culture - noun - the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation or people. (Google)
Second Amendment: "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
I don't like guns. Never did, never will. The reason why is binary: 1. I am a textbook pacifist and 2. Before I was so committed to peace and love, I used to accompany my gun-admiring ex-husband to the local shooting gallery for kicks. While there, I was pressured into trying my hand at shooting just about every kind of gun you can imagine even James Bond's Walther PPK and Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum, which by the way, sent me flying against the back wall of the range. Ouch! Ergo, I know the unmitigated power of these mini canons, and it still frightens me forty years later.
On the other hand, I didn't grow up in a community that had its own erroneous interpretation of the second amendment. Most in my town didn't own or operate guns. My father didn't. None of his relations did. In New Jersey, one of the original thirteen colonies (in case you've forgotten), our ancestors who fought in the Revolution (I have a distant grandfather and four other relations who did) could define "militia"as they fought in one and understood that it was necessary "to keep and bear arms" to secure the newly freed nation from the tyranny of successive monarchs. Let's not forget that back in the late 1700s, the military as we know it did not exist. Since it was no longer relevant after about a hundred years, the amendment should have been removed from the Constitution. As we know, it wasn't, and fans and/or members of the NRA continue to misconstrue its meaning today by possessing guns for sport or protection: "It is my Second Amendment right to own an arsenal!" Hmm. Is it? But I have a feeling that not as many want to or feel the need to own firearms in New Jersey as, let's say, in Oklahoma.
Let's face it. This country was built on guns. Viva the Revolution! A bit later on, the newly "civilized" West was definitely built on guns, hence the moniker, "Wild West." After moving from the East to the West last year, I have managed to befriend individuals who spent their childhoods immersed in the Western gun culture. According to one close friend, at one time, just about everyone had a gun in California. Free-spirited, male teens in search of notoriety enjoyed getting together with their peers, driving out to the desert to erect makeshift shooting galleries where they could experience "gun happiness" for hours sans parental supervision. It was easy because fifty years ago, firearms were not as regulated as they are at present. Even if they were, police were/are scarce in the desert. Gun shops were abundant, drifting like tumbleweeds from neighborhood to neighborhood, going in and out of business until the onset of reported school violence at which time they vanished like concrete-block mirages on the horizon.
However, those same boys who are now in their sixties and seventies have preserved their arms by closeting them in locked safes somewhere in their homes. They still take them out to admire their design, polish them up, or shoot them whenever or wherever they can albeit legally. Hence, the love affair with controlled (?) explosives continues. Sadly, I guess human beings will never get beyond a handy lust for loud authoritativeness.
Just sayin'.
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