June 7

PROFESSOR MEETS GUN: Part Three

By UD

In the museum tower of the NRA headquarters, there’s first a little store, and then a little theater with a film about the history and significance of guns in America. Vintage rifles line the walls of the theater, and American flags and eagles abound.

The film features figures like Annie Oakley, Dwight Eisenhower, and Theodore Roosevelt (standing triumphantly, gun in hand, over an enormous dead rhinoceros), and argues that guns are “an essential part of the American story — a link between our rights and our history.” It provides a time line of the development of guns, calling them a “beautiful marriage of art and technology.”

Clearly addressing people who grew up with guns, the film’s narrator says that they “awaken memories and strong emotions.”

UD wanders around the bookstore. Sample title: Thank God I Had a Gun: True Accounts of Self-Defense. She buys a shot glass with little handles in the shape of a pistol. UD doesn’t drink shots. She just likes the absurdity of the thing.

The first display to catch her eye is The Metamorphosis of an Amendment, a quick history of the writing of the Second Amendment. “Americans feared that tyranny could result from an over-strong federal government and president.”

There’s a Charleton Heston Gallery and a One Hundred Years of John Wayne exhibit, featuring many of the guns he used in his films.

An “Upland Bird Hunting and Waterfowls” exhibit reminds UD that though she thinks of guns and their cultures as totally alien, they’re not really. A photo featuring two hunters, their guns, and their English Cocker Spaniels has UD recalling her mother’s many such hunting outings with her Mason Dixon English Cocker Spaniel Club. Her mother didn’t do any shooting, but other people did.

The museum’s full of people looking with great intensity at each display and talking among themselves in great detail about this and that weapon, its use in the Korean War, whatever. Beyond the Metamorphosis exhibit, there’s really no propaganda in the museum; it’s directed toward gun aesthetes, if you will: People who find guns — their variety, their features, their embellishments, their capacities — beautiful and fascinating.

Back in the lobby of the other tower, waiting for her cab home, UD takes in the plushness of the place, inside and out. Well-landscaped, sparkling clean, almost opulent.

The wall behind the lobby reception desk (‘Welcome to Your NRA’) is a framed photo gallery of all of the men who’ve led the organization.

UD’s hungry, and considers getting a bite at the NRA Cafe, but she’s already called a cab.

Quiet, corporate, neat and friendly, full of ordinary Americans of all races, the NRA is masculine in feel but has plenty of women about. Cameras are everywhere, of course, and some of the staff eye me a little warily, but basically there’s an open feel to the place. It’s not creepy.

Comments

Not Creepy

...basically there’s an open feel to the place. It’s not creepy.

As I noted in my previous comment, gun owners are used to the misperceptions and mischaracterizations placed upon us by others. This, I think (whether you wish to acknowledge it or not) was another example. “Imagine that! The NRA museum wasn’t creepy! And all the people inside seemed normal!” Often this bias is quite unconscious, but it’s there.

If you would be more comfortable expanding your knowledge in typical professorial mode, I strongly recommend you acquire a copy of Abigail Kohn’s Shooters: Myths and Realities of America’s Gun Cultures. If you think you might be up for another expedition into alien territory, find a range in Virginia that holds Cowboy Action Shooting matches, and spend a day at one just observing and talking to the competitors.

I know a lot of people profess to hate the NRA (particularly in academia), but I have become firmly convinced that such hatred is due to ignorance and misunderstanding. Another book you might find interesting is The National Rifle Association and the Media: The Motivating Force of Negative Coverage by University of Toledo (OH) Professor of Communications, Brian Anse Patrick.

Kevin Baker, P.E., at 2:55 pm EDT on June 7, 2008

Well of course the place looks opulent. You have to go to the inner sanctum to see the guys with horns that are tearing the limbs off babies and eating them. Or find the hidden underground garage with the unmarked cars with thousands of guns in their trunks, just waiting to be sold on the streets of NYC.

