This week, The Pickup dropped its most-shared story yet: Henry Roanhorse Gray’s account of his time spent with the LGBTQ+ gun clubs popping up in and around Tulsa. This got us thinking: What do The Pickup readers think about guns?
It's an incredibly contentious topic. Come-and-take-it 2nd Amendment insisters live next door to total pacifists, and people along every inch of that spectrum exist, we’ve recently learned, on both sides of the American political divide.
Even with being raised rural, and having an after-school job where I weighed dead deer for the game and fish warden of Rogers County, I never touched a gun until I was around 29. As a budding pacifist, I took it as a point of pride. But after having a safe experience with some gun-safety training and supportive friends, I’m a little less scared of them than I was.
Still, there are issues. Eight in ten murders in the U.S. involve a gun, and recent years have seen the highest number of U.S. gun deaths (homicides + suicides) on record. The U.S. gun death rate is up to four times that of similar wealthy nations. The conundrum is obvious: Who wouldn’t be led to consider arming themselves to protect against a rising level of violence? There’s not an easy answer. I haven’t bought one, but I’m not ruling it out.
Obviously, it’s not all horror and fear. Some people manage to have a perfectly fun and legal time on shooting ranges and hunting trips. Henry's story, I think, navigated that tension quite well. If you haven't read that story yet, go read it now.
How about you? What’s your history with firearms? Do you shoot? How do you deal with firearm safety, and how do you talk to your children, if you have them, about it?
As always, feel free to disregard this prompt and talk about anything you want. It’s your website today, after all.
