It takes my mind off things
2013-2015
It takes my mind off things is a wonderment at and interrogation of the shooting culture in The Netherlands. Inn this provocative piece, Robin Butter poses the question; has The Netherlands always been a ‘secretive’ gun-nation? Secretive in that it has a long standing fixation with firearms that is systematically hidden and denied. From the political economic sphere of transnational interactions The Netherlands place in the top for five (2014) for creating firearm components in Europe - to the social cultural realm of the individual. The joy of many Dutchman find when firing at shooting ranges, a tradition that has existed for over hundred years. Think of the famous painting ‘the Nightwatch’ by Rembrandt van Rijn, probably one of the oldest paintings of members of a ‘shooting range’, in that time period called a marksmen's guild. Without realising firearms are deeply rooted in the Dutch soil. Members of the Royal Dutch family always served as a patron saint, until the death of Prince Bernard in 2004. Making it an elitist phenomenon. There are in The Netherlands a legion of shooting ranges, give and take eight-hundred with around hundred and fifty members. Some of which exist for over a hundred years. Where weekly Dutch men and woman empty full gratification their magazines.
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In 2011 a horrible shooting incident took place in The Netherlands, in Alphen aan de Rijn. The young Tristan van der Vlis shot several people in a shooting mall, before taking his own life. The Shooter was a member of a range, with a registered weapon licence, which allowed him to keep his weapon at home in spite of hiis pyschotic and suicidal tendencies. In the wake of the incident, not only the government but everybody wondered how this was allowed to happen. With just a few shots, Tristan cast a dark shadow over the Dutch shooting culture. The pressure on the clubs is present, the rules have been examined and adjusted.
Now the clubs have been given a huge responsibility by the government. Responsibility for their members. But what does this responsibility mean? Do we really have to worry? Or is it a matter of stigmatisation, where we distrust every gun enthousiast? Even though only three percent of the shooting incidents in The Netherlands happen with a registered weapon? It leaves the overarching question; how can you decide who is dangerous and who is not?