Houses are a combination of classic farmhouse and run down from age and wear, each molding with their landscape. Every few miles a historic mile marker sits just off the edge of the road, here Virginia’s rich history blends in with its natural landscape.

A bit off the road sits a modest house, with a big brown barn and an image impossible to miss, even as the car speeds past.

An American flag, with the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag painted proudly as it’s bottom left corner on the side of that big brown barn.

Up this road lives Mike Bowman, his wife, daughter and his daughter’s boyfriend. They have lived in this part of Virginia since the early 1900s and call this 200-acre piece of land, that barn and the old farmhouse, home.

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“I’ve been an outdoorsman for nearly 40 years,” said Mike Bowman. “I think the appreciation of the outdoors is going by the wayside. You know, because your newer generation today, they have parents who are scared of guns and ammunition, they’re not going to keep it in their house.”

He began shooting at age 11 or 12 with his father and shared the bonding experience of hunting and target practice with his son years later.

Bowman owns a small business, one that he grew into what it is today, from his father’s original business. He employs 30 individuals and said he worked hard for what he has.

“I grew up, I grew up pretty more,” he mentioned. “My dad was a plumber, I’ve been working for a long time, and I still work everyday, it’s Sunday afternoon and here I am, working.”

Bowman motioned to the trucks he was washing in what seemed to be preparation for the week ahead. He voted for Trump in the 2016 election and said that he’s very happy with him.

“I’m a businessman too, stocks are up, the economy is booming,” said Bowman. “I’d vote for Trump again, 100 percent I would. He speaks what’s on his mind—he doesn’t sugar coat.”

Sixty guns sit inside Bowman’s house, concealed in a safe that only he and his wife have the combination to. Bowman recalls parents calling the home and speaking to his wife, asking if guns would be loaded or accessible when their children were spending the night.

Bowman laughed, “Well, no there isn’t, I don’t leave guns just laying around loaded.” He added, “Now, I do carry a concealed weapons permit, because I do have that.”

He likes having the opportunity to help his son’s friends learn about guns, to teach them. Being a good gun owner involves common sense, values and respect, in Bowman’s opinion.

“I coach, and when I coach, I am coaching life lessons,” recalled Bowman. “Show up on time, and be ready when practice starts, work hard. I’m the kind of person who will help. I have no problem helping people, but you have got to want to help yourself.”

These were some of the things he taught his son when they began hunting together.

‘Everything we hunt, we eat,” he said. “It’s the best meat you’ll ever meet.”

As the conversation transitioned to gun policy, he said that it’s more than just mental health and background checks.

“They do great background checks, but they can’t check for mental health, and just because I have a gun doesn’t mean I am going to drive down the road and shoot someone because I can,” he said. “I don’t carry a gun because I am going to pull the gun out and shoot you.”

“There is always a stressor,” concluded Bowman. “People who don’t like guns don’t like guns. They don’t like hunting, they don’t like killing, and they don’t like anything about it.”

Other opinions of guns haven’t stopped Bowman from buying, collecting and using guns. Last weekend he won the most expensive gun in a raffle at a gun show he went to.

“That was pretty cool,” he said through a smile.

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Bowman said collecting guns was a tradition; he doesn’t keep a lot of ammunition and even has an AR-15 that he uses for target practice. He hunts from September 1 of the year through February most years, and only shoots when he can accurately see his target; to Bowman, this is responsible gun ownership.

Still, visible from the road, sits a sign, big, bold and painted without evidence of fading on the side of his big, brown barn, is the American flag trading its bottom left corner for the message “DON’T TREAD ON ME.”

“To me, it doesn’t have to do with the government, not at all. It just means, I don’t know, it means don’t dislike me. Don’t hate on me,” said Bowman.

The post Don’t Tread On Me appeared first on Gun March 2018.

Chen, 25, works in a small gun store nestled on a quiet block in Arlington, Virginia, only three miles from the White House. It has a door that opens with a handgun handle. Its website touts that it sells “high-end sporting and self defense arms and accessories.” Inside, the store bustles with activity only hours after the D.C. gun march. The diverse clientele strolling through the shop consists of women, whites, Hispanics and African-Americans.

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Chen is a graduate student studying National Security at Georgetown with hopes of one day working for the Department of Defense or Homeland Security, and he finds a particular interest in history as it pertains to guns and war.

He spoke heavily on the nomenclature used in the media to describe guns and weaponry and how it is often incorrect.