Fiftycal, at 3:00 pm EDT on June 7, 2008

Ms. Sandy Froman — former NRA President

“The wall behind the lobby reception desk (‘Welcome to Your NRA’) is a framed photo gallery of all of the men who’ve led the organization.”

Guess you did not see the picture of Ms. Sandy Froman (NRA President 2005-2007)? http://www.nrahq.org/youth/enews/graphics/Sandy_Froman.jpg

She is the first Jewish, Stanford-educated NRA president and second female to head the NRA. The NRA’s first female president was Marion Hammer (1995-98.)

Thanks for telling us about your experiences. More people in academia would benefit from a trip to the gun range.

As for those who think only the State should possess guns, well, they are in very good company. Hitler, Lenin, Mao, Pol Pot — they all thought the exact same thing.

There is a reason the founding fathers wrote the Second Amendment, and it was not so states could arm their militias.

As for guns in the classrooms in Utah, how many people have died so far as a result of that policy? It is extremely sad that the Virginia state legislature did not pass a law in 2006 which would have allowed concealed handgun permit holders to carry a pistol with them at Virginia Tech. The body count could have been a lot lower.

Respectfully,

XD Owner

XD Owner, at 3:00 pm EDT on June 7, 2008

If you’re interested in pursuing this topic any further I suggest the following:

(1) Get some instruction, visit a gun range, and try it yourself. You’ll get a better appreciation of what guns can and cannot do, and you might actually enjoy it. Visiting the NRA museum is a little like learning to drive by reading a Henry Ford biography.

(2) There’s a lot of useful background information in the amicus briefs filed at the Supreme Court for the pending Heller case. You can find copies of these briefs at the following website:

http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/pleadings.html

Thanks for at least being open minded on the topic.

PN NJ, at 3:00 pm EDT on June 7, 2008

Pictures

XD-Owner: Thanks for that correction. But no, her picture didn’t seem to be among the ones I saw above the reception desk. I’ll probably be back at the NRA, and I’ll take another look to see if she’s there.

UD, at 7:45 pm EDT on June 7, 2008

Thanks for posting this. I’m an NRA member, and a member of Gun Owners of America (GOA) and a concealed carry permit holder in my state but also otherwise a “Lefty” academic librarian. Recently an informational notice was send out on my campus about students possibly participating in the SCCC “empty holster” protest. The anti-gun hysteria ran pretty hot for the next several days. Since librarians don’t have faculty status at my institution and therefore are ineligible for tenure, I kept my mouth shut, but I was plenty steamed at the nonsense coming from some faculty on the campus listserv.

By state law, my concealed carry permit does not apply to state universities and I must not carry to work; I obey the law and relevant university regulations always. But outside of work, I do concealed carry basically everywhere else I go, and visit the range at least once a month.

I picked up a campus flier put out by our university restating the current campus policy and admonishing staff not to “engage in dangerous behaviors", equating concealed carry with such activities as drunken driving, etc, and stating blandly and stupidly that “the presence of any firearms increases the likelihood of their use", uselessly drawing no distinction between criminal use (Cho, et al.) and defensive use (Appalachia law school, etc.).

I think it will be a long, uphill battle before concealed carry is extended to qualified faculty and staff while on campus in my state. Our govenor has said he will work on it, but I’m not holding my breath.

