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TechnoratiHe Has a Gun and He Votes
For twelve years, I lived in Sunland, in the Verdugo Hills, the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains just north of Los Angeles. It was a white, working-class neighborhood where some folks still kept livestock; some had horses; you could hear roosters in the morning and many of the men had gun racks in their pick-up trucks.
We bought our first house there because we could not afford to buy a house closer to the center of the San Fernando Valley where our friends lived. The neighbors were forest rangers who worked in the nearby Angeles National Forest and repairmen of all sorts. It was common to see Christian bumperstickers on their trucks, often paired with "Semper fi," the insignia of the U.S. Marine Corps or various gun-related slogans, including the most popular, "We're rednecks, we'll keep our guns."
It always made me giggle to see a sticker reading, "Jesus Loves You," alongside "Insured by Smith and Wesson." God helps those who help themselves, I guess.
Our neighbor Rick was a tall, burly Marine veteran ("There's no such thing as an ex-Marine," he said) who is a legend in our family. Never to be found without a beer can in his hand, Rick would drop by to chat at the most amazingly opportune moments. On one of those occasions, my husband and son were huffing and puffing, trying to move a Spinet piano from the living room into the bedroom. Rick dropped in, saw the fellows struggling, put down his beer can and single-handedly picked up the piano: "Where do you want it?"
Once, I came out in the morning to find Rick standing in front of my house with a rifle in his hands. "Rick, what are you doing??" "There was a coyote (which he pronounced "ky-oat") in your garbage but by the time I got my gun, he'd left." Thank God, I thought to myself.
But my fondest memory is of a Sunday afternoon when I was washing my car. Rick came by to chat, and of course, to help. Seeing the new "Mondale-Ferraro" sticker on my car, he said, "So you're voting for Mondale." I held my breath; I didn't want to get into an argument and was well aware that we were unique in our neighborhood in our Democratic leanings.
Rick didn't wait for an answer. "Yeah, me, too." He then went on to explain that he wanted his daughter to have all the opportunities that his son would have. "Do you have any more of those stickers?"
I didn't so I never had the pleasure of seeing a Mondale-Ferraro sticker on a big Ford truck with gun rack in it.
Rick moved away before we did; his family was growing but the house wasn't. Sunland has changed drastically in the last few years. Nowadays, it has a far more ethnically diverse population and many Latinos live there.
I'd like to imagine a conversation with Rick today, now that our children are grown. Would he be asking me for an Obama sticker? What issues would be on his mind?
No doubt, with me, he would be worried about the economy. By now he might have his own business, so tax and employee issues would be on his mind. Only a few years my senior, he would he worried about his retirement just as I am about mine.
His elderly mother might be stricken with Alzheimer's Disease, as mine is, and he might be worrying about how to take care of her, Social Security, Medicare and prescription benefits much on his mind.
Rick is still white; while his own industry has probably raised his standard of living, I bet he still considers himself a working stiff, owns a lot more guns and still spends part of the hunting season in the Angeles National Forest. But then, as now, he would still think for himself and look down the line at the future, thinking of his grandchildren.
Much has been made of the Bradley Effect but the issues affecting our country weigh us all down. A few bigots might find it beyond their ken to vote for a black man but I believe that the desire we all have for a stable and secure future is a colorblind one. Who knows, maybe one of Rick's grandchildren is mixed race, like Obama himself. A lot has changed in the last thirty years. If we're lucky, this presidency will put an end to race as the major challenge to our society.
32 Comments so far
Show All"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ...Thomas Jefferson
If there weren’t 150 million guns in this country all of us radical lefties would already be in the FEMA camps along with the anti-gun liberals and this discussion would be moot. Gun ownership is an insurance policy that I hope we never have to cash.
I was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war, but I own some guns and I voted for Nader. I target shoot but don’t hunt, never wanted to kill anything, still don’t.
However, I consider myself a well regulated militia of one and a defender to the death of the Constitution. The first day of martial law would be as the old Lakota saying has it, “A good day to die.”
It’s only a life and I’ve got a million more where this one came from.
Nothing exists.
A Quaker homesteader was sleeping upstairs with his family,and awakened by the front door being jimmyed open.He jumped out of bed,grabbed his muzzle loader and surprised a burgler at the bottom of his stairs.He lowered the rifle towards the intruder and said,"friend I would not harm thee for all the world ,but you are standing where I'm about to shoot!"
That said,do we really need to be able to own 50 caliper machine guns?Machine pistols,armour piercing rounds or "cop killer bullets"? I don't think so.Hunters don't need them,gun enthusiasts can go to a speacially licenced shooting range to fire automatic weapons.
