There is a deeper problem. The prestige and reputation of Australia is connected with the behaviour of international athletics because Australia has made it so. The Australian government sponsors and supports the orgy of commercialism and chauvinism that interantional sports have become. Let the government get out of the business of sports. If people want to compete as amateurs let them either finance themselves or get help from non-governmental sources. Commercial sports either will make money or not. No government intervention is necessary. Support sports in the schools and provide space for sports in parks. Otherwise simply get out of the sports business. Then if two athletes, amateur or professional, get their pictures taken in a legitimate business such as a gun shop is in the US, it will simply not matter to Australia.

Thank you Dr Jocelynne Scutt for raising the deeper issues consequential to macho-ism in sport and the positive role that social networking can play in defining and upholding acceptable social standards relating to gender equity. Where does acceptance of images of men and guns defining masculinity take us as a society?? This incident immediately recalled the recent football scandal involving modern technology and sexist or macho attitudes - NRL's Joel Monaghan bestiality posing distributed online and - and again the missed opportunity for a public discussion on where such macho attitudes towards the use of the 'other' for sexual gratification actually lead when internalised and unchallenged in broader social life. Where do images of sexual dominance of the other as defining masculinity lead us as a society? Unfortunately as pointed out by Jocelynne Scutt, the focus of public reaction is more on the shame for making the private public, through social media, and avoids scrutinising accepted 'private' practices - "boys will be boys"!! Thus avoiding a wonderful opportunity to engage in a broad discussion. David I think it is you who raise a peripheral issue about regulation.

Any old excuse to have a rant against guns, those inanimate objects that just go out and kill people because they can.

Fear of guns is a psychological illness known as hoplophobia. The author should seek treatment rather than seek to impose her fears on those of us who don't suffer from it.

Dear Larita,

I raised no issue about regulation. I think sports are no business of government except in schools or public parks. I think Australia should close the Institute of Sports, abolish the Ministry of Sports and not be involved in the Olympics or other international competitions.

The macho element in sports is partially due to involving the country in competition where Australia's worth is determined by its sporting prowess. I am not advocating changes in regulation. I am advocating that the Australia government get out of the sports business.

It's not all that long ago that we compelled young men like those depicted, to learn to use and respect guns as lethal weapons.
[Any excuse by the anti gun lobby will do?]
Or any opportunity to further emasculate the Australian male, is never allowed to pass.
Of course elite adult male athletes must also have a truck load of raging hormones on board. That's what builds the muscles and or body mass they and indeed elite female athletes, need to actually compete. Get real!
Sure, sports are no longer amateur, given the amount of money now earned by elite athletes.
Not everything that young immature males or females get up to is necessarily socially acceptable. Be it stealing a flag or posing with a couple of unloaded and therefore entirely harmless guns?
And, what actual harm or hurt was actually done by a young man posing with a couple of, unloaded and therefore harmless guns, in a legitimate US gun shop?
Perhaps we might impress young people, with the lethal aspects of these items, via a return to compulsory military training.
Rhrosty.

This is nearly as funny as the toilet article.

Two young PEOPLE, doing touristy stuff in America, the land of excess. Stuff that isn't illegal. In the age of irony.

What if they posed in front of the worlds largest hamburger, or the worlds largest soda.

"However, their ‘stupidity’ for him lies in their having ‘failed to anticipate the sanctimonious, knee-jerk and hypocritical reaction back home to their high jinks’."

Amen.

Now if Stephanie "Suck on that Faggots!" Rice, had done a Femme Fatale Playboy like pose, blowing imaginary smoke from a gun in the very same shop, I suppose it would still be some reflection on 'male' culture. I'm sure anyone outraged about it would be a labelled misogynist. Three's no doubt she;d be a victim in it all, of the oppressive sexualisation of women and violence and.... don't you just get exhausted with all this?

'Sadly, a macho mentality imbues competitive sport with the perfect setting for promoting an ethos consistent with lionising gun-culture and seeing a visit to a gun shop as ‘fun’. '

What a far fetched contortion of the issue to fit the feminist lens.

Do you feel the same way about our 'back yard' culture when my little girls run around shooting each other with water pistols, their TV influence consisting solely of Play School and Hi Five? Must be my Machismo rubbing off on them, for promoting an ethos consistent with lionising gun-culture and seeing the use of a water-pistol as ‘fun’.

The idea that ‘girlhood’ is somehow acknowledged or enhanced through pistol-clutching images of my girls permeating the Internet and clogging the airwaves is not only risible, but frightening!