JJR, at 11:05 am EDT on June 9, 2008

Into the gun culture

Few things fascinate the lifelong shooter and gun aficianado more than observing the observation of the non-gun/anti-gun person of the realities of the American “gun culture". My wife is a city girl, of Chicago, arguably the most anti-gun place in the country (despite DC’s and San Franciso’s strenous efforts to overtake it). A twice-degreed professional (gerontology) with a strong liberal background, plus ten years of municipal government experience, and much worse, the daughter and grand-daughter of Chicago policemen, she still chose to marry a person known to her to be a gun owner. The first decade or two there was not much discussion of the whole thing; the.45 under the proverbial pillow was an irritant and little more, excepting one unusual night. A single female neighbor called on the telephone for help, as an intoxicated young man was attempting to pound down her door at two a.m. Introduced to the sight of the barrel of the gun, he fell into quiescence as we waited the nineteen minutes for the police to respond. It’s hard not to have one’s thinking on such matters pivot witnessing an incident like that. Years later, thanks to the Internet, upon my discovering “action pistol” competition and finding it a way to create even more weekend morning destinations for our motorcycling, my wife found herself veritably awash in the “gun culture", surrounded by scores of guns and gun-carrying persons. Apart from the first few moments of moderate alarm, Ms. People Person quickly discovered a new verity that has stood the test of the ensuing years: that gun people, especially those engaged in the shooting sports, are among the finest, nicest, most easy-to-get-along-with people of all of the special-interest activities we’ve ever participated in (and that’s a loooong list). She even tried the competition itself a bit, but she’s none too mechanical (and views shooting guns as such... accurately), and she’s just not one for competition of any kind in the first place, for reasons both nature and nurture. That doesn’t stop her from coming along anyway. She revels in the social aspects and very much enjoys the people she’s met. And, of course, she feels especially safe in the company of armed gun people, now, safer than with her regular lefty buddies of yore, whom she has come to realize have far more anger issues than NRA-types.The irony is almost beyond comprehension.

W. P. Z., at 2:25 pm EDT on June 9, 2008

NRA’s woman leaders

The pictures above the reception desk are of the current officers.

Photos of past presidents (including Sandy Froman and Marion Hammer) are in the 2nd floor atrium).

John Frazer, at 5:30 pm EDT on June 9, 2008

NRA

I’ve been to the NRA headquarters to gawk at the guns, too. It’s pretty sedate. Probably the most interesting artifact on display is an antique gun used by the pilgrims, one of the first guns ever used in America.

I agree with UD that the NRA is not creepy at all. Certainly not as creepy as walking into an Obama campaign headquarters and finding a Che flag on the wall. Isn’t it odd how much the Left, who hate guns, love Che who exulted in gunning people down by the hundreds.

And really, the Second Ammendment is all about stopping future Che’s in their tracks.

Steve Gregg, at 3:25 pm EDT on June 10, 2008

You should have gone to the basement where the shooting range is. You can sit on a couch in a small observation area and watch shooters on the line punching holes in paper targets.

flashman, at 3:30 pm EDT on June 10, 2008

Responsibilities

Dear UD,

As a citizen I have the right to criticize bias, lack of thought, etc.

That also carries the responsibility to praise open, honest observation.

This praise I give to you now, with my thanks.

Far too many people would just go “but there are evil GUNS in there” with deep shock. Once, while working in a tobacconist’s shop a generation ago, we had a shocked customer saying “this place smells like SMOKE!!".

I do not know your politics. We may disagree. Should we disagree, we may have that all too rare situation, the ability to disagree, without being disagreeable.

Deepest respects, Sir

thenakedemperor, at 3:30 pm EDT on June 10, 2008

Kinda familiar

I’m reminded of watching an episode of O’Reilly where he recounted having gone to a black-owned, black-clientèle restaurant in Harlem, and was astonished to discover that when black folks dine in such a restaurant, they use utensils and engage in conversation, and remember thinking, as I do of UD, What planet have you been living on?

Joel Rosenberg, at 4:15 pm EDT on June 10, 2008

I commend you on being open minded enough to examine the reality behind one aspect of the “gun culture".

I come from the opposite end of the spectrum, raised in rural East Texas to middle class parents who had clawed their way up from lower class. We always had guns and I never thought that others did not have rifles leaning against the walls of their closets until I attended college. By the time I reached law school, I was aware that not only did many people not possess guns, but some thought I should not either.

I enjoy reading about those who choose to move past the rhetoric of both sides to reach the reality underneath. Those of us who see guns as valuable tools, like myself, are normal folk that you see every day at the store or at work. We may not share all the same beliefs, but then again, we may be closer than you think (e.g. I work at a major university).