I recently heard of a child killed by an Uzi at a gun show.A preteenager who was supervised by trained adults,as his poor father looked on. .He lost control of the weapon and shot himself in the head.
I think we need to arm ourselves with love and compassion for each other.Maybe we aught to tighten up rules on tazers,mace,and some of those non-leathel weapons too.
Oh and while were at it ban airial Wolf hunting . Support the right to arm Bears!
peace
you can noy own a 50 Cal. machine gun unless you have FFL specific for that weapon, at least legally, same goes for Automatic rifles, Machine pistols as well. Now you do not need a FFl to own a Semi-auto rifle or pistol, No one can buy Armour piercing rounds and what do you consider "Cope Killer Bullets"? Have you ever been to a Gun show? Have you ever been Hunting, if not then shut up!!! You have no idea what you are talking about Pal!
Yes dagger,I have hunted and fished when I ate meat.Now I like to hunt with a camera.OK you make some valid points,I saw a 50 cal sniper rifle ,semi-auto for sale at a sporting goods store in N.Y.,not a machine gun, a few years back.It could probably pierce an engine block at 100 yards.My point ,lots of folks are against all gun laws,and some collectors would buy a rocket launcher if they could!
As far as exotic ammo goes, it is out there.I believe any round designed to penetrate body armor ,teflon coated for example,have no legal civilian use.I went to a gun show 20 years ago and saw full auto conversion kits for semi-auto rifles with high volume clips.Poor Bullwinkle!
If you google "8 year old boy shoots self with Uzi at Mass. gun show" you will probably get hits as the story is recent.I believe the show was at a shooting club with a FFL.I saw the story on earthlink.
My point is that hunters and legal gun owners are not the problem,it is the perception that we have the second amendment right to own ,any "arms".It is the illegal,and many stolen weapons that are. peace
I would never own a 50 cal. sniper rifle seems rediculas to me, but I have not found where any of this type of rifle has ever been used in the commision of a crime.
I've lived in towns where we all had guns, and we also had some of the most backwater, reactionary local government around, churchy bigots and all. Gun ownership doesn't guarantee any freedom but the right to own guns. I'm all for the second amendment, but I think some of us put too much stock in it, no pun intended. I'd like to see the same levels of militance around union organizing, which is one activity that comes under the corporate state gun a lot more often then anyone wants to admit. But then, liberals, conservatives and libertarians often have a hard time admitting that capitalism sets about building militias and states as soon as it rides into town, because it takes a state to defend a class dictatorship. I'm for working class militias based on the rights of labor to be free of both business and the business state- and there is no other kind. When capital wants to recognize my right as a senior investor- and as a worker, I put my health on the line every day, a far larger investment then money- I'll surrender my right to a working class militia. Until that day, they can have my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Labor creates all wealth. We will call the shots, no pun intended.
This is one of those threads where most writiers seem to be saying "come together" on the issue of gun control, and the related issue of "posse comitatis" and the right to self-defense.
I live in a small midwestern town that cannot afford a police officer. There is one black family in town (mine is not it). The teens in this town are into skateboards and slacker dress with their butt-cracks showing. There is a huge obesity problem here, including among pre-teen couch potatoes. My house has been broken into via the back door late at night. My garden has been raided by neighbors. My motorcycles have been stolen. A neighbor's teenage son thought nothing of driving his ATV through my yard and running over a pear seedling. The town has used my back yard to park heavy equipment, with considerable destruction to the yard, in clear trespass. Utility and cable TV trucks often sit in my back yard with their Deisel engines running and burning my lawn.
Nobody cares anymore. They are gonna do what they want to do. I own a lever-action .22 rifle (remember "The Rifleman"?). I'm a good shot. In the Greater-Cincinnati area, Obama is flooding the airwaves with ads on the evening news saying he supports the Second Amendment.
Most of us these days are feeling like victims, and most of us probably are victims. Even paranoids have enemies. We are about to enter into a domestic economic disaster probably worse than The Great Depression. I would prefer a collective community response to it through which people respect and help each other, as the author of this piece obviously seeks. But I'm not betting on it.
Either we come together to address our mutual slow destruction through a new paradigm or we are going to end up as a garrison state filled with "safe rooms" and an economy running largely on Blackwater.
Blackwater Down! Locksmiths of the world Unite... But I digress...
-30-
I am a gun owner and collector of vintage firearms and I plan to vote for Obama, but if he proposes any new Gun Control, he will lose my vote the next time around. I am voting for him to fix Health care and the economy not messing with my rights as a gun owner.
same here. i am a lifetime member of the NRA but am voting for obama, and i don't agree with the nra's endorsements. the thing i am concerned about is their policies on the 2nd amendment.
