From: bb063@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Christopher J. Crobaugh)
Subject: Blosser on reproductive size
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 11:16:00 GMT


I too sent Mr. Blosser a couple of messages that indicated my
frustration with 'Johnny Come Lately' types to this discussion 
who have neglected to read any research information on the 
subject. I also sent him a copy of the section of Don Kates'
"Guns, Murders, and the Constitution," which I re-post here for
all, which deals with just that perception - that gun owners
own them for some kind of sexual inadequacy. That 'research'
was done by some toots named Emanuelle Tanay, and has been
debunked more than once since it was published. Here is the
section of Kates paper dealing with the subject. (For those of
you who have not read "GUns, murders' etc, you cvan get it 
from The Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco, and it
shoujld be a 'bible' for gun rights activists.
BTW, let me take this opportunity to apologize to 'Blosser for
jumping down his throat...but the issue IS important, and it
matters. That's why I found his original post BS.


The common claim that gun ownership is a reaction to male sexual
inadequcy is rejected in the only studies analyzing it, by Drs.
Nicole Varzos and Bruce Danto [respectively, "Aspects of the
Priapic Theory of Gun Ownership" in W. Tonso (ed.), THE GUN CULTURE
AND ITS ENEMIES (1989) and "Firearms and Violence", 5 INT'L. J.
OFFENDER THER. 135 (1979)]. Both find gun ownership explicable by
pragmatic explanations while the penile inadequacy theory fails to
explain numerous aspects of gun ownership. Consider, for instance
the fact that 50% of those who own a gun for protection are FEMALE.
That is explicable by reference to women's felt need for protection
-- and NOT by feelings of penile inadequacy.       Dr. Danto also
notes that if the penile inadequacy theory were true, male gun
owners would want not little handguns but the largest barrel and
bore weapons available. The penile inadequacy theory fails to
explain other demographic differentials in gun ownership. When all
gun owners are counted (not just those who own for protection
alone), survey evidence shows that "gun owners are
disproportionately rural, Southern, male, Protestant, affluent and
middle class... [and that] weapons ownership tends to increase with
income, or occupational prestige, or both." The explanations here
are, once again, purely pragmatic; hunting is more an activity of
rural people generally, and Southerners particularly, than of city
dwellers; among urbanites, guns are most owned by the affluent
because they are more likely to hunt -- and also to have the money
to afford guns and property that they may feel the need to defend;
most guns are owned for sport and males engage in gun sports more
than females. As to Protestants, survey evidence shows them more
likely to hunt than Catholics or Jews (Protestantism is most
predominant in rural areas); and, beyond that, Protestants and gun
owners both tend to be descended from older American stock,
retaining cultural values redolent of the "individualistic
orientation that emanated from the American frontier...." [Young,
"The Protestant Heritage and the Spirit of Gun Ownership", 28 J.
SCI. STUDY OF RELIG. 300, 307 (1989).]      In contrast, the penile
inadequacy theory fails to explain any of these demographic trends.
Are Protestants or the affluent or better educated people or rural
dwellers or Southerners MORE subject to feelings of penile
inadequacy than Catholics or urbanites or the poor etc., etc.?    
  Insofar as proponents of the penile inadequacy theory cite any
evidence for it, they cite Freud's view that weapons have penile
symbolism  in dreams. This, Freud says, is true of dreams involving
any long object (e.g. "sticks, umbrellas, poles, trees") but
especially of objects that may be viewed as penetrating, and
injuring ("knives, daggers, lances, sabers; firearms are similarly
used...."). This passage refers to dreams in general without
distinguishing gun owners from others. Opponents of gun ownership
are apparently unaware that Freud's views cut against them, not in
their favor. Freud associates retarded sexual and emotional
development not with gun ownership, but with FEAR AND LOATHING OF
GUNS. S. Freud & D. Oppenheim, DREAMS IN FOLKLORE (1958) at 33.
-- 
bb063@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu  Chris Crobaugh - (216) 327-6655 (V)
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little 
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." B. Franklin