As horrific as the lack of US government response to the shooting of innocents in its schools appears to be, what has been overlooked by the media here is the cultural difference between Australia and the US.
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As with so many other things, we are far too quick to compare ourselves with the US as if we were one and the same. What’s overlooked is that although we may speak a common language, and, to an extent, ancestry, we are very different culturally. Not only is our parliamentary system different, but so is our legal system.
And, if one bothers to dig deeper than the very thin layer of similarity portrayed in film, so are our values. This comes through clearly when speaking of “gun culture”. Of course, I appreciate the US is just that, a union of states with differing laws and even customs and histories. But the resistance from many quarters towards gun control actually makes some sense when the history of their culture is examined more closely.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not buy into the belief that every citizen has the right to be armed. Although I do understand how people can enjoy shooting as a sport – in the same way that archery can be enjoyable sport – my values and attitudes towards guns has been shaped very strongly by growing up in Australia.
In short, in America guns symbolise freedom and the ability to overthrow oppressors. In Australia, it was the oppressors who, historically, were armed. Although Ned Kelly was armed, he is largely remembered for his armour, defending himself against authority figures. And so much of our folklore focuses on characters being oppressed by authority, authority which is armed. It could be argued this stretches back to when Australia was a penal settlement, and later, when the glorification of the Aussie battler became widespread. I recall being taught at school about how the early “police force” was comprised of corrupt convicts or equally corrupt free settlers who used arms to intimidate and bully. The legend of the Eureka Stockade focuses on how armed troopers attacked unarmed miners. The US has a very different story, one where independence from oppressive British rule was won by armed civilians. The first nations of what became the US were, until quite recently, portrayed in popular culture as a menace and a threat to pioneers, who needed to defend their right to settle on already occupied land, and those who massacre these people were shown to be heroes. In so many movies, folk stories and songs, wrongs are solved by force, and the whole concept of the vigilante hero runs deep. Joe Average uses a gun to defend his rights, and the idea of taking this away is seen as akin to removing liberty.
Popular culture, while hardly reflective of reality, often creates it. Whether or not Australian colonies were policed by irresponsible, corrupt men who used guns to oppress is not the point – guns have become something seen as a threat or danger to the community. As a result, a single mass shooting was enough for legislative change to occur. In the US, guns are portrayed as being used by the underdog to defend rights and freedom. A mass shooting, even at an elementary school, changes nothing, in some cases it increases people's perception of the need for more arms. It can be so easy to believe it is “madness” to want to defend citizens' right to bear arms while those arms are being used to indiscriminately murder children, but to so many in the US it makes perfect sense. As tempting as it is, we cannot turn to the US and smugly point to how the Port Arthur massacre changed our country's gun laws. This just wouldn't work for the US.
I have deep respect and admiration for the youngsters in the US trying to have restrictions on gun purchases created, but as long as a gun is portrayed in popular culture as something which protects the innocent, all the hideous shootings and deaths will continue. The stories we tell ourselves are powerful, and it is this we need to be aware of. Our attitude towards guns and how they are portrayed in popular culture is of paramount concern in order for Australia to avoid following in America’s footsteps.