GUN TALK THE WRONG WAY … AGAIN

image via askaprepper.com

Raw Story posted a gun column about white men and guns. It was the sort of gun talk white men with guns shouldn’t identify with.

“White men stockpile guns because they’re scared of black people and feel inadequate, science says.”

That’s the rawstory title. It’s raw, but even more, it’s lazy, but a site called lazystory.com probably isn’t a draw. And not original. Where is the insight?

For example:

“White men aren’t just the Americans most likely to own guns,” it says, “they’re also the people most likely to put them in their own mouths and pull the trigger, especially when they’re in some kind of economic distress.”

In fact, white men are three times more likely to commit suicide with a gun than black men.

The solution is not to mock these men, says Angela Stroud, author of Good Guys with Guns.

“Ridicule of working-class white people is not helpful,” she tells Scientific American.

It’s been scientifically proven, even if Scientific American is late to the game, that ridiculing working class white people is a health issue, gun or no gun.

Call if fair warning, but they don’t like it enough to take a swing, both literally and metaphorically, which ever one lands first. Get them too upset and they’ll take themselves out. Stop giving people new ideas.

Rawstory translated the Scientific American title and the Angela Stroud quote for their audience.

“Why Are White Men Stockpiling Guns?” turned into, “White men stockpile guns because they’re scared of black people and feel inadequate, science says.”

The Stroud quote was much more helpful:

“Ridicule of working-class white people is not helpful,” says Angela Stroud. “We need to push the ‘good guys’ to have a deeper connection to other people. We need to reimagine who we are in relation to each other.”

And reimagine what civil discourse sounds like and feels like, instead of hot button pushing traffic hogs.

Guns are a personal thing, the feel, the size, the grip. So is gun talk. One train of thought in the gun owner community is answering the question of, “can I see your gun?” with, “You don’t qualify. The only people who’ve seen it haven’t seen anything since. So, no.”

“We found that white men who have experienced economic setbacks or worry about their economic futures are the group of owners most attached to their guns,” one of the Baylor sociologists said. “Those with high attachment felt that having a gun made them a better and more respected member of their communities.”

Calling white men attached to their guns as a way to gain status in the community sounds too wild west, even if it’s true. Check on the Baylor address. Still Texas? Then it’s Texas style respect.

According to science, the average gun owner is a white man without much education who is worried about providing for his family and who is afraid of black people.

“These are men who are anxious about their ability to protect their families, insecure about their place in the job market, and beset by racial fears,” Scientific American writes. “They tend to be less educated. For the most part, they don’t appear to be religious—and, suggests one study, faith seems to reduce their attachment to guns. In fact, stockpiling guns seems to be a symptom of a much deeper crisis in meaning and purpose in their lives.”

“The gun is a ubiquitous symbol of power and independence,” the sociologist said. “Guns, therefore, provide a way to regain their masculinity, which they perceive has been eroded by increasing economic impotency.”

Race and gender baiting aside, my gun talk research shows different results for white men who hoard guns, er, stockpile weapons. The arsenal I uncovered came with enough ammo to melt every barrel from the AR-15, the revolver action shotgun, hunting rifles of all types, and a big bag of handguns.

Not far away I found a library of tactical measures to take when attacked in a car, a house, cornered in  a room, and a little further away saw a nice array of vests and helmets and knives. All in all quite a collection of offensive and defensive gear. Did I mention the food stores and wine collection?

The picture I got showed a doomsday prepper, not an over anxious white man, though I understand the similarities. One is ready for the complete breakdown of social structure, the other for a partial breakdown.

The feeling I was left with is it won’t matter who shows up at the door, by then everyone is the wrong person.

In spite of Raw Story’s pick and poach quotes from the Scientific American article, a better gun talk angle on why white men stockpile is “Why Do White Male Hoarders Stockpile Guns.”

They’d stockpile everything if they could.