A Shot At Utopia

Guns don’t kill people, they kill opposition. The invention of the gun stemmed from the evolution of warfare, a practice meant to forcibly remove an enemy from their land, possessions, and ideals and wipe out a strange and possibly conflicting culture to your own. When one nation goes to war with another, it usually is to enforce some utopian concept that the second nation has impugned. The country which most on paper resembles a free utopia, the United States, had its founders specifically mention guns (the second amendment) into the framework of the nation. Guns and firearms have not only revolutionized utopian concepts on a political level, but they have on a personal and popular level as well.
The gun, nearly since its invention, has been romanticized in pop culture. From swashbucklers to bank robbers, from gangsters of the 20s to gangbangers of today, guns have a utopian appeal as the perfect tool. Perhaps the most glorified example of a gun-slinging utopia is how society depicts the Old West. Quietly riding the range, 6 shooter in tow, cowboys used firearms to their romantic fullest, killing their food, protecting themselves, and settling disputes with one glorious object.

Guns are so romanticized in our society that they have become incorporated into jewelry design.

Today, guns are as romanticized as ever, dominating pop culture visually and musically. Gun violence rings out more frequently than ever, causing more calls for citizens arming themselves for safety, ever increasing the number of firearms in society. Guns themselves are styled and precision made in unprecedented ways. The gun has not only has made its own mark on society as an instrument of change, but has spawned all sorts of dystopian enforcers like missiles, laser weaponry, and nuclear weapons. With guns being so tied into American and even global life, the question becomes, are they helping people preserve their small segments of life which may be considered utopian, or are guns tearing humanity away from any sort of utopian society into a dystopia of misery and death?