Ammo Table, part 5

Why use a religious symbol made from ammunition? 

The ties between faith and violence are many, and the debate rages as to which violent acts in the name of religion should be warranted, condoned, rejected, and denounced.  Even the perception that a religious group will use violence to its ends causes impassioned debates and ill-informed grandstanding (just try mentioning the words ‘ground zero’ and ‘mosque’ in a public place).

While I was working on the piece decided that I couldn’t in good faith use ammunition casings without understanding more about ‘gun culture’ in the U.S.  So, I took a basic handgun class at Get Some Guns & Ammo, LLC.

Most of the other folks in the class wanted to understand handguns for personal protection reasons.  It appears this was not uncommon for new handgun purchases, even thought the estimates for crimes deterred by gun use range from 100,000 per year to 2.5 million, and the methodology for determining what role gun ownership played is highly suspect and highly manipulated by weapon manufacturers and the NRA.  How on earth do you count the number of break-ins that didn’t happen because a robber suspected you owned a gun, or vice versa?

I’m not a gun owner, and have difficulty imagining a situation where I would want one other than during an apocalyptic societal breakdown (‘The Road’) or to hunt for cheeseburgers after In-N-Out is closed.  So, it was a good thing that most of the class was dedicated to understanding the safety principles and operation of the various types and calibers of weapons.

Afterwards we spent a good amount of time shooting different handguns on the indoor range.  My lasting impression of actually using .40cal and 9mm weapons was how violent the act of shooting was – the controlled explosion in my hands was in no way commensurate to the relatively delicate act of loading the clips and pulling the trigger.

And, it was thrilling.  To have that much power at my immediate disposal pushed all of my evolutionary buttons.  Gun designers and their advertising firms understand emotional triggers.