Annie's Got Her Gun

A well regulated Militia,

being necessary to the security of a free State,

the right of the

people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed

 Sporty Hunting Ensembles

The very clear statement of the 2nd Amendment, ratified December 15, 1791, was that Americans needed a well regulated militia to protect themselves and control their newly conquered environment from the indigenous people. Nowhere in this Amendment is "handgun" or "assault weapon" mentioned. These former colonists used their "arms" to hunt game, the primary role for one's musket. Today, those "militias" are known as the National Guard.

So, how did a militia to protect the citizens from armed combatants (not the U.S. government) become an armed individual who is paranoid that the U.S. government is going to take away their "2nd Amendment Rights"? Or a self-described "militia" who has decided they can take over public (aka OUR) land? A "right" that makes it easier to buy a gun than to get on an airplane.

How did America go from this....

18th c. Militia 

to this...

Shopping for an assault weapon

Assault Weapons at a Gun Show

and this...

Sandy Hook

Answers to these questions require a much longer and more intense explanation than this blog can provide, and they are better left to a dissertation, a newspaper op-ed, or Guns in America 101. So, this post is about how guns have been glamorized in the media and in film.

Our first shootin' media star was Annie Oakley, who could split a playing card, edge-on, and put several more holes in it before it could touch the ground, while using a .22 caliber rifle, at 90 feet (27 m). Annie traveled with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and became an international sensation.

Annie Oakley aka Phoebe Ann Mosey

Celebrity marksmen evolved into celebrity criminals,

Gun Totin' Bonnie Parker

'30s Glamour Crime Bosses

which led to pulp fiction

and to the movies.

Un-named 30's Gangster Film

Guns and violence became part of film's legacy.

James Cagney

By the '40's and Film Noir, women were packing, and the pistol became the symbol of The Dame.

Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity

Claire Trevor in Murder, My Sweet

The Dame evolved into the strong, powerful woman who could take care of herself and everybody else...if she had a gun, just like the men.

Spaghetti Western

Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft

Alan Ladd and Brandon deWilde in Shane

and of course...

John Wayne in Stagecoach

So, when did guns become sexy? During the Cold War and the era of spies.

Daniel Craig as Bond...James Bond

A Bond Girl

These were not feminist statements.Just as with men, a woman with a gun is not a stronger, more courageous human.

1950

Patty Hearst with the Simbianese Liberation Army

She is simply a hunter, a criminal, or someone who lives in a world of fear-mongering, where being armed is equated with being safe. How has the media and popular culture contributed to the last example? How has the glorification and glamorization of gun culture through music, film, books, and television contributed to the statistics of gun violence in America? Here are two excellent articles on this subject.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/violence-baked-popular-culture-080655362.html?ref=gs

http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/making-connections-medias-role-our-culture-violence

The tremendous amount of money that is made off  of our gun-infused culture ensures that no change in attitude will ever be instituted...that ship has long since sailed. Clearly, to reduce gun violence in America, common sense gun laws have to be enacted. After all, the creators of the Constitution probably never envisioned that an "armed militia" would manifest itself as Americans with arsenals of assault weapons.