It Is Unecessary to Pornify a Phallic Symbol

The pornification of guns is a thing peculiar to American culture. We love our guns. LUH our guns. Which is made abundantly clear in this post at The Audacity of Logic. (Unintentional irony fail.)

In California yesterday, a seven-year-old had to take on the duties of an adult
by protecting his family from a home invasion. In Norwalk, Calif., the terrified
boy begged emergency dispatchers to send police to his Southern California home
where three armed men threatened his parents, according to a recording of the
call released Tuesday.

Here's how a home invasion works: the invaders burst through your door, guns drawn, pointed in your general direction and terror ensues. Home invasion is a blitz attack, no one gives you a chance to find your weapon. And you should have to find your weapon if you own one in the same home as a small child, because 3,184 children and teens died from gunfire in the US in 2006. More preschoolers were killed by guns than officers in the line of duty. If you're not locking up your guns, you are exposing your children to avoidable danger.

It would probably be a safe bet that this father neither owned a firearm
nor probably believed he should. He probably has house insurance, health
insurance, flood insurance, car insurance, but no way to ensure the lives of his
family from marauding scum who almost certainly would have robbed, raped and
possibly murdered his family, had it not been for his young son’s heroic
actions.

. . .

It may sound harsh, but I am of the belief that any parent who refuses to
take the necessary precautions to protect his family from such harm, borders on
criminal neglect.

No, it doesn't sound harsh, it sounds stupid. Unless the father had a gun strapped to his hip, there is no chance simply having a gun in the house would have protected his family from a home invasion. He would not have had the chance to get to his gun before the armed criminals invading his home had him tied up.

Let's suppose the father in question doesn't care that much about his children and does keep his gun within easy reach at all times. Imagine the scene that would have followed. Three armed men who we can safely say have no issues with pulling the trigger burst into his home, guns pointed at the family, maybe the wife, maybe the children, maybe him. The father grabs his gun and does what? More than likely, he'd freeze because most people just aren't prepared for killing another human being no matter what the situation. Let's suppose, for the same of Audacity's argument, that the father was a trained soldier and didn't freeze. Then what happens? He shoots, which sets off the armed criminals, and more than just criminals get shot. I suppose you could call that "protecting your family", but only in the sense that if you blow up someone's car, they can't then get hit by a train.

I get why people like Audacity say ridiculous shit like this. It's scary to consider that you could be the victim of such a crime. There is comfort in saying, "I have a gun. I won't be a victim." Unfortunately, life just isn't that simple. Owning a gun won't keep you safe, but it could endanger your children.