Photographer Shoots Gun-Toting American Tots

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Gun ownership is the natural state of being for many Americans. In the past, owning and carrying a deadly weapon, like a dagger or sword, was a fairly typical mode of being for Europeans. The history of disarming (or not disarming) populations as representative democracy took hold varies significantly between Europe and the United States.

Even so, the fetishizing of firearms to a literal infantile level has really come into its own in America — long after the fight for a representative democracy ended domestically. One of the freedoms Americans fought for, apparently, was the right to market and sell guns to small children. A few years ago, An-Sofie Kesteleyn, a Dutch photographer, read about gun deaths caused by children in the United States and guns specifically marketed to young children. Kesteleyn decided to head over to the U.S. and learn more about and photograph American “kiddie” gun culture.

This was a fairly brave decision, since we all we all know how much American gun owners love being judged by Europeans. Kesteleyn visited gun ranges and talked with many gun owners, as well as their offspring. Her photo series focused on young children in their bedrooms, brandishing firearms made for children, like Crickett Firearms’ line of guns, appropriately named “My First Rifle.”

The images, selected for World Press Photo’s Joop Swart Master Class, are very striking. Children who could have just as easily posed with a Tickle Me Elmo or a set of “Star Wars” action figures display their diminutive, yet very functional rifles. Some of the guns are even painted pink, in order to attract the little girl market.

According to the FBI, young people in the 18-to-24-year-old range are already involved in an inordinate number of gun-related homicides compared to other age groups. I’m not sure if we need to be getting them started with firearms at younger and younger ages. While state and federal law prohibit the possession of or selling handguns to anyone under the age of 18, and in some cases 21, people as young as 16 can possess rifles in many states like Alaska and Minnesota. In Montana, a 14 year old can legally own a rifle. While that might seem too young to many city dwellers, if your kids are running around in the wilds of Alaska or Montana, a gun can truly be a life-saving instrument. Bumping into an angry bear would be a good example of when you’d rather be armed than not. That being said, we’re not all hanging out in the forests and mountains of the thinly populated states. American guns laws are already exceedingly liberal. The fact that gun manufactures are marketing guns to prepubescent children who can’t legally own a firearm is a telling sign of how fear and paranoia rule over large swaths of a county that isn’t nearly as dangerous as the modern media would have you believe.

By kitting out our tots with lethal firearms (and I’m not talking about kids roaming the backwoods of Alaska), we’re perpetuating a culture of fear and deadly gun violence. Children used to work out their violent aggression with a fistfight in the schoolyard. These days, thanks to ma and pa arming them to the hilt, the chances of a child turning to a gun in order to resolve a conflict is only going to increase, because that’s what they’ve been taught to do — and many are given the tools to do so at an alarming young age.

Carl Pettit is a contributing journalist for TheBlot Magazine

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