After
the Newtown school shooting, there has been a great deal of talk about
gun violence in the US and the need to provide better gun control and
regulation. But fascination with guns runs deep in the American psyche
and is actually enshrined in the second amendment of the US
Constitution.
GQ magazine’s Jeanne Marie Laskas goes to Arizona, the heart of gun country, to understand the lure of the weapon and the mindset of gun lovers. She visits Sprague’s Sports, a gun store in Yuma, and writes: “...the respect they [clerks at the store] showed the merchandise reminded me of department-store shoe salesmen in the old days who wore suits and used shoehorns. The store was brightly lit and impeccably clean... Stray scraps of paper were instantly swept up, Disneyland-style. The merchandise was arranged in boutique fashion: colorful boxes of ammo stacked like candy by the register, a library of gun books and magazines near the restrooms.”
The people who buy guns and bullets are of both sexes, and of all ages. One customer looks appreciatively at an assault rifle Laskas has just purchased, telling her that it’s a good starting weapon. He tells her that it is the same model he bought for his six-year-old son. A woman customer then says, “You depend on the government to protect you… We depend on ourselves.”
And shooting sprees don’t cause revulsion among gun-owners. When Jared Loughner shot US Representative Gabrielle Giffords and killed six others, Sprague’s saw roaring business. “The place was packed,” one customer tells Laskas. The most popular model sold that day was the Glock 19, the model that Loughner used for his killing spree.
For more: gq.com
GQ magazine’s Jeanne Marie Laskas goes to Arizona, the heart of gun country, to understand the lure of the weapon and the mindset of gun lovers. She visits Sprague’s Sports, a gun store in Yuma, and writes: “...the respect they [clerks at the store] showed the merchandise reminded me of department-store shoe salesmen in the old days who wore suits and used shoehorns. The store was brightly lit and impeccably clean... Stray scraps of paper were instantly swept up, Disneyland-style. The merchandise was arranged in boutique fashion: colorful boxes of ammo stacked like candy by the register, a library of gun books and magazines near the restrooms.”
The people who buy guns and bullets are of both sexes, and of all ages. One customer looks appreciatively at an assault rifle Laskas has just purchased, telling her that it’s a good starting weapon. He tells her that it is the same model he bought for his six-year-old son. A woman customer then says, “You depend on the government to protect you… We depend on ourselves.”
And shooting sprees don’t cause revulsion among gun-owners. When Jared Loughner shot US Representative Gabrielle Giffords and killed six others, Sprague’s saw roaring business. “The place was packed,” one customer tells Laskas. The most popular model sold that day was the Glock 19, the model that Loughner used for his killing spree.
For more: gq.com
No comments:
Post a Comment