Guns and Politics

This past weekend, I played secretary for Mike while he taught a Carry Concealed Weapon (CCW) permit class. I was the only Democrat in the room and as such, played the role of professional observationalist.

Upon our arrival at the gun club, we noticed a sign out front that said, "No Shooting of high powered rifles until further notice" The gun club is nestled in Ohio,'s winery country and the gunfire was frightening the migrant workers in the grape orchards. We found out that a ceasefire during the winery's growing season had been written into the gun club's by-laws. Some anti-immigrant slander got thrown around which quickly got changed into anti-illegal immigrant banter, when I mentioned that many Mexicans come here to escape the deadly drug wars in their homeland. Their fear of the gunfire may be due to it's triggering of deadly memories. The gun club is designed with bullet trajectory in mind so noise is all they have to be afraid of. No one handling a firearm responsibly is ever going to send a bullet off into grape country.

As the students began filing in, there was small talk about what each person would be shooting that day. I heard warm stories about relics passed down from grandfather to grandson that came with decades worth of instruction on care and responsible gun ownership. This small talk identified two things to me: one was the firearms' right to it's own history and sentimental value, the other was the aspect of mentoring a younger generation in responsible gun ownership.

One young man who had inherited a handgun from his grandfather talked about it the way some other twenty something might talk about his father's restored 1969 GTO. They had cleaned the gun together and shot it together. His grandfather had taught him all about the history of that gun's particular model and he could rattle it off verbatim. I was reminded of Model T Ford's as he mentioned the year in which the grip on that particular model gun was changed.

He exchanged stories on being taught how to behave around a firearm. These stories felt particularly poignant to me as the media only covers gunshot stories from the perspective of irresponsible handling that leads to an accidental death.

Another couple used to shoot every weekend, but hadn't for the past twelve years. Their weekends are now tied up with a 1971 Mercury Comet, which they proudly showed me a picture of. This class was a way for them to get back into the gun culture.

As the day wore on I mentioned that I was a Democrat and that I voted for the Brady bill. My opinion of firearms evolved after I moved from New York City to Ohio. In New York, deer don't run in front of your car. There are no wild boar rooting through your garbage and no black bear sightings. It is generally believed that the police can handle any altercations that come up, especially after Giuliani's iron-fisted police state approach to government. "We don't live in the wild west anymore." is a popularly over heard argument against guns in left wing circles. But out here in Ohio, remnants of the wild west do still exist. If a deer is hit and is suffering on the side of the road, generally the Police are called and the officer shoots the deer, thus ending it's prolonged suffering. Often times, the deer is then picked up by a local butcher who then donates the meat to a local food bank or church soup kitchen. But in Ashtabula county for example, the economic crisis has the county so poor, it's Sheriff's department is only running one cruiser. Ashtabula county is the crystal meth lab capital of the country. You better believe there is illegal gun activity going on. With one cruiser for the whole county, and equally cut back township police departments, the citizens are arming themselves as a means of safety against the drug addicts.

As the class began winding to a close, I passed out the test and the room fell quiet. As the tests were handed in, I looked at the scores while Mike was grading them. Nobody got below a B+. These were people who had been raised around firearms. They had a healthy respect for their lethal nature. You never touch a firearm you are unfamiliar with. You never carry a loaded firearm unless you are ready to use it. You never point the firearm in an unsafe direction, (meaning at a person). A firearm being carried safely should be carried with it's barrel pointing down toward the ground.

People began whispering to one another and I heard some more political sentiments. The word "nigger" got tossed around. I am always suprised at how acceptable that term is to some people. Only one person seemed to believe they were arming themselves against the Apocalypse, which seemed to be, in her opinion, when the Democrats eventually took over. I found that fairly amusing, seeing as we're barely ever in office long enough to do anything. Generally speaking however, gun ownership was being undertaken for logical reasons. There is a questioniare that students fill out that comes back to me as I am writing their names on their certificates. "Personal protection" is the number one reason the students want to carry a concealed weapon. Ashtabula county is probably the best example of why people are arming themselves. But as I looked at the addresses of all the students, I noticed that no one lived near Cleveland or Columbus. No one lived in an area with a high population density. I wondered if population density affects our mentality and our personal definitions of what safety is.

The National Institute of Mental Health reports that one in seventeen Americans suffer from a serious mental illness. Having bi-polar disorder, I will never be able to legally own and carry a gun. I'm ok with that. But I have noticed that gunowners that suffer from anxiety induced insomnia or who may be battling drug addiction are extremely reluctant to confront their maladies for fear of losing their guns. How safe and responsible are guns in the hands of people who are legal gun owners but whose lives may being undergoing some sort of crisis?


Prior to the class, Mike hung a photo of Obama on the gun club's bulletin board with a caption beneath it that read, "firearms salesman of the year". A couple of people pointed to the photo and said he was the reason they felt they needed to carry a concealed weapon. That puzzled me, since the ammunition companies are known for cutting back production of ammo during Democratic presidencies in order to keep the bias afloat. I wondered, in that moment where these folks were getting their information and if they were checking their information's sources. I wondered if I was double checking my own sources, or if I was falling for my own party's banter.

I wanted to write this because the partisanship in America has gotten way out of hand. I wanted to impart to the class, (and I did) that even among my most avidly left wing friends, none of them believed that a ban on hand guns would be an ethical move. I wanted to show this room full of Republicans that Democrats are not all left wing extremists, that some of us can actually be in agreement on some issues. But I think my words fell short. They didn't want to hear me so long as what I had to say failed to fall in with their beliefs. But I'm guilty of that as well. I'll defend my party vehemently in the face of any attack on it.

As everyone left for the day and I helped Mike clean up and close up the gun club, people helped move the tables back to where they belonged and everyone gave me back their pencil. They were polite and helpful. I almost wanted to believe they were more polite than most New Yorkers. But to say that would be falling for yet another untrue and unwarranted stereotype. New Yorkers are not as rude as they are made out to be, just as gun owners are not a bunch of Clint Eastwood wannabes.

Maybe some day we'll meet in the middle. Isn't that generally where the truth can be found?