by Jim Kerrigan

Created on: August 16, 2009   Last Updated: August 17, 2009

God created men: Sam Colt made them equal. The fact that aggressive, non-law-abiding criminals do exist is the reason the afore-mentioned axiom of firearms came to be. The only fighting chance a 110 lb. woman has against a 275 lb. man is a firearm. Why would a 275 lb. man, over six feet tall, need a gun at all when dealing with anyone below 150? Macho men aren't the reason guns exist. Home owners, hunters, target shooters, firearm collectors and cowboy competitors own the majority of the guns in this country. None of these people are macho.

Macho denotes and over abundance of testosterone and a lack of brains. These are the folks Foxworthy says die shortly after saying something like, "Hey y'all! Watch this!" These are the guys who act first, then wonder why they acted that way. Perpetually hung over, always bleeding and not remembering how they cut themselves and sporting more than 5 tattoos making them (by a recent study) three times as likely to die a violent death than the rest of us.

Less macho men? We can only hope for such a thing. If this were granted the rest of us who own firearms would have a lot less garbage to have to deal with. The baggage of macho men run from giving men in general a bad name to providing the worst possible role mode for young men and women.

If macho men disappear completely we might see a reduction in the purchase of personal defense weapons but guns have many other activities that they are involved in besides self-defense from thugs. Some folks would buy self-defense weapons, because of outdoor activities like hiking where bears might be a problem. Some guns built mostly for "looks" (think Tek 9,) would disappear without macho men, but these firearms are a minority of the guns made.

I wonder if by macho men we are considering the Napoleon complex types. While not the stereotype, they are in fact more of a problem that their larger counterparts. They do not have the physical strength of really big guys and what they lack in stature they more than make up for in hormone driven mindlessness. Again; outside of Tek 9s and Saturday night specials, I can't see their disappearance causing an obsolescence in firearms in general.

In the end, I find it sad that anyone would associate gun ownership with macho. I would seem to me that the recklessness that comes with macho is self-correcting through accident or incarceration, and this pattern of theirs hasn't slowed gun ownership over the last 400 years: why would it now?

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