From the Inbox: How Gun Owners Feel About Our Gun Debate Article

We recently published an article on America’s gun debate and why open, honest conversations about it are so rare. We asked what guns mean to you, and your replies showed something we don’t see enough of these days: people willing to learn, listen, and even reconsider their views, whether that means supporting stronger safety laws or defending gun rights.

Hope that Common Ground is Possible

Good morning,

I wanted to say thank you to Mr. Buscemi and to the Builders for publishing this editorial. I’ve spent a good portion of the last 7 years living in the liminal space between the anti vs pro gun impasse. This article does a fantastic job of illustrating the divide without assigning blame or including some “holier than thou” perspective so often associated with the biased viewpoint of the writers of these editorials. 

 I am now and probably will always be a big proponent of the Second Amendment. I grew up going shooting with my father. He was a World War II reenactor, and guns were more about history and self-defense than putting food on the table. I got started young and I got good at hitting my target, so those bonding experiences I had with him soon also became a source of self-pride and eventually part of my identity. So when Bill Clinton signed the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act in 1993, it threatened my identity, and I suddenly became interested in politics with a clear enemy. My early voting career was decided specifically by a candidate’s stance on guns.   

As I got older, and especially after I had children, the privilege of being a single-issue voter evaporated. My opinion really started to change when tragedy struck my family and an extended family member committed a horrible crime, claiming his life and the lives of three others. A few years later, my youngest daughter was in 1st grade when the horrible events of Sandy Hook took place, and pushed me even farther away from that uncompromising single-issue voter stance. Then, after years of watching our elected officials dig in to some polarized trench warfare system, I felt the need to get involved.  At the 2018 March for Our Lives town hall, as a lone gun owner in the room, I got up and spoke to a room full of anti-gun politicians and [Moms Demand Action] volunteers. I claimed there was middle ground and I volunteered to help them however I could in that search. My dream was that I could build a bridge. That I could be face the local Moms volunteers would think of when they thought of gun owners and not the far right militia members they see on T.V. I spent 4 years volunteering with Moms. I travelled to the state capital and tabled at their BE SMART outreach programs. I used my NRA member status to advocate for universal background checks at our state representative’s office while wearing the red Moms Demand shirt. I made a lot of good connections with people that I still hold today, but after 5 years I felt like I was beating my head into a brick wall. No one in leadership wanted to hear my thoughts. After what felt like the millionth time explaining how “bans” don’t work, I gave up. 

This editorial gives me hope. The ideals laid out in the “how it can change” section are spot on and I believe would make a big difference. Our elected officials and mainstream media outlets profit by proliferating this divide and we have a huge hole to dig ourselves out of.

—Dennis E.

Rethinking Fear, Rights, and Responsibility

I initially opposed Michigan’s Red Flag Law and am still a bit wary of it. Using civil law to confiscate property without due process can be easily abused. And the burden in civil law is much lower than in criminal law. I don’t have data on if/how many gun owners have had their firearms taken and had to jump through hoops to get them back, all because someone was “afraid”. But so far, I haven’t heard that this law is being abused.

I was also opposed to Michigan’s gun lock law and still am to some degree. It says that any home that has minors in it, the guns must be locked. My issue is that if I need a gun right away for self-defense I don’t have the time to fumble with a trigger lock. But, this law did have an out – a gun owner cannot be charged with the crime of not having the guns locked UNLESS a minor uses those guns in an unlawful manner. Without that stipulation, I would have completely opposed it. Now I am, although still guarded, OK with this law. I teach my kids firearm safety. I also leave my guns unlocked. 

I do have a hard time understanding why someone’s fear should force others to change their lifestyle. Should I not be allowed to own an AR-15 because someone is afraid? Fear is a problem for the person who feels it. A point—social media inflates gun violence to a degree where it FEELS as if any shopping mall could be a target. The reality is that we are very unlikely to get shot in most communities. Some of the fear, I believe, is unfounded. But this is where dialogue comes in to help us understand each other. If all we have to do as gun owners is allay the fears of the non-gun owners, this may not be as big an issue as I first thought.

Politics- I am an Independent voter. For us gun owners, we see the push to ban semi-autos as an obvious political move. More people are shot by those using handguns in inner cities than those shot by people using semi-autos. But yet the media focuses on the semi-autos. Small town/rural Americans tend to own more semi-autos. They also tend to vote more Republican. So there is a feeling that the Democrats are deliberately targeting us rather than solving the problem. 

—Thomas M.

How a Conversation With My Son Changed My View

I was always “guns are a weapon” and meant danger, violence, and fear. My son has the opposite belief.

His dad was more “country” and my son was in the Marines. I grew up in the burbs. You can see how we can have different beliefs due to what we saw growing up. 

Honestly, I’m the one who changed when my son sat me down and explained his position, as well as told me how he practiced gun safety and education for his family. They actually practice and maintain their guns regularly.  This shows respect for them, rather than seeing guns as a weapon of power or for destruction. This made me fear guns less. 

Required education and practice make sense to me. 

—Deb S.