Tom Knighton has it right at Bearing Arms when he notes with respect to a recnt story out of Chicago that This Is Not Gun Culture. It is actually the opposite of gun culture. It is in fact gun barbarism.
The actual "gun culture" includes things like the Appleseed Project, the International Practical Shooting Confederation, the International Defensive Pistol Association, along with the National Rifle Association and many state organizations like Grass Roots North Carolina. It includes the many responsible hunters, concealed carriers, and sport shooters who constantly train to maintain the skills required to be responsible gun owners. And of course, it includes the many trainers and writers for various publications. The gun culture is NOT the problem with violence in Chicago, or anywhere else.
Speaking of violence committed with guns, the WBBM News Radio article embedded in the above article calls this "gun violence." The use of "gun violence" is a deceptive way to turn the reader's attention to the tool used rather than the true cause of the violence, the miscreant himself. Journalists don't use "fist violence" when writing about someone beating another with fists. They don't write about "knife violence" when discussing a stabbing. For all of these other crimes the writers place the blame where it belongs, on the criminal. It is only when the criminal uses a gun that they then write or talk about "gun violence." But the use of the term "gun violence" is a illegitimate as the use of any other tool to commit violence.
We here at Bearing Arms, as well as the other gun-related sites, are part of the gun culture of the United States, along with our readers. We value the Second Amendment and the freedoms that come from having the right to keep and bear arms and a nation that more or less respects that right.
We are the gun culture.
Unfortunately, a lot of people don't seem to understand what is and what isn't "gun culture."
This was made painfully obvious in a recent story out of Chicago.
Cherie Animashaun, 20, says her first memory of the danger of guns was when her mother wouldn't let her go to her favorite park anymore.
"I remember in kindergarten, I used to go to the park behind my house in Evanston, and, one day, my mom told me we couldn't go to the park anymore. She said it wasn't safe,” says Animashaun.
The Cornell University student and Evanston Township High School graduate didn't even know what a gun was, but she remembers being afraid.
"In first grade, you don't know the depth of the issue, but you can feel it,” Animashaun tells WBBM. “ I remember being terrified. For the most people I know, seeing guns growing up is almost a prerequisite to this generation."
For her and her peers, guns and gun violence have become the norm, something Nina Vinik soon realized.
"I've been working to reduce gun violence for the last 20 years,” Vinik says. “I was a young housing lawyer in the 90s, and a lot of my clients lived on the West and South Sides of the city. Gun violence was at its peak in the city, and West and South Side neighborhoods are the hardest hit by gun violence. I was tired of reading about violence happening on the blocks where my clients lived. It led me to see the ability to feel safe in our homes and communities as just a threshold issue for the ability for kids and families to thrive."
Project Unloaded, a 501(c)(3) organization, was born in 2022 after the rise of school shootings. One in particular sparked Vinik's activism.
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“That can make a difference in connecting with their peers in sending the message that gun violence is preventable, guns do not make us safer, and that little by little, by sharing those messages far and wide, we can chip away at the gun culture that is driving so much violence."
Please read all of Knighton's article. I don't know if these people intend to be insulting, or if it is just ignorance, but they insult everyone who is legitimately a part of the gun culture.
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