dear mr president ... what's the go with guns?

It's Sunday, so it's confession time. I’ve never fired a gun. 

Not a real life, shiny metal one anyway. I’ve never looked down the barrel at a target or a silhouette of a person, or even an empty coke can, and slowly squeezed the trigger. I was on holiday a few years back and some of my male mates whizzed off to a shooting range on hired mopeds. I wasn’t interested. The sun was shining. The bar was open. And I had no burning desire to fire a Kalashnikov. 

I flicked on the TV a while back and caught a bit of one of the Republican Primary debates. (Trust me, catching 'a bit' of a republican primary debate is really catching too much of a republican primary debate). The debate had degenerated into which of the candidates - the ‘Mr President wannabes’ - did the most hunting, and when they had all last been hunting. When they had last fired a gun at an animal in the woods. Seriously, that was actually what they were arguing about! On the ‘suitable to be President' scale ... care factor? Well-below zero. Surely.

I was recently in Hawaii with Picky and Pearl (are you 'in' Hawaii or 'on' Hawaii? I have no idea). It’s easy to forget with Hawaii but, whether you’re in it or on it, you are in fact in the good ol’ US of A. It doesn’t feel like it. I’m not sure what ‘feeling like it’ means when it comes to being in or on other countries, but Hawaii feels much more like a tropical Pacific Island than the 50th State of the Union. 

Well, it’s both I guess, but you get my drift. It doesn’t feel American. Not that there’s anything at all wrong with ‘feeling American’. I love the States and the vast majority of Americans I’ve met in my life have been totally sane, normal and rational people. I recently had a couple of American ladies work on an event for me and they were super. So, I have no issue at all with America, or with Americans.

But, I really do have to ask ... what’s the go with guns over there? Over the USA? 

Guns are everywhere. Not real guns. Well, they might be everywhere too, but if they are I didn’t see too many on the streets of Hawaii. I'm sure they are everywhere on the streets of New York, LA, Detroit etc. In Hawaii it’s ads for guns that are everywhere. Guns and gun clubs. Not only that, the ads are aimed at kids (kids!!) and at families (families!!). Kids that look about 7 or 8 (see the real live ad above) are used to entice you, and your loved ones, to the local gun club. The kids are kitted out in shooting gear, with headphones, protective glasses and...of course...a nice, big, shiny gun. 


The smaller the kid, the bigger the gun, the better the ad! 

Someone told me that it's a Glock she's holding in the ad. I have no idea. I wouldn't know a Glock if one was shoved in my face. Unless of course it happened to have 'Glock' written on it when it was shoved in my face. But I'd have fainted before I noticed the brand of gun that was aimed at me noggin'. Whatever the brand of gun that the sweet little girl is holding in the ad above, the whole thing scares the living daylights out of me. And whilst we're on the ad ... I assume that the 'live fire' line is supposed to attract me to the gun club. Yeah right. There's a bunch of kids with not-yet-developed brains lined up firing real bullets around the place? Woo-pee-do. Where do I sign up?? Grab me a membership form and and a pen. I'm in. 


It's scary.

But if you want really scary there’s always ... Walmart. 


We had a look around one on Hawaii. I was after a running watch. No luck I'm afraid. But guns ... take ya pick. And ammo? Load yourself up. Arm yourself to the teeth. Seriously. No watches to let me time a gentle trot around the local neighbourhood, but if I wanted to shoot that neighbourhood up ... I could go right ahead, fill me boots. It couldn't be easier. If you want a gun and a pocket full of bullets look no further than your friendly, local Walmart. They're all just over there, past the chocolates, turn right at the cuddly toys, toddle passed the tents and you'll see them all shiny and enticing on the back wall. Guns. Lots and lots of guns. A gun for every occasion. (Disclaimer - I'm sure Walmart do ask for ID and a gas bill with your name and address on it before unlocking the gun cabinet and letting you go nuts. At least I hope they do!).

Look, i’m not a social scientist. I don’t even know if you can actually ‘be’ something called a social scientist. I get the impression that social scientists just teach social science to kids who want to be social scientists so that they can teach social science. But surely someone, somewhere has connected all this gun stuff with all the gun-related bad news we see nightly on TV. It seems so obvious. Does a kid of 7 or 8 really need to know how to fire a Glock? Do families really need to pop along to the Royal Hawaiian Shooting Club on a Sunday arvo to let off a few rounds? Family fun, with a gun! Come on. As a great American with a different kind of weapon in his hand, used to say, 'You cannot be serious!'

I know, I know. There’s the Constitution and the the Founding Fathers said that the right to bare arms was a fundamental human right, and so they wrote it down and called it the 2nd Amendment. But surely that was then, and surely this is now. 2012. It's not the Wild West! Wouldn't it be far better if everyone just put down their guns, Walmart stopped selling them and kids stopped advertising them?

Our little Pearl is a little girl. This quirk of reproductive fate will probably mean that guns won’t be too much of an issue as she’s growing up. She’s 20-months old now and she’s definitely not pretending that her fingers, the newspaper, or any other inanimate object is a gun. She's too busy pretending everything is a baby. Thankfully. 


I hear that boys like to do 'the gun thing' from a very early age. I've seen boys playing at soldiers and guns and I can't help but think that it's a bit sad in some ways. Of course, in the vast, vast majority of cases it's totally harmless. It's just playing. It has no baring on anything at all. I know that. But still. I kinda think it's a wee bit sad that 'play' needs to involve things that in non-play situations are violent. Maybe I'm just being over-sensitive. Maybe I just need to toughen up. Maybe that's just 'how it is' with boys. Girls have their Barbies and My Little Ponies and boys have their plastic rifles and replica Glocks. And then some of them grow up and want a real one. Just like a girl might want a pony that's not pink when she's older. Maybe that's just 'life'!

What’s your view? Is it really just boys with their toys (their toy guns) ? 

Is it an issue, or am I just shooting from the hip here? Shoot me your view on guns & kids, & kids & guns.

pip pip


(The photo is from google images but it was an ad shown freely all over Honolulu in Dec 2011)