How fetishization of the gun shuts down rational debate about gun control

[SecularMotion]

When U.S. President Barack Obama recently wept while talking about the senseless deaths of young children as a result of gun violence, some commentators accused him of faking his tears by using onions or muscle creams. What is it about a certain sector of gun culture, both in the U.S. and Canada, that seems to invite only hysteria and hyperbole.

Somerset is a former reservist and an avid hunter and gun enthusiast who has published a book called Arms: the Culture and Credo of the Gun. Yet he says he can't understand what he sees as a wilful irrationality in gun culture.

"I like guns. That's a difficult admission, as if confessing to some kind of perversion, though it ought not to be," he writes in his book "People like all kinds of things: cars, sailboats, acoustic guitars. Nobody has to justify liking these things, as I am continually asked to justify liking guns.

"My reason is simple: shooting is fun. But people are likely to think you're weird for liking guns, which is why it's a difficult admission. In their eyes, you become one of those gun nuts. And although I like guns, I do not like gun nuts."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/gun-control-ideas-1.3396357