Even today collectors treat guns with loving attention and seem to appreciate the association of Mars with Venus. Instruments of aggression do, in fact, excite the imagination and spark the soul's aesthetic impulse. They are attractive, as a strong person might be, for their potential power and their Marsian aesthetic qualities, and, of course, they hold in symbolic form the strength and power we need in daily life.
— Thomas Moore, The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life