I don't think you will have to worry about that, or at least I hope not. When an issue becomes as obviously one sided as gun control, politicians get the hint. Democrats know that gun control is a quick ticket back out of office, so they won't go there.
I, personally, always vote Democratic, but have always thought they were dead wrong about gun control and it was the one issue on which Republicans had a point.
A few years ago George Will was in town. Despite my aversion to being amid that many Republicans, I went to see him. He pretty much told a roomful of Republicans that the battle over welfare was over and that the American people had repeatedly voted in favor of social services, and to give it up.
So, most of these people know when a fight is over.
I hope Rosa is right about the Bradley effect, and how "a lot has changed [on race] in the last thirty years."
A friend of mine who lives in a very Caucasian, very conservative and economically hurting rural county in southwest Michigan recently saw this hand-fashioned lawn sign in a neighboring farmer's yard by the side of the road:
"Obama for President. He is half white. That's good enough for me."
I've heard similar sentiments recently couched (in casual, unmixed social settings) by some very unlikely looking white working class voters declaring Barack Obama is "an okay black man..... one of the good ones", or even "I'm so mad, I'll vote for the colored man this time before I'll let them get away with it."
It is often startling or scary to hear white people verbalize such things in the run up to the election. And of course, these rationales all do express forms of white racism.
But if this sort of reasoning process dynamics is at work elsewhere, in other demographic groups or other geographic regions where Barack Obama is supposed to "have difficulty relating to voters", there's hope.
Big time.
Bill from Saginaw
That's right Rosa!
Listen to this. Obama's first test AND his first win was in Iowa, which is about 98% white. If Iowa can do it (and we DID), then the USA can do it!
Vote Obama/Biden!
A really thoughtful article. I bet Rick still has his guns, but I bet his truck has an Obama sticker on it.
You would be amazed at how many Democrats are militarism supporters, too! If they were against American militarism they wouldn't be voting for Democrats.
BINGO!
-- EKATON --
There are a lot of false divisions that are going to crumble and with them divisions among us. I have never owned a gun but I will put faith in the core heart of individuals who choose them.
Theres an old Quaker story of William Penn who became a 'convinced Friend' after a life in the military. He apparently felt at odds with his new found balance and habit of the scabbard. An Elder responded to his concern ..."Carry it as long as thee can".
We are called to live fearlessly, lovingly and faithfully.
gnken
Well written Rosa. I had an experience last week in a small community I live in Rural Maryland. It is a Republican Voting district. Many are very well to do that own large second homes with large pleasure boats and living along the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. About 30 years ago the people I mentioned lived along the water. Now many live inland and have become part of the community. I am republican and voted for Clinton twice and (as much as I hate to admit) voted for GWB in 2000. I will never make such a mistake again. A retiree came into the local coffee shop last week and with frustration started telling some folks including me that Obama will be taking away our guns if elected. I could not hold back any longer and advised him that Obama will not take away anyones legal right to own a gun. Some assault type weapons may get more restrictions and semi auto hand guns which are dangerous if misused and designed for one thing to "kill people". He would not take away your shot guns, rifles or proper hand guns. Oh no this man continued to cut me off and say oh no the Constitution says I can own a gun. I then started quoting "A well regulated Militia - being necessary / cut me off and say there you go sounding like those liberals / I told him I was quoting the 2nd amendment / Oh I know It I have a copy. "Ok I said quote me the 2nd amendment. Oh I dont have it with me, he said. Oh but you told me you know it." I then showed him a book signed by Naomi Wolf the night before "Give me liberty" and I told him that there is a problem with folks talking patriotism and real Americans and who are anti Americans. I told him that I have a problem with how one is to be An American and false patriotism. Well that did upset him. About a half hour later I was riding down the street starting off on a 20 mile workout on my bicycle and this guy Ed we will call him, Stocky build thick beard, driving his big pick up rolled up. His wife is the co-owner of the coffee shop.I greeted him and told him I was going to apologize to his customer Ralph whom I had upset. He told me - "Kenny I wouldnt apologize to him". He said he was glad I said what I did. As well he said I was very good in the way I corrected a woman a week before who was upset at ACORN. He told me I had my facts in order. Your friend Rick is alot like my friend Ed. Ed did tell me he is voting for Obama.
