More Addictive Behaviors: GUNS

Awhile ago I posted a piece about addictive behaviors. (http://www.adamideas.org/?s=Addictive).  These are drives and instincts that are rooted in human biology and evolution that modern technology and business can easily exploit, things like our cravings for sugar or sex.  I think our fascination with guns also falls in this category.

GUNS

Among the many reasons people give for wanting access to all kinds of guns is that shooting is just a lot of fun. I think that’s obviously true, but why exactly is that? Let’s think of shooting as an extension of throwing. From an evolutionary point of view, humans evolved about 2 million years ago to be terrific throwers, much better than our ape cousins or any other animal on the planet. This involved changes to our shoulders and other physiological shifts allowing us to coordinate leg, torso and arm motions. Better throwing made us better hunters and better fighters, increasing our intake of protein, altering the course of evolution and setting us on the path towards bigger brains and modern Homo sapiens.

In short, throwing is a Big Deal. Being able to project a rock or stick or spear accurately and at high velocity over a long distance was an extremely valuable skill. Human beings were praised for it, taught it, had more children because of it, and the talent and the liking for it was bred into us. Oh, and there appears to be a significant gender gap here, with males not only being able to do it better because they are bigger and stronger, but because there is a neurological component that makes it easier for men to coordinate the complex coordination of leg, torso, and shoulder. In any case, whether via nature or nurture, throwing well became a central part of being a successful man. It made you a good hunter and useful warrior. It got you recognition, status, better mate selection.

The key thing here is that throwing, and throwing well, became something to enjoy for its own sake. It was closely connected to survival and evolutionary advantage, but like many activities (e.g. sex) it became enjoyable for its own sake. It was incorporated into games and sports. It was what boys did when they didn’t have anything else to do—skip rocks, throw snowballs, flip knives into trees.

Over time we added new ways to throw. Spears. Darts. Slings. Bows and arrows. And eventually guns. Guns don’t require the same physical skills as throwing but satisfy the basic urge to project something and hit a target quickly, accurately, at a distance.

We still highly value a good thrower. We pay pitchers and quarterbacks a heck of a lot of money. Most of our popular sports involve some type of accurate throwing to hit a target—baseball, football, basketball, tennis, lacrosse.  Soccer does it with kicking but the core objective—projecting a ball quickly and accurately—is the same. What video game doesn’t make shooting or throwing of some kind a central feature?

And so too with guns. Someone who is good with a gun is praised for having a valuable skill. Like a good accurate throw, a good accurate shot just feels…fun. Satisfying. People admire it, identify with it. And while throwing a baseball or spear is hard and difficult for many people to do well, shooting is a lot easier and can potentially be taken up by more people.

So there is a very strong biological, evolution-based desire for the gun industry to build on. Yes, there are other drivers too, for safety or power or as a symbol of freedom or whatever. But all these ride, it seems to me, on the underlying satisfaction and enjoyment people get from throwing. And it’s easy for a firearms company to make a gun more ‘fun’ by emphasizing that it’s faster (assault rifles have much higher muzzle velocity than handguns), or shoots more quickly, or is more accurate, or projects something bigger and heavier—any of the basic components of satisfying throwing.

Does this make shooting a potentially ‘addictive’ behavior? There certainly does seem to be an irrational attachment to shooting and guns by their most fervent defenders, a good sign that we are dealing with an instinctive drive that can turn addictive.

Of course this doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t regulate guns. People have plenty of other outlets for their throwing needs, and we could easily accommodate the use of guns of different kinds at licensed ranges. If we recognize and deal with the connection to throwing, we have a better chance of crafting arguments and policies that all of us can live with.