The Loneliness of the Liberal Gun Lover

In article titled (obviously) after "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner", Politico offers an delightful article describing a group of people who are decidedly on the "Left" side of the political spectrum ... but who enjoy shooting sports.

The people profiled would feel quite comfortable chatting with the guy who sits beside me in The Short Bus on the way to an IPSC match.  I liked the personalities described in the article.  People think that Conservatives are hateful .. we just like to be left alone to hatch our plots and go shooting on the weekends.   Anybody who doesn't think that Guns are the Instrument of the Devil is okay.

(I was kidding about hatch-plotting;

 life's too short and there are only so many shooting hours in a day.)

These people seem to have the same priorities.   At the range, we all just want to go shooting:

The Loneliness of the Liberal Gun Lover - POLITICO Magazine:

A lifelong liberal who had voted twice for Obama, O’Quinn [the primary interviewee] absorbed the insults in silence [when subjected to anti-liberal comments in a public forum]. Despite her love of shooting—she owns a 12-gauge shotgun that she likes to take out for skeet shooting—she was wary of going to a gun range because she didn’t want to run into anyone like her instructor, people who would use the image of President Obama for target practice. Three weeks ago, she found the Liberal Gun Club on an Internet search, and realized it would be holding its annual meeting an hour from her house. “I was so uncomfortable,” she said to the group. “I’m so happy to be here.” The room gave her a round of applause.

Here's the thing:  People Of The Gun are pretty much live-and-let live kind of folks.  At the range, we don't want to talk about politics.  We don't care who you vote for, we just want to feel confident that you are aware of the basic rules of firearm safety and won't be pointing your gun at us.

The only politics discussed are which politicians are trying to undermine our Second Amendment rights.   Answer:  Democrats.  The political positions are their choice, so we tend to vote the straight Republican ticket.   People of The Gun are usually single-issue voters.  Don't fuck with us, okay?

Pretty simple.  Basics are important when everyone around you is carrying a gun.   So I can understand when a person who votes for the politician who is running on the political platform of "Gun Control" is held in dubious respect by the people at a pistol range.

However, I agree that shooting at targets which depict a political opponent is, at best, very bad judgement.