I used to be into guns but then one day realized what they meant — killing — so I got rid of them. I have never met a person good enough to have a gun. James Joyce in his great novel Ulysses has the hero Leopold Bloom think about phrases people use: “I’ll murder you. Is it only half fun?” he asks. I think it often IS only half in fun.
Bloom continues, “Or children playing battle. Whole earnest.” People give fake weapons, paintballs & fighting video games to their kids. The video games cram fighting down kids’ throats. Even TV ads are ultra-violent, people killing other people. Yet TV ads show very little sex. What about equal time? A kiss for every kick, a realistically simulated orgasm for every realistically simulated killing, a real orgasm for every real killing (& it’s appalling how many of those are shown)?
Then Bloom concludes his rap on guns by asking, “How can people aim guns at each other. Sometimes they go off.” Yes, indeed, they do go off, accidentally….or deliberately. I repeat, I’ve never met a person good enough to have a gun.