation…). My theory, then (as I’ve written before), is that if there exists someone who owns a gun for “self-defense” purposes and this person does not use non-lethal ammunition and/or refuses to even consider other less deadly or non-lethal forms of self-protection, and actually attempts to argue that they need the “stopping power” of lethal ammunition, I think we are legitimately able to (and compelled to) question their vindictive, vengeful spirit at that point. And further, we might do well to view THEM as the actual dangerous person whom we should all be fearful of and concerned about. (And for clarity’s sake, I’m generally talking about insecure, white, Euro-American men here who live in constant fear of the other and are “prepping” for the inevitable home invasion; so yeah, white guys should disarm…)

Bottom line: owning a gun with lethal ammunition for last resort “self-defense” purposes is like having a crack pipe with rocks in the house to be used as a last resort party activity; best not to have the crack pipe and crack in the house AT ALL unless you’re a) ok with being thought of as a crack-head and b) down to do some hardcore partying, baby!

Tags:Crackdrugsfeargunsmass shootingstoxic masculinity