From: alizard@pil
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: How are guns relevant? (was Re: The US elections)
Date: 21 Nov 92 14:33:43 GMT

Re: Re: the US elections...
 
> From: feathers@eskimo.com (Cheryl Owen)
> Newsgroups: alt.pagan
> Subject: Re: the US elections...
> Summary: How are guns relevant?
> Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 20:03:17 GMT
> I'm puzzled about why these long messages about automatic guns and
> various sorts of guns keep appearing in this newsgroup.  They appear to
> be unconnected to anything else.  What do guns and debates about the
>   If there's no answer to this then I'll assume that the gun nut

 
Members of minority groups (e.g. us) tend to be targets for violence, and if
you think we are not targeted by Christian fundamentalists, you should
re-read the last few hundred posts, you REALLY missed something.
 
Women as a class are targets for violence.
 
There are a lot of pagans in general and women (both pagan and non-pagan) on
this newsgroup.
 
The basic reason why guns wound up in this newsgroup basically comes down
to methods and ethics of self-defense. Topics relevant to ANYONE who lives
in America in the 1990s, and especially so for us.
 
And the concept of the warrior, particularly the female one is also of
occasional relevance, I suggest you go through your mind and remember the
number of Goddess images in statues and other Goddess artifacts from ancient
pagan cultures.
 
Did you think that They carried spears and swords and other weapons for
decoration? Spears and swords were the best portable implements for killing
when necessary (self-defense is a pretty good reason) for that time period.
 
Back in those days, the mental associations to swords / daggers / bows /
whatever were similar to those associated with carrying guns. When your
traveler pulled out a sword, he either was sharpening / cleaning it or he was
going to kill somebody or something. He wasn't cutting up meat with it.
Swords were not considered cute recreational toys. They required continuous
practice and maintenance. The equivalent of the handguns and long guns of our
time. (and say, of a compulsory couple of hours at the gun range every week.)
Weapons imagery is a part of pagan culture. As a subset of human culture as a
whole.
 
I'm interested in your tone of hostility about "gun nuts." Would you like the
AK-47 better if Athena or other Goddess figure had carried one? Actually,
that's an interesting graphics concept and could be turned into an attractive
T-shirt or a GIF. Who's into that kind of graphics art around here? (drawing
or computer graphic...) (and if anyone does one ***I*** want one...)
 
Weapons are an integral part of any pagan sub-culture that will survive. The
hostility being organized at us by power-hungry ( in the strictest sense of
power over ) people and the drastically increasing level of random violence
guarantees that.
 
Basically, it's just another thread on a very large newsgroup. Set it for
your kill file if it bothers you. But the specific advice on weapons and
tactics (not solely restricted to firearms) may save your life if you bother
to read it.
                                                 A.Lizard
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