The Mystique of GUNS

From Daniel Boone to Dirty Harry, America's Fascination with Firearms

Henry Allen, Washington Post Staff Writer

April 19, 1989

STYLE, PAGE D1

The Great American Gun Mystique:

We love guns. We hate guns.

We spend millions to defend the right to keep and bear guns. We flatten guns with steamrollers for the benefit of television cameras. We never stop arguing about guns. Guns kill people. No, people kill people. Guns are right up there with race as one of the most sensitive, taboo-ridden public issues we have. And the mystique gets bigger all the time.

It comes in a lot of varieties.

There is the mystique of freedom, from the flintlocks that fired the shot heard round the world to the Thompson…