I get that not everyone feels the way I do about guns. I see them as a vital part of the fabric of America, the very reason why we have remained free and will continue to do so. From potential homegrown tyrants to foreign invaders, anyone who seeks to take that way will have to deal with millions of Americans who are going to have something to say about it.
But a lot of people aren't quite as big of a fan of firearms as your average gun nut.
That's fine, in and of itself. People have a right to their own opinions. So long as they don't try to inflict those opinions on me by restricting what I can do, I honestly don't care all that much.
Yet there's a trend that also bothers me a great deal, and that's the animosity toward anything that resembles a firearm. It's fine to not be interested in guns yourself or to even think a celebrity shouldn't be shooting guns.
When they have a fashion object that is in no way an actual firearm but is just gun-shaped--and not a realistic representation, either--then lose their minds over it, that's when I start to have an opinion.
This came to a head with the recent BET Awards.
I normally don't even remember there are BET Awards, but this year, DJ Run of DMC's daughter, Angela Simmons, had a gun-shaped purse, and apparently, she was forced to apologize for it.
Angela Simmons is speaking out after her gun-shaped clutch at the 2024 BET Awards sparked backlash.
The daughter of Run-DMC founder Joseph Simmons, 36, accessorized her emerald beaded Casze Atelier gown with a matching green crystal-covered purse, shaped like a handgun at the awards show on Sunday, June 30. She also appeared to hold the purse as a weapon while she was photographed on the BET Awards carpet.
...This prompted the businesswoman to post an apology to her Instagram Stories on Tuesday, July 2, sharing that she “deeply regretted” the choice to bring the accessory to the award show and reiterating that she does not in any way condone gun violence.
“When I chose the purse, I believed it was cute and unique, and I made a poor decision in using it as an accessory to amplify my beauty,” she wrote. “I deeply regret that this item which symbolizes a gun, was inappropriate and insensitive, especially given my personal and community experiences with gun violence.”
I get Simmons has a history, with her ex-fiance having been shot and killed outside of his home in Atlanta in 2018, but that involved a real firearm. This is a purse that just happened to be sort of gun-shaped. It wasn't even a realistic representation of a gun, which could make some people uncomfortable because they couldn't tell.
No, this was blatantly a fashion object that just had the same shape as a firearm.
The reason this was a problem is that guns aren't allowed to be seen as normal. They are supposed to be sent to the back of the closet, never to be seen in polite society. Why, if people stop thinking of guns as evil, vile things that should never be seen, they might actually start to view them as a normal part of life, something that could be used to protect and defend life.
For example, if Simmons's ex-fiance had a gun on his person when he was shot and killed, the story might have broken very differently. The same could be said of millions of murder victims each and every year, including those killed in mass murders.
Simmons shouldn't have apologized because she did nothing wrong.
The reason she was pressured to do so is because guns and gun ownership are to be stigmatized into oblivion. No one is supposed to see them as anything but objects of scorn.
And that's all the more reason to say she shouldn't have apologized. Unfortunately, Simmons clearly didn't see it that way.