DY, at 5:25 pm EDT on June 10, 2008

it’s directed toward gun aesthetes

Been called alot of things over my appreciation of firearms. Never been called an aesthete until today though.

Not quite sure how to respond.

ThomasD, at 7:00 pm EDT on June 10, 2008

“He expressed his belief that it’s very hard to have a peaceful society when guns are significantly outside the possession of the state.”

Gosh, I’m sorry Mr. UD believes that. Would he rather live in Zimbabwe or Rwanda or S. Africa where citizens cannot possess guns, or in Switzerland where every male of military age has either a machine gun or semi-auto? Or perhaps in London whose mayor recently remarked he felt safer in New York City — even though England banned handguns several years ago! Also note the most dangerous cities in America are almost uniformly those with the strictest gun control laws. In several American cities, the police have worse collective criminal records than do concealed carry permittees! And, lest we forget, the Nazis banned civilian firearms as soon as they had the power to do so.

“Sir” and “Ma’am” are honorifics often used by military and ex-military folks who are over-represented in the “gun culture.” They are drawn to the shooting sports, perhaps, by virtue of their actual knowledge of firearms as opposed to any imagined knowledge of same. They are almost always more respectful of others than are non-military-experienced people.

I’m delighted you have the perspicacity to educate yourself first hand rather than believe what you read in the media and see on TV. I hope your students appreciate you.

Doug (From the _sane_ WA), at 9:15 pm EDT on June 10, 2008

Cameras

I wouldn’t take the cameras personally, the contents of the NRA Museum are valuable, portable and fungible to a certain extent. I would imagine that they’re all quite functional as well, which would make the museum a target for people with crime on the mind...and exceptionally poor judgment.

There is also the fact that the NRA is perceived as a tentpole organization of the “right wing” is regularly demonized. A certain segment of the population would derive a base satisfaction from violence performed at or on the museum. Security there would seem to be a significant concern.

Shadowdoc, at 9:15 pm EDT on June 10, 2008

The scales fall

A friend took his wife to a gun show. She is becoming a shooter and a hunter. After wandering and chatting, she told him, “There are a lot of gentlemen here.”

My response was, “Gun show people are too benighted to realize that they need to demonstrate their deep and abiding respect for her liberation by treating her like shit.”

Simon Kenton, at 10:25 pm EDT on June 10, 2008

Answers for those who don’t understand guns

Here’s a website that has dozens of links to places where people can get good solid information about guns, guns owners, and the gun culture (if I may use such a phrase).

It’s well worth checking out.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Answers-f...-gun-control-is-the-best-for-America

Jack Burton, at 5:10 am EDT on June 11, 2008

Responses are encouraging

It’s heartening to see the response of readers who are not buying into the rhetoric of an academic who believes disempowerment of citizens is a hallmark of good government. There are reasons people want to live in the United States and Switzerland; both are nations that have chosen to empower citizens with the rights of self-defense.

Citizen firearm ownership is a good barometer of both freedom from fear of government and high quality of life of citizens.

I laugh every time I hear true believers in the left lunatic fringe of the Democratic Party parroting “gun lobby.” To see the real gun lobby, look simply to government and their agencies who supply oppressive governments. What the true believers are referring to are called “citizens” by the rest of us.

Prof Ed, at 5:10 am EDT on June 11, 2008

The Scales Fall Redux

Simon, that is without doubt the best amongst a bumper crop of quality responses. I’m shamelessly lifting it. . .

‘Berg

Mark In Kansas, at 11:05 am EDT on June 11, 2008

Dulles Expo

David: Many thanks for the information about the gun show. Going to a gun show sounds like just the transitional thing I might do between going to the range and actually starting to shoot.

I’m going to check my vacation dates to see if I’ll be in town during the show.

UD, at 8:10 am EDT on June 12, 2008