In a small interview room at the Probation and Parole Office at 1401 Arch Street, the eyes of a 23-year-old probationer from North Philadelphia glaze over as he recalls the Mac-11 automatic Uzi that earned him his first firearm conviction.
"That Uzi - the cops couldn't believe it. It took 36 shots. That thing was nice, too," the probationer said with a smile.*
It is the smile of a man who is addicted to guns - as well as what they represent for young men in depressed communities where gun violence has reached epidemic rates.
"I won't lie," the probationer said. "I still love guns. I got a fetish for it. I'm trying to stay straight now, but if I wanted to, I could get another. All you need is money."
Of the 380 homicides in Philadelphia in 2005, 312 were from gunfire. Illegal gun proliferation has reached a point where Deputy Police Commissioner of Internal Affairs and Gun Control Strategies Richard Ross Jr. said that he "wouldn't even be able to render a guess" as to the number of illegal guns on the street.
And while politicians and lobbyists are entrenched in political battles over gun control, men on the streets of the affected communities couldn't care less about the Second Amendment or any proposed one-gun-a-month law.
For many of these men, owning a gun is not as simple as "protection," although that certainly is a motivating factor.
"I've got to adapt to my neighborhood," the aforementioned probationer said. "So gun control [wouldn't] help. I'm not going to not carry one when the whole neighborhood is."
But beyond protecting oneself, owning a gun is a primal facet of the gangster mentality that has become a dominant thread of youth culture in Philadelphia's minority neighborhoods. In this mentality, owning a gun is
intertwined with notions of respect, power and manhood.
"Some people are strung out on the lifestyle," said Roshall Coles, a member of Men United for a Better Philadelphia (MUBP), a community group that combats gun violence.
"If you want a criminal lifestyle, you've got to earn your stripes. You want to be identified as crazy," continues Coles, who served four years in prison for armed robbery.
Anthony Soliman is a Philadelphia probation officer who deals with gun criminals every day, and his comments on the criminal lifestyle echo Coles'.
"[Criminals] perceive it as a glamorous way of life - it's all 'guns, drugs and f-k the cops,'" Soliman said.
Coles said that the media promotes a positive image of guns.
"[Rapper] 50 Cent is selling you a dream he wouldn't tell his own child," Coles tells adolescents he meets through MUBP. "Killing's something you're given by a society that looks at it as okay. It's not natural."
Bill Cobb, another MUBP member, spoke of the pervasiveness of gun culture. "I've seen at lest 10 guns in one day," Cobb said. "I don't scare easy, but 10 heaters in one day? It's glorified. It's gangster, so it's good.
To Cobb and others, the identification of guns with power and respect is a key factor in Philadelphia's high murder rate.
"People don't even fight anymore," Cobb said. "It's like 'the bigger my gun, the bigger my manhood.'"
As for the act of actually acquiring guns, it's as simple as walking to the street corner.
"It's just availability," Cobb said. "You put a .45 in a 15-year-old's hand, he's looking for street rep."
And buying a gun is cheaper than one might think - anecdotal evidence suggests that handguns can be obtained for $100 or lower.
For adolescents enmeshed in a culture that equates guns with manhood, that $100 buys more than a 9 mm - it buys respect.
*Editor's Note: This probationer is the same source quoted in "Ex-offenders play key role in city's high murder rate." He asked to remain anonymous for fear of further incriminating himself.
