« Shabbat Shalom | Main | Hey Ma... what's for dinner? »
July 01, 2007
Gay Rights
Includes the right to self defense.
The Way Of The Gun
A Gay Liberal Explores Ohio Gun Culture By Taking Matters - And Weapons - Into His Own Hands
By Brian Thornton
In a nondescript business complex off Interstate 77 in Broadview Heights, across the street from Radio Disney and a block away from a daycare, I've got my hands wrapped around a piece, finger on the trigger. When I awoke this morning, my irrational anxieties led me to dress as heterosexually as possible. After all, what do you wear to your first time at the range? I've chosen jeans, an orange ringer T and a green zip-up sweatshirt, a combination seemingly straight enough to pull off this charade.
To my right, in the next stall, a weapon fires powerfully, a sound that pierces through both my headphones and earplugs. I have no idea if the comically small revolver I'm gripping will create the same blast, but I'm about to find out. With my feet spread wide and arms rigidly stretched forward, I — a show tune-loving, Democrat-voting homosexual — am mere seconds from pulling the trigger on this instrument of death, something I vowed I would never do.
Its all part of a lesson most of us learned in the schoolyard, when you are tired of being a victim, you learn to fight back, to protect yourself. As a Jewish girl growing up in Brooklyn, that was a lesson I learned early and never, ever forgot.
I'm an adult now, and I face greater dangers than the gangs of Italian girls, or Puerto Rican girls, or Black girls, or Christian girls, all of whom had one thing in common, they thought it was great fun to beat up on the Jewish girl. Back then, the danger I faced was a black eye or a bloody nose, or a fat lip, and I both had my share, and gave my share. Today, I face... other dangers. Back then, I was ready to fight for my dignity, today, I'm ready to fight for my life. I refuse to be a victim. That's why I'm armed.
IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT, and I'm driving downtown toward Cleveland to meet friends for drinks. I send a text message to one to find out where he is. His boyfriend responds: "Dan and I were attacked. I'm at Lutheran. I'm OK. Just getting checked out."
Through text messages and phone calls, I learn that my friends were attacked by a group of teenagers as they tried to get into their car. Eddie has pains in his ribs and a scrape on his leg. Dan is just shaken up. Eddie's wallet is gone.
As I drive, I am suddenly overcome with a mix of anger, fear and frustration — emotions that again make me reevaluate my position. More friends affected by crime, and no way to protect ourselves.
But there is a way we could protect ourselves, something Jim helped me learn just weeks before: We could all start carrying guns.
It seems irrational, but fear is irrational. And I begin to understand how that fear could drive people to arm themselves. I'm not on either "side" like Toby Hoover or Jim Irvine. I, like so many Ohioans, fall somewhere in the middle. Guns still feel like the ultimate solution, something I'm not ready to embrace yet.
But if the police won't or can't protect me and my friends, taking matters into my own hands doesn't seem irrational anymore.
Read the rest, and pass it along.
Posted by LindaSoG at July 1, 2007 09:16 AM
Comments
Three choices in life:
Predator
Prey
Armed citizen
Posted by: Kevin M at July 1, 2007 11:17 AM
Or alternately:
Wolf
Sheep
Sheepdog
The problem is, the fangs on both the wolves and the sheepdogs frighten the sheep, and they for some reason think that defanging the sheepdogs will also defang the wolves. It's a matter of being unable to tell the difference between "violent and predatory" and "violent but protective." They've been told their entire lives that violence is bad.
Posted by: Kevin Baker at July 1, 2007 12:31 PM
Strange, but, reading these two posts, by two Kevins (wow-what are the odds) I have to acknowledge that when I consider myself, and only myself, I want to think... Armed Citizen and not Sheepdog.
Perhaps its because I don't believe I have what it takes, I don't consider myself capable of being a sheepdog. Or maybe I don't want to acknowledge that I do have what it takes, that I have the violent tendencies of a sheepdog.
Being a sheepdog is not very lady like, is it?
But I have been violent, to protect myself, and to protect others. And I wasn't thinking about being lady like at the time.
I guess my denial is for the same reasons mentioned by Kevin Baker, the ingrained idea that violence is bad. I don't want to think of myself as a violent person.
I have never had to shoot anyone, and I don't want to shoot anyone. But I will, to save my life, or to save someone else's life.
Whatever that makes me, that's what I am.
Posted by: LindaSoG at July 1, 2007 04:26 PM
It really is a matter of personal philosophy, and it's an interesting thing to study how shifting culture has modified personal philosophy over time. Unfortunately, Western culture has detached itself from reality to a large extent, resulting in the cognitive dissonance you describe - the visceral understanding that violence is sometimes necessary, but the refusal to acknowledge the fact consciously. There are a lot of people out there who have not come anywhere near as far as you have, or as far as Brian Thornton has.
If you're interested in reading further on the topic, I invite you to read this.
Posted by: Kevin Baker at July 1, 2007 04:58 PM
Thank you Kevin, that was a good read. I followed along to Grim's, the other link, sadly, was dead.
I guess I learned a little something about myself today, or maybe I just accepted a little something about myself today.
Either way, it doesn't feel bad at all, in fact, I feel good about it.
Thank you.
Posted by: LindaSoG at July 1, 2007 05:31 PM
Thank you for the link, and the comments. Hell in a Handbasket is still an active site, but he had some serious server issues about a year ago and his archives are gone. Hopefully you read the rest of the links, too. At any rate, thanks for visiting.
Posted by: Kevin Baker at July 1, 2007 11:29 PM
You're welcome Kevin, and thank you for coming by and commenting. I was very glad to find your site.
Posted by: LindaSoG at July 2, 2007 06:32 AM