The Misunderstood Beretta Man

To understand the American gun culture, consider the Beretta man.

He has a shotgun that’s a work of art. It might be an over/under with a grainy walnut stock, blued metal and engravings of a bird dog and maybe a pheasant on its receiver. Or it might be a semi-automatic Benelli (a Beretta-owned company) with a carbon-fiber stock and inertia-driven action. In either case, the Beretta man stands with his back straight and the shotgun in the crook of his arm. He is wearing a shooting vest and shooting glasses. He has class. He is how James Bond would look if he went skeet shooting. He’s sophisticated, but hardly a snob. He has what the Spanish call duende, a characteristic James Michener said is almost indefinable, as it means something with taste, refinement, beauty, perfection, and elegance all in just the right proportion and with no showiness at all. He is what the Japanese mean when they use the word shibui, which is something a Samurai tried to embody, but only could manage in fleeting moments when life and art meet before again separating with a bad gesture or misstep.

Of course, he isn’t any more real than James Bond. But what archetype is? He’s an American icon men want to be. He’s an ideal never reached but, if you do everything right, might be you for just a manly moment when you shoot a perfect round and thereby master yourself. In that moment a Spaniard might proclaim, “Gracia.” This is another word that deals not with things but with the essence of things and so is fleeting in an empirical age that trusts science to answer everything for us while disdaining the effervescent quality of philosophy. Though now misunderstood by op-ed writers at The New York Times, even the fashion set is aware of the Beretta man. Beretta, after all, has stores in Milan, Paris, London, and New York. Oh, there’s one in Dallas, too.

Of course, there is also a Beretta woman. Her lines of clothing are just as iconic. Though she doesn’t follow the modern protocol for what a woman should look like to be sexy, Beretta’s attire on a lady with an over/under shotgun can make the Beretta man forget himself more than any Kardashian ever could.

Beretta was founded in 1526, a year before Machiavelli died. Beretta is still family owned. Beretta saw Michelangelo, Casanova, and Mussolini go. They actually have a castle, the Beretta Castle. They set a standard and hold onto it.

During a tour of its manufacturing facility years ago, Beretta’s media guru in the U.S. said to me, “The Beretta family approves every clothing design, every tweak to every firearm. They’re conscious that the Beretta image is iconic, an ideal. Everything has to perfectly fit that image and to function flawlessly.”

He was acknowledging there is a different way of looking at guns and American gun culture than some blue-state politicians might today suggest. This image is what President Barack Obama tried to represent when the White House leaked a photo of him “shooting skeet” with a shotgun held too horizontal for skeet shooting and with a choke missing from the bottom barrel (it takes two for skeet)—clear signs the shot was a stunt. Instead of being the Beretta man, Obama became a laughable parody of something he didn’t understand, but at least on some level he knew such an archetype exists.

What those seeking to fake this image don’t grasp is that, to people who want to be a Beretta man, or a Winchester man, or a Ruger man … guns aren’t a negative thing; they’re a manly a thing that a real man knows how to use safely and well. And therein lies the political miscalculation of anti-gun politicians.

Now here’s a big twist those who haven’t really entered this culture don’t comprehend: There’s another Beretta man. He’s a true man of action who’d fit in a modern thriller. He has a semi-automatic handgun, maybe a Beretta, a SIG, or a Springfield. He likely also has a semi-automatic rifle the left would call an “assault rifle.” He doesn’t see such firearms in a negative way. To him they’re cool. To him it is a blast to shoot. To him, semi-automatic guns have been the ultimate personal and home-defense guns since they were first designed more than 100 years ago. To him, using a firearm properly is a sign of responsibility, of maturity.

While visiting the Beretta’s factory they let me shoot a full-auto ARX-160, a gun Beretta makes for law enforcement and some militaries. That was pretty damn cool.

Beretta also makes semi-automatic handguns and rifles for consumers. Many other manufacturers do as well. Many of them make semi-automatic guns for Americans who compete in competitions or for those who want these firearms primarily for home defense. There are a vast and growing number of people who understand how to use these firearms. These are good, law-abiding citizens who know it’s statistically rare for their guns to be used in crimes, who know their firearms stop many more crimes than they are part of.

This large and growing part of American gun culture has many other icons they understand and cherish. Grown men shoot in Cowboy Action competitions and so own six-guns and more. Americans hunt for deer and waterfowl and more and have firearms that fit these various categories. They see guns not as negative things, but as positive things, as works of art, family heirlooms, and mechanical wonders that can stop a stronger person from raping, robbing, or killing them. They see guns as a responsibility and an ultimate sign of freedom. There are a growing number of these people—more than 100 million Americans own guns—and they resent it when politicians treat them as criminals because they want to shoot recreationally and to protect themselves and their families.

The shame of it is, ifthe politicians and activists who would take away this rightwere better educated, they would understand why the NRA is a fundamental part of American culture. By understanding, they could avoid the demagogy of gun owners and instead work with America’s gun owners to make America even safer.