Interesting. While I am no supporter of gun control, I am often perplexed these days at how the blind supporters of the NRA fail to actually read and understand what the 2nd amendment actually says and means. It is bad enough that these same people have been trained by the NRA to blindly trash the Constitution save the 2nd amendment but even there they seem to be showing more mental symptoms of interpreting it whatever way suits the corporate interests. I'm not a member of the NRA but am instead a member of a local gun club that actually tries to fight for better healthcare and a better environment. Too bad the same cannot be said of the NRA these days. Maybe more voters are starting to wake up and find out that the NRA is nothing more than another corporate fraud toying around with people's love for guns to exploit their economic sanctities. It is sad that even at a time like this, people are more concerned about losing their guns and bible more than the real losses happening right under their noses such as losing their business and/or jobs, wages, healthcare benefits, and even their own homes. No wonder Obama was forced to refute gun control lest he lose like Gore and Kerry. Sure, we're not yet in the middle of another Great Depression but we sure as hell are getting there. It would be nice if more people were reasonable like Rick and Ed/Stocky and knew where to place their voting priorities where it really counts.
Wait, what do you consider a "Proper Handgun"?
A Colt 'government issue' .45 cal. semi auto.
Thank GOD Obama isn't bringing up gun control or even my state wouldn't be in play by now. By the way, I used to be too much of a gun nut until the madness cost me my job, my house, and misery unto my wife and two daughters. It was then that I finally decided to put down my guns and my wife even had the heart to reform my ways so that I would solve life's problems peacefully. I think Rick would want to do the same. It's too bad that when one is in the Marines, they are convinced that peaceful solutions are somehow not solutions but instead shoot shoot shoot and ask however later.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
Well that goes for any Hobby, if you become too obsesed , you begine to lose prospective. I have known many of good friend who damaged thier marriage because og Gulf, sports and motor cycles. Nothing wrong with a hobby such as gun collecting as long as that does not consume your life.
Joe
"It's too bad that when one is in the Marines, they are convinced that peaceful solutions are somehow not solutions but instead shoot shoot shoot and ask however later."
Oops, not truly the case. Most Marines are trained to use the least force possible.............and if you can find a way to solve a problem without force, so much the better. Lives are too valuable to waste. At least that was my training and I don't think its changed much.
But then more people who go into the Marines stay there even when they know they risk losing their lives. The saying "once a marine always a marine" troubled me. I don't know much about the marines but in my area, people who are in the marines appear to be die-hard mccainiacs. Something's not right or I'm not understanding the marines correctly?
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
Well there are nuts in every group and the ones that talk loudest usually pounded a typewriter in the rear. If a guy is telling you how tough he is or telling you all the fighting he did, you can pretty well count on him never having seen combat.
I've told people here things I've never told my wife or anyone else. She has no idea where I was or what I saw and I'll keep it that way. Guys usually prefer not to remember if they can.
If you were a real Marine, you will always be a Marine, its a brotherhood so to speak. My Dad could walk into a gathering of youngsters (he served in WW2) and be immediately welcomed and respected for his service.
There are others that served that have other views and I don't say they are wrong for them, this is just my view. But I do think it is shared by most Marines.
I don't know if that explains it at all, but its the best I can do generally.
You would be amazed at how many liberals are into guns. If Dems keep focusing on what really matters in this country and not scapegoating guns or stereotyping gun owners as crazy right-wing fanatics, they will never lose an election.
Spot on. I am an ardent support of the 2nd amendment yet also support progressive policies. I am tired of hearing "gun nuts" from the left, when we actually have much in common. enforce the gun laws existing already. I once had to have a gun to protect myself against an assault that might have cost me my life (thankfully i didn't have to use it) but noone can tell me we can get rid of guns and everything will be a-ok.
Well, I don't know if I'm "liberal" or not, but...
I do own guns - not the machine guns that some people I know used to stockpile. But a couple of rifles. And, I would not relinquish them voluntarily. As long as criminals have guns, I will keep some on hand, too.
Whenever our government is good enough to disarm the criminals, then they can have mine.
I also don't have a problem with hunters or hunting as long as it's for food. Though, one avid hunter friend of mine used bow and arrow and didn't even own guns.
No gods, no kings
It is best to have guns bcause the government IS "The Criminal"!!!
Scratch Open A Cynic And You Will Find An Angry Idealist.
I'm a Libertarian. I support both the first and second amendments. I also oppose the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, illegal wiretaps and the war on drugs. In other words, the less government the better.
me too. why do we have to choose between the 1st or the 2nd? mccain is not that ardent a support of gun rights actually. a vote for him isn't a vote for 2nd amendment rights
Obama, who is nothing if not a brilliant fundraiser and pitchman, has certainly taken your argument to heart. I'm in a swing state and I see more Obama ads from a guy with a gun saying he's a hunter and Obama supports the rights of the 2nd Amendment than I see NRA ads for McCain. Obama out-campaigned the Clintons; with that resume it's no wonder McCain is toast.