Europe, Masculinity and Guns

I don't own any guns but I'm against gun control. My European friends at work think this is crazy. Why not allow people to own anti-aircraft missiles or nuclear weapons? Further, America has a huge number of handgun deaths (and murders overall) relative to Europe. I usually reply with a legal argument: The 2nd amendment was about guns, not bombs or missiles. But that really isn't an answer. I like the 2nd amendment and I think it cuts to the heart of the diffence in attitudes between American and Europe.

In that conversation, someone mentioned that the problem with guns is that 14-year old gang bangers want guns to prove they are men. It was automatically assumed that getting a gun to prove you are a man is a bad thing. Now, of course, a 14-year old gang banger getting a gun is a bad thing. But the association of guns with masculinity isn't. (Feel free to insert obligatory joke about a gun compensating for a small penis. Finished? Ok, now we can move on.)

The kinds of guns that Americans buy are for personal and domocile protection. If I felt my family's safety depended upon it, I would buy a shotgun for the house and a handgun for my person and I hope I would not hesitate to use it if the situation called for it. This is a masculine inclination. It asserts that the one responsible for my and my family's safety is primarily me. Not the government. They are there to help me, but the responsibility is mine. In that sense, when an American man buys a gun, he is asserting he is a man, as in an adult. His is not anyone's dependent. If you want to understand America's "obsession" with guns, this may be where to start.