14 March 2008

For Crom:

Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in their Homes. Some of the pictures are pretty interesting. Some a little scary. A little propagandistic? Sure.

My personal opinion on guns: Mixed, I suppose. I don't see the need for so many weapons. Handgun for protection. Sure. Rifle for hunting? OK. But, honestly, when was the last time you went hunting with that Uzi? And as far as the Second Amendment goes, the idea behind a well-regulated militia was to protect against the government. I don't think any of the collections in these photographs will stop our government, should it decide it wants to take over your house...

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, no?

Lorraine said...

They are all white. All of them. What does this mean?

Anonymous said...

Yes, all the gun owners in these photos are white, as that seems to be the intent of whoever "cherry-picked" them. I'm white and I'm in Kyle's book (on pg. 121). However, there are also African-Americans, Asians, Latinos, and other ethnic minorities represented as well. Mr. Cassidy definitely did NOT have a "race agenda" when he conceived this book.

Toby said...

I haven't read the book, but would be interested in checking it out...

Anyone know where I can find statistics on race and gun ownership. Not that it really matters, but I am curious. My intuition is that there are more white gun owners...

Anonymous said...

As your resident "gun nut", one thing that really pisses me off is that guns are viewed as something only a certain kind of person can be into. If you listen to hip-hop and wear baggy pants and own a pistol, you must be a gangster. If you look like me and own that exact same pistol, your OK. WTF? The fact is that right to keep and bear arms applies to everyone, not just southern guys with realtree camo hats. One great thing about Armed America is that it shows that the stereotype of the redneck gun nut is just that: A stereotype.

Lorraine, sorry if this comes off dickish, but your making an assumption about the whiteness opf this book based off the very few photos Toby happened to show. Here is the offical page to Armed America:

http://www.armedamerica.org/index.html

Note, please, that there are people of different ethnic backrounds, which means that the pictures of whitey that Toby happened to show mean absolutely nothing.

I will also say this: If your unfamiliar with guns and want to try shooting sometime, get in touch with me at Winter300@gmail.com. I am an NRA certified basic rifle and pistol instructor, a lifelong shooter, and a nice guy. There are shooting areas out at Pawnee, and I will be happy to supply the guns and the ammo (.22, because I am not rich!)and some basic, informal instruction as long as you come with an open mind and follow some simple rules. If you don't like it, thats cool. If you do, well, thats even better. If you really want to shoot a wide variety of things, I have a couple of semi-automatic pistols (.45 and 9mm), an AR-15, and a nice collection of old military rifles. I will have to charge a small fee for ammo for those, but I would be more than happy to let you experience the "big guns" after an appropriate amount of instruction. This offer is basically good for everyone, by the way!

Toby said...

In my and Lorraine's defense, I didn't cherry-pick these photos. I just found the site and found the photos interesting, both in terms of content and style, so I posted the link...

Also, Tim, I would be happy to take you up on that offer! The biggest gun I've shot was a 22 at Boy Scout camp when I was a kid. I'd really be interested to shoot some of those old military rifles, being a history geek and all!

Anonymous said...

Well, I have a decent collection of old military guns. I have a couple Mosin Nagants, which were Russia's main rifles until the SKS was developed; a couple of SKS's, which were the direct predecessor to the AK, and a sporterized AK variant. I also have a Swedish Mauser, a Swiss K31, and a Springfield 03-A3, which was Americas main battle rifle up until the introduction of the Garand at the beginning of WWII.

Pretty much all the Russian rifles are still in varying use across the world. The Mosin Nagant (the rifle from "Enemy at the Gates" is actually pretty prevalent in Iraq, which isn't as odd as it sounds. It is about the most rugged rifle one could imagine, and ballistically it is very similar to the .30-06, which to the layman simply means that it has good terminal ballistics. Oh, I also have an AR, and while it isn't the military version with the 3-round burst, it is the same in all other aspects to the M16 (or the M4, which is what is more commonly used these days). Stretching it a bit, I also have a modified 1911 .45 pistol. It is updated and improved, but it will give you a flavor of the military models.

Also, I know you didn't cherry pick it, and didn't mean to imply otherwise. It's just that that book isn't all white guys, which was really my point.