TPM had a post entitled “Tactical Reality” about the Connecticut mass murders that has had me thinking for the last couple of days. It refers to the subculture with these sort of “Red Dawn” fantasies where they will some day, soon likely, be called upon to heroically fight off the faceless terror with their weapons.
Apparently this subculture likes to use the adjective “tactical” a lot: “tactical” weapons, “tactical” scenarios, “tactical applications.” There is a tendency to deck out their weapons in “matte-black finish, laser site, flashlight mount, and other “tactical” accoutrements.”
The contributor, familiar with gun culture over recent decades, tells us that the prominence of this subculture in the overall gun culture is relatively new.
Most of the men and children (of both sexes) I met were interested in hunting, too. Almost exclusively, they used traditional hunting rifles: bolt-actions, mostly, but also a smattering of pump-action, lever-action, and (thanks primarily to Browning) semi-automatic hunting rifles. They talked about gun ownership primarily as a function of hunting; the idea of “self-defense,” while always an operative concern, never seemed to be of paramount importance. It was a factor in gun ownership – and for some sizeable minority of gun owners, it was of outsized (or of decisive) importance – but it wasn’t the factor.
They’ve constructed a reality for themselves in which the threat is imminent, and it seems as if their reality is bound to spill over into ours from time to time.
I agree there is some of this tactical mentality going around, but I think a lot more of these folks have semi-auto, magazine feed rifles not for some “Red Dawn” fantasy, but instead own them due to the fact we all know the government can’t protect our family during times of extreme duress. L.A. riots, Katrina looting, Benton Harbor riots, Sandy looting, etc.. Part of the problem is the emphasis on “stuff.” People want to be able to not only protect their loved ones, but also their stuff they have accumulated over time. So when people don’t evacuate a troubled area, they need the ability to defense themselves.
The government could do better by actually protecting us not only in times of serious need, but also by dealing with the constant catch and release criminal justice system where extremely dangerous people get caught, do a two out of five year sentence, go out and offend, repeat over and over.
It is likely time to try and limit semi-auto rifles, but other things will have to be done to prevent massacres, as there will still be thousands of those weapons still out there. Plus, this school shooter could have easily killed all the same people with two revolvers. We don’t train adults have to serious fight anymore. We don’t have any sort of mandatory military service, or at a minimum mandatory military training, so many folks lack the skills on how to truly deal with a dangerous individual. Even limiting gun rights to one revolver per person won’t keep us safe from mass shootings. It may reduce mass casualty events brought on by guns, but guns will get into this country illegally, and we should remember the Columbine killers and other sick people have used bombs in the past to injury and kill people. If we limit guns, do we limit access to metal pipe? Copper pipe? 20 pound propane tanks (We could only allow the possession of the one pound tanks)? What about those few cases where people have used a car to kill and/or main a large group of people?
“Tactical” underwear, “Tactical” boots, even “Tactical” pens and pencils… The marketing buzzword for the ‘teens. Gets pretty tiresome if you’re not a person who yells “WOLVERINES!” when you climax…
I prefer blue steel and a nice walnut stock with a hand-rubbed linseed oil finish….
The old adage ‘Boys love Toys’ is in my estimation the real reason for people wanting to own tactical weapons. I suspect they are fun to shoot and own and they look cool.
The main problem with society is when jobs and tax dollars are hard to come by social services take a huge hit at budget time. This causes a huge problem in society and takes away many of the safe guards that may have stopped some of these problems from taking place.
Then of course some people have a screw or two loose and nothing we do will change that. Now if only we could get up in arms about all the babies that are abused and killed yearly.
In 2005, an estimated 1,460 children died due to child abuse or neglect. More than 75 percent of children who were killed were younger than 4 years old. More than 40 percent of child fatalities were attributed to neglect. Physical abuse was also a major contributor to child fatalities
Sort of puts things into perspective.