[lit-ideas] Re: Didn't I tell you so?

>>That still leaves unanswered the question as to why guys are drawn to guns in the first place.

Where I grew up, they closed all the schools on the day deer season started. I began to learn how to take care of a .22 rifle and fire it when I was about ten years old, maybe earlier. It was expected male activity, as much a part of the rite of passage to adulthood as getting your learner's permit to drive a car.

For kids, there's a great thrill of power in being able to hit a target set up fifty yards away. But when you're used to guns they're like old tools. They have to be cleaned and stored properly. It's like owning a fancy lawnmower and has about as much phallic oomph.

Do remember firing a Walther P-38 when I was a kid. It was a friend's father's war trophy and had the Nazi insignia on the butt of the grip. Nasty recoil. Too much gun for a little kid. Didn't really have much of a testosterone level at the time, so can't comment on the hormonal part of it.

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