Stupid fucking machismo

  Hi, I'm BearLeft and I'm a gun person who is completely and totally ashamed by popular gun culture.

  It's all based on this hyper-masculine image of the independent self, a go-it-alone badass motherfucker who don't need no one else to know that he's a MAN'S MAN, BABY. No homo.

  There are a few major divisions within this ALL MAN ALL THE TIME world - there's the TACTICOOL ARMY MANS who swagger around like Real Twue Operators with their tricked out AR platforms in combat carries and so many pouches that Rob Liefeld rolls his eyes. The TACTICOOL ARMY MAN is gonna make sure that no damn dirty muzzies inflict their commie Sharia law on Real White Americans Who Are White Like Jesus.

See the pouches? The man has some kind of weird fetish

  Then there's SHEEPDOG IN SHEEP CLOTHING, carrying a gun all the time because YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN THE BROWN PEOPLE WILL GET ROWDY AND YOU WILL HAVE TO PROTECT TEH WOMANS. The SHEEPDOG runs quickdraw drills and reminds me of Tackleberry from the Police Academy movies. Elaborate threat/response scenarios are planned out with the care and dedication usually reserved for sexual fantasies.

Seriously, that face should never be made outside the bedroom. And maybe not inside it.

Our culture at large is filled with rugged gunslinging heroes and anti-heroes, so it's not terribly surprising that some of the tropes would be brightly represented. John Wayne, Charles Bronson, and Clint Eastwood from the rise of the anti-hero. Willis, Stallone and Schwarzenegger for my own generation. A man who needs nothing but his wits, his gun, and  a pithy catchphrase. Bad guys all fall before his righteous fury. It's an attractive image, really. We all want to be The Good Guy, the unquestionable White Hat (even if the halo's tarnished, to mix my metaphors).

There are a lot of gun folk who don't subscribe to these stereotypes (yours truly included most of the time), but it's almost impossible to see them because of how... attention-seeking ARMY MANS and SHEEPDOG and their loudmouth, pushy buddies are. Guns are in, gays are out. Chicks need to be hot and naked, tofu is nothing more than a litmus test for finding who's not allowed in the club.

I was doing some link surfing and ran across an article by a somewhat prominent hunting blogger about the rising interest in hunting that's directly related to foodie/locavore/organic lifestyles (I talekd about this topic myself in one of my first posts here). I was excited to read it because it was from the perspective of someone "inside" hunting culture whereas the article I used as a starting point for my post was written from an outsider perspective.

I couldn't finish it. I just couldn't do it. The dripping contempt that this writer had for hipsters, leftists, and intellectuals was thinly veiled and more insulting for it. I'm sure that the author was trying to be enthusiastic for the people who were discovering hunting, but his overall attitude was something that makes me want to avoid anything that he and his company every do. I shudder to think about how his attitude affects people who are on the outside but curious about the inside. I especially hate cretinous right-wingers who use coded phrases and snark and think they're being SO CLEVAR THAT NO DUMB LEFTIST WILL EVAR FIGURE IT OUT BECAUSE DUMBOCRATS ARE DUMB.

There's a certain level of "you must be this tall to ride this ride" posturing that comes across in a lot of gun culture - you gotta sack up, sacrifice, man up. Be strong. I think that's a bullshit attitude.

As a culture, gun people are not going to sway many with such oppositional tactics, and in a lot of cases will harden potential allies against firearms and shooting sports. Especially with an activity like hunting (which contains a number of visceral actions, textures, and fluids), mocking people for their inexperience is fucking stupid and counterproductive.

Why in the name of Bob would anyone who doesn't look like they got hit by the Cabela's Camo Sportswear truck want to associate with an entire culture with gatekeepers who are complete and total assbags? There's a delicious Skittles rainbow of people interested in guns that don't get to see positive portrayals of themselves in shooting culture. These people are often met with hostile resistance or disdain when they attempt to participate.

As a quick mental exercise, conjure up in your mind the archetypical "gun enthusiast." What does your gun enthusiast look like?

I'd bet a dollar (Monopoly money!) that your mental picture is a chubby white guy wearing at least one piece of militaryesque clothing. If he speaks, his voice probably draws out vowels and softens glottal stops. What does it take to envision a Black person, or a woman. Asian? Queer? Is there a sense of cognitive dissonance that accompanies those thoughts?

In my mind, we need to be more supportive, more encouraging, and drop the friggin' lameass faux hero bullshit. If you want to cosplay Delta Force on your day off, that's A-OK by me; please for the love of all that is holy, don't be a dick about it. If you carry concealed, I hope that it's because you feel a legitimate need or calling to do so and not because it makes you feel powerful and enables weird rescuer fantasies.

Hi. I'm BearLeft. I'm a lefty, I'm a humanitarian, I'm a hunter and I think it'd be awesome if you wanted to join me on a range day.