In an LA Times Op-Ed titled, “Why Men Feel The Need To Carry Guns”, the Author dives into what she believes is the reason why men feel the need to carry guns (She Pontificates profusely, profusely she pontificates).
However, all I read was, “Men carry guns because they’re over compensating for something”. The author merely used soft words and covered her overused ad hominem in pity masked in sympathy. In a recent article I wrote titled, “Only Laughing On the Outside” I explain how,
I’ve always found it hard to say that carrying a gun makes me comfortable in knowing I won’t be completely helpless if I were to ever be attacked. When you say things like this to people who don’t carry a gun, or simply don’t like them, they, without fail, go straight to the assumption that I must be overcompensating for a lack of girth and length in the reproductive parts of my anatomy.
It was a clever job from by author, but I hardly think Michigan represents the majority of men in America and it’s really not that complicated or thought provoking. “People” carry guns for protection. End Story.
Gun-carry culture is actually a relatively recent phenomenon. Many cite Florida’s 1987 “shall-issue” law as the turning point. Now states as diverse as Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon and Pennsylvania have laws on the books that make it relatively easy for residents with clean criminal records to obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon.
I set out to Michigan — an unlikely pro-gun state given its reputation as a politically liberal place — to interview gun carriers. I spent time on shooting ranges, at “open carry” picnics, at activist events and firearm instructional seminars.
Carrying a gun has become normalized in Michigan; it’s a way of life for hundreds of thousands of residents, partly conditioned by the idea that crime could happen anytime, anyplace.
