Why Batman will never use a gun (or wouldn't, circa 1993)

[about_faces]

Note: I've posted this two different places so far: scans_daily, and at my comicsvine.com blog. The former exploded in a debate about gun control, while the later was met by a handful of dismissive comments typical of those one would find on your average comics message board. So I thought I'd post this here and see what you guys think.A couple

Comments

[bitemetechie]

(YOU FORGOT TO MENTION MY OMGCRAZYAWESOMEAMAZING INTERPRETATION OF HOW THE USE OF THE GUN COULD TOTALLY WORK. I AM DISAPPOINT.)

You know, I could understand the pro-gun people who bought Seduction of the Gun feeling betrayed because a portion of their money went to a cause that's in direct conflict with their ideologies--I mean, I can't shop at Target or eat at Chik-fil-a because of both companies connections to anti-gay causes--if their money was going to gun control legislation...but it was going to education, that's all.

What we're talking about here isn't trying to revoke anyone's right to bear arms, it's teaching children that, hey, maybe grabbing mom/dad's revolver out of the shoebox on the top shelf in the closet and showing it off to friends isn't such a hot idea. Guns can hurt people; guns do hurt people and not all parents are going to be responsible NRA members who teach their children to respect the power of such a weapon. Honestly, I fail to grasp how teaching gun safety is BAD!EVIL!WRONG!, but then again, I fail to grasp how teaching kids about sex is BAD!EVIL!WRONG! so maybe I'm just out of the loop.

I also find it fascinating, in having read all the letters in the letters columns that followed the publication of SotG, that the majority of the people who wrote in and thanked DC for publishing it had lost someone to gun violence, while those who loudly, angrily opposed its publication...hadn't. This brings some interesting real-life insight to the issue.

Considering that Bruce lost his parents to gun violence, it's unsurprising that a Batman comic should have an anti-gun violence message.

At the risk of being completely insensitive to the pro-gun people who complained in the letters columns that they were NEVER GOING TO BUY ANOTHER BATMAN COMIC EVER HOW COULD YOU DO THIS: seriously, guys, a BATMAN comic that was billed as being about gun violence? What the hell were you expecting? Bruce Wayne, cozying up to a .38, cooing at it and calling it Betty?

[thehefner]

(WELL I WAS KINDA HOPING THAT YOU'D WRITE THAT ONE YOURSELF SINCE I'D PROBABLY GET A COUPLE OF THE DETAILS WRONG AND YOU'RE SO SMART AND ELOQUENT AND PRETTY)

[bitemetechie]

(YOU'RE JUST SAYING THAT BECAUSE YOU WANT ME TO MAKE PIE. I SEE THROUGH YOU TO YOUR REAL AGENDAAAAA!)