Friday - April 04, 2008

Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership

Oleg Volk is an artist and activist.  His photos on self-protection are deep and striking.  So when a site called “Social Images” published a number of his posters in an attempt to demonize the “gun culture”, the grassroots have come to call a spade a spade.

Wander over and politely toss in your $.02.

Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership

Some of the first comments come from the left:

dorotha
January 7, 2008 6:35 AM

These are bizarre and terrifying, but I’m not sure how widely spread they are. I’m not sure it is right to attribute them to the “pro-gun lobby.” I’m not sure what the “pro-gun lobby” is in this case. The website these images come from seems to be the project of one individual. Are these images used by the NRA?

I just want to clarify where these come from. It seems relevant. They totally freak me out, don’t get me wrong, but I need a little more information before I make any judgements about the site they come from. Incidentally, they seem to come from this website originally. Not the t-shirt website.

Gwen
January 10, 2008 10:48 PM

The idea that the only way we think we can make a safer, better society is for everyone to carry a gun is incredibly sad. It’s also individualistic--the answer to racism, rape, and gay bashing is to carry a gun, not have any form of social organizing.

And I doubt that if women started shooting men who attempt to rape them that would be seen as “empowering” in our culture--particularly since most women are raped by people they know. We’re already suspicious of women who say they were raped by someone they were on a date with; what happens when women start shooting them? I’m doubtful this will be accepted as a positive change. Remember the reaction to Lorena Bobbitt? She didn’t exactly meet with social approval--and she didn’t kill him.

I grew up in rural Oklahoma, surrounded by guns. And I know what it’s like to have one family member using guns as a way to control another. I don’t think that my mom or us kids would have been “empowered"--or safer--if only she’d been willing to use a gun too.

Interrobang
March 12, 2008 10:14 PM

The Holocaust ones are particularly offensive. When the agents of the totalitarian state come for you, they always come in groups. What are you going to do, pull your gun and have three of them shoot you before you can shoot one of them? Either way, you’re just as dead.

A friend of mine was trans-bashed in Baltimore by a gang of six guys. A gun wouldn’t have helped him, and in fact might have gotten him shot with his own gun—you can really only point a handgun at one person at a time.

The solution to reducing crime isn’t more guns, it’s a better-functioning society.

Of course, Oleg got to answer the detractors

Oleg Volk
January 10, 2008 4:46 PM

As the author of the images, I am curious what makes them terrifying to you. The aim of my effort is to empower others.

What was their collective response?  [cue crickets]

(Drew decided this needed a couple of Volk’s pics so he stuck them in.)

Posted by Drew458     on 04/04/2008 at 12:50 PM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography • Self-Defense •  
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