In an excerpt from her new book, Gun Show Nation, Joan Burbick writes about the connections between gun culture, misogyny and domestic violence. She kicks it off with a fascinating anecdote about how she wasn't allowed to bring her camera into a gun show because men at the shows were afraid their ex-wives would see pictures of them in a newspaper and start demanding alimony.
At later gun shows, I started to pay more attention. Were ex- wives and their demands a threat to some guys at the gun shows? I frequently saw books for sale at the shows such as The Predatory Female by Rev. Lawrence Shannon .. The Predatory Female is a collection of warnings about women who prey on the feelings and bank accounts of unsuspecting men. Female predators have their eyes on one thing alone -- money. They marry and divorce to get alimony. They use emotions of love, trust, and care to undermine the sacred contract of marriage. They are the new scourges of secular life, hunting down unsuspecting men to get bucks and tear out their hearts.
She goes on to note that gun shows are always selling things with anti-woman phrases, like "I JUST GOT A GUN FOR MY WIFE. IT'S THE BEST TRADE I EVER MADE" or "Top 10 Reasons Handguns Are Better than Women." I'm familiar with the latter phrase because it was printed on a poster that used to hang on the wall of my landlord's house in Missouri. The guy was absolutely horrible (he once asked me if I was a "daddy's girl" -- ew) and, true to Burbick's observations, he was always making remarks about what a bitch his ex-wife was.
The gun lobby also lends its support to domestic abusers in more concrete ways. Burbick explains that the Lautenberg amendment to the Violence Against Women Act bans people from owning firearms if they have restraining orders against them or misdemeanor convictions for domestic assault. The NRA and other gun groups publicly oppose the law.
But Burbick notes that this is at odds with the supposed reasons their right to bear arms needs protecting. One of their standard catchphrases is that if guns are criminalized, only the criminals will have guns. Yet they fight for gun rights for domestic abusers, who are certainly criminals.
Also check out this interview with Burbick, where she explains other ways in which the gun-rights movement is more about male power than the Second Amendment.
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Thanks for posting about this Ann. This is fascinating reading.
Violent men beat their significant others. violent men like guns. It can't be said enough, but anyone who reads this site probably won't be shocked.
the NRA could be right about restraining orders or it could be wrong. what do restraining orders even mean in this sense? OFP's? HRO's? both? Less binding documents that exist in some locals? some of these documents simple to get, and while they may have fees they are rarely collected as they are often waived. This lowers the threshold to getting a "restraining order" to the point it needs to be to provide protection. But it also means that having some types of restraining orders against you don't really mean anything.
That having been said, these guys are living in 2006 and they are paying alimony. Do you know how big a scumbag you have to be, how destitute you have to keep your wife these days get alimony judgements against you? This means this woman was completely and utterly dependant on this guy. Yet she still left him... Must be a prince.
Hey, Ann, this is a great post. Gun shows can apparently be quite amusing. My brother and his friends went to one, and he had many hilarious stories about some of the people he saw there. Like the guy walking around with a shaved head, camos, an AK-47 slung over each shoulder, and a shirt that read, "Some people are only alive because it's illegal to kill them." My brother's comment (or one of them), "Noooo, don't give this guy more guns!" I guess it's not so funny when you think that these guys are actually out there in the world, rather than just marching around in the clownish atmosphere of the gun show.
This book is definitely going to the top of my must-read list.
To be fair, there is a shirt that says "Top Ten Reasons Handguns are Better Than Men" and I am a proud owner.
[quote]Violent men beat their significant others. violent men like guns.[/quote]
Nothing like faulty logic. Tough to expect more from a bunch of angry lesbians.
Ahahahahahahaha.
"Top Ten Reasons Handguns are Better Than Men"
*points to tfree32* Number 8, maybe?