Reflections on Gun Violance and Losing Face

In Japan losing face is major cause for social disgrace. Youth who lose face have been known to commit suicide and relatives whose behaviour reflects badly on the family have been murdered. North American Society is filled with symbols that serve to enhance male virility and macho.

On the lowest level are Apps that allow one to add friends and followers on social media sites lest we appear unpopular. Your spam filter probably catches scores of e-mail for male enhancement schemes. A little blue pill served to invent an imaginary syndrome of impotence the opposite of a teen's embarrassing boner. Camo has become wildly popular due to its association with macho Navy Seals. In my college years Army Surplus stores sold used clothing bullet holes and blood stains a bonus.

No phallic symbol matches the allure of a rifle, the more bullets it can shoot the better. In Peace River a rancher friend interrupted his dinner to pick up his rifle and shoot a coyote 3/4s of a mile distant because it threatened his herd. His was a sniper type single-shot rifle. In that context any dog that threatens your herd is fair game. Once again association with the military adds to the cachet of any weapon. Outside of the ranch setting and hunter/gatherer society guns serve no purpose beyond the status they infuse. Handguns serve only one purpose and one of the ten commandments apply.

I am diametrically opposed to anything that would make gun ownership in Canada easier to attain. I personally would not feel safer with a firearm in my home, in fact it would have the opposite effect. The urge to go out and kill something particularly when the only objective is a trophy seems a childish pursuit. Passing legislation will not be as effective as attempts to change attitudes. We need to teach males to define their self-worth in more fulfilling ways than in their ability to go out and kill something. The ethos attached to weapons in America to our south spills over into Canada through the culture attached to it in movies, ads, and social media. The absolute right to defend you castle and stand your ground should not be grounds to commit murder. Try that in Canada and you will be charged with the use of excessive force.

Americans learn with shock that they can't bring their guns into Canada. Deprived of that fire-power many feel anxiety. It is this false sense of security that gun ownership seems to enhance that needs to be fought. 

Just burning sawdust but does mixed martial arts and bodybuilding in its extreme forms fueled by steroids fall into a similar category?