America’s love affair with the gun

THE pro-gun lobby in the US is summed up for many by actor Charlton Heston brandishing a musket and declaring “If you want to take my gun away, you’ll have to take it from my cold, dead hands.”

The screen legend, now 82, has long stepped down as president of America’s National Rifle Association, the powerful pro-gun lobby, but the image still persists.

To many, this apparent love affair with the gun remains a mystery.

Dr Stephen Mills, senior lecturer in American studies at Keele University, said there was a widespread and deep-rooted opposition to guns in the US, which stretched “far beyond” groups such as the Quakers.

But he said this movement was faced by a “mess” of different gun laws from state to state, and the ingrained belief among the American population that the US constitution allowed the “right to bear arms”.

He added that there was a popular perception that the American Civil War and the Revolution were won with the gun and that only the civil rights movement of the 1960s had been seen as not relying on the gun.

Many parents took the view, in spite of the fatal shootings, that it was better to learn how to handle guns and protect yourself than to become a victim.

In many cases, he said, parents relied on the argument “guns do not kill people, people kill people”.

In some states, he said, learning how to handle guns and learning to shoot was part of the rite of passage for teenage boys, with the greatest number of casualties not from massacres but from tragic accidents.

He said in the US the expression “going postal” was coined following a spate of attacks where disgruntled postal employees shot bosses or colleagues.

He said there was an uphill struggle for those who wanted to see more draconian gun controls.

If they appeared on TV and radio stations they risked being mauled by “shock jocks” for their “liberal” views.

In the past they might have been called a “Commie” he said, but now they risked being labelled as no better than al-Qaida.

He said posts such as judges and prosecutors were open to frequent elections adding to a “nervousness” about expressing apparently unpopular views about gun control in case of suffering a backlash from voters.

“Most of this is a state matter and you don’t get elected by being opposed to the death penalty or in favour of gun control; that is political reality,” he said.

Of the Virginia massacre, he said he was doubtful that anything would be done.

“I doubt whether there will be anything done. A few people will check their gun cabinets to see whether they are locked. A few parents will lock up the guns they keep in their bedside drawers.

“I am waiting for somebody to stand up and say ‘if only these students had been armed, then they could be alive today’ — they may have learned enough about the press not to say that immediately, but somebody will stand up and say that pretty quickly.”