"Guns have long been an integral part of our national mythology."
 | By Ezekiel Kweku Politics Editor, Opinion |
One of the main barriers to substantive expansion of gun regulation, both at the federal and local levels, is the strength and durability of American gun culture. Francisco Cantú, a former Border Patrol agent, grew up immersed in this world, and writes in a guest essay for Times Opinion that it's built on "our most durable myth, the exceptionalist notion that a man with a gun is a force powerful enough to defend against any danger."
In Cantú's view, this mythology is "woven deep into our most sacred lore about the winning of our independence, about manifest destiny and territorial expansion, about the defense of democracy and the spread of our empire across the globe," a narrative familiar from film and TV Westerns. It is also enacted by coming-of-age rituals in which many boys are given guns as part of the process of becoming men. The upshot of this is not just that guns have become entwined with our culture but also that they have been "metabolized into law."
The implications of Cantú's argument are broad. The difficulty of passing gun control legislation — even in the wake of tragedies like the recent mass shooting in Highland Park, Ill. — isn't just about powerful lobbies or reluctant politicians, it's about a fundamental question of American identity. Not only can a "good guy with a gun" fail to stop shootings, but the idea that he could succeed might be a reason these massacres keep happening. |
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