The Atlantic: "What Liberals Need to Understand About 'Gun Guys'"

[poopgiggle]

The Atlantic Monthly recently published an interview with the author of a book that was just released called Gun Guys: A Road Trip. The guy is a gun enthusiast who's also a Democrat who used to write for the New York Times. I haven't read the book but I plan to.

Dan Baum is not your typical gun guy. He has a lifelong love of firearms he can trace back to the age of five. But he's also a Jewish Democrat and a former staff writer for The New Yorker and feels like a misfit next to most gun owners, who identify overwhelmingly on the conservative side of the spectrum.

In order to bridge this gap, Baum set off on a cross-country journey, chatting with everyone from a gun store owner in Louisville to a wild boar hunter in Texas to a Hollywood armorer. The result is Gun Guys: A Road Trip. I spoke with Baum about his trek through gun country and why this issue is one of our nation's most complicated and politically divisive.

I'm posting this without comment, except that I thought this was interesting:

At the end of this trip, did you feel any less conflicted about your place in the gun world?

No. I still don't really belong in either camp. If you watch the reaction to the book when it comes out, you will see that. I'm no less a Democrat than I was, but I am more attuned to the gun guy complaint -- "I am over-managed and I am under-respected as a citizen and a human being." I think the right has a point there. We need to stop fearing capable, empowered, independent-thinking individuals.

 

[nikatkimber]

The Atlantic Monthly recently published an interview with the author of a book that was just released called Gun Guys: A Road Trip. The guy is a gun enthusiast who's also a Democrat who used to write for the New York Times. I haven't read the book but I plan to.



I'm posting this without comment, except that I thought this was interesting:

At the end of this trip, did you feel any less conflicted about your place in the gun world?



No.
I still don't really belong in either camp. If you watch the reaction
to the book when it comes out, you will see that. I'm no less a Democrat
than I was, but I am more attuned to the gun guy complaint -- "I am
over-managed and I am under-respected as a citizen and a human being." I
think the right has a point there. We need to stop fearing capable,
empowered, independent-thinking individuals.

Bold red part my emphasis. This is how we should identify ourselves, not as right or left, conservative or liberal.

As long as my neighbor doesn't try to restrict my rights / beliefs with law, I don't fundamentally care what his political views are.