“I think a lot of journalists, you know and don’t take this personally,” said Chen. “But that’s just not what they specialize in, and it’s hard for them. A job in journalism means fair balance.”

He went on to explain the terms like semi versus fully automatic, assault weapons and explained that the textbook definition of an assault rifle is a Select fire weapon using an intermediate caliber so select fire basically means it can go from semi-automatic to fully automatic or some variant of fully automatic fire.

Chen had a lot of insight on the gun debate, partly because he spent his childhood bonding with his dad, who is a trauma surgeon in California, over target shooting and collecting guns.

“Where my dad was more interested in target guns, I just had an interest in older guns so I kind of had to cajole him over the years to switch over and be interested,” said Chen.

The gun debate sparks conversation about whether or not the Second Amendment is archaic.

“I understand how people think that way, but also the Constitution didn’t include social media, so if the Second Amendment only applies to muskets does that mean that the First Amendment only applies to print and how loud you can shout? Does that mean we all need to control social media or have government mandated accounts and ban assault accounts?” he laughed. “I know that that’s a gross generalization, but it’s the prospective that worries me. What concerns me is how many times until we say that could never happen here, and then it does.”

According to Chen, the average gun owner in Virginia does not necessarily fit a profile. He said that gun owners encompass men and women of all backgrounds including a spike in gun owners in the LGBTQ+ community after the Pulse Nightclub Shooting in Orlando, Florida in 2016. An organization called the Pink Pistols saw an increase in membership after fear of hate crimes.

“We do need to talk about guns, we need to talk about it. That’s how democracy works; we work to come to an agreement, to listen to each other,” said Chen. “You will find the anti-gun people talking with the anti-gun people and the pro-gun people are talking to the pro-gun people and everyone is upset, but if we talked about it, we might have a different result.”

Guns hold a special place in his life, as a bonding moment with his father and a tie to history.

“I’ve been shooting since I was 11 years old. I am really into guns, but the thing is, the worst thing is not, not knowing something, but thinking you know something you don’t. And not to be biased, but I think that it happens a lot with the anti-gun side, but the pro-gun people aren’t sharing that knowledge or that experience.”

Chen reflected heavily on both his relationship with guns as well as the gun issue. Chen while at work took time aside to educate and discuss the issue as an individual, separate from his place of work, to an extended degree and even extended his personal information to continue the conversation.

“What difference does it make if I post all over Facebook that I am pro-Second Amendment? People who know me know my stance, and it’s not worth the argument, but I am always excited to help educate people who are truly interested in my educated opinion and the knowledge I’ve acquired,” said Chen.

The post Each Gun Tells A Story: A Graduate Student Explains appeared first on Gun March 2018.

Elton Howard, who is African-American, was 7 years old when he was sitting in a car with his mother, her estranged husband, and his younger half-sister. Howard says he jumped out of the back seat of the car when the man shot his mother five times. She was 26 years old at the time, and, almost 40 years later, still suffers from aliments resulting from the shooting.

“I’m pretty screwed up, but I think I maintain well,” Howard said. “I’ve been to therapy. I’m pretty resilient mentally and I’m pretty aware of the damage.”

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Although Howard has witnessed gun violence, and he believes raising the age to buy a gun and eliminating the sale of toy guns is responsible, he owns several guns, which sit in a bag at his house. The reason he purchased a handgun at the Dulles Expo Center in Virginia, home of the Nation’s Gun Show, was to connect with his son. Guns are his son’s “thing,” he said, and the pair enjoy going to the range to shoot.

“It all goes back to a childhood thing like playing with toy guns. If you allow fantasy to become reality then there is something wrong mentally,” Howard said.

Even though Washington D.C. has some of the tightest gun regulations in the United States, Howard admits that people simply travel to areas with looser laws to purchase guns. According to the Metropolitan Police Department, firearms remain the number one weapon used to commit homicides, accounting for approximately 70 percent of murder weapons. Howard says the United States is in dire need of stricter gun laws across the nation and a better understanding of mental health.

“Mental health is the reason people commit violent crimes. Violence is a mental health issue period,” he said.

Howard did not participate in the March for Our Lives on Saturday afternoon because, he said, it is a youth movement, but he thinks movements like it are much needed.

“I agree with the march, it’s necessary. Big business runs the country, and the gun manufacturers have a lot of clout,” Howard said. “I just didn’t think it was necessary for me to attend.”

The post The Lyft Driver at the Intersection of the Gun Divide appeared first on Gun March 2018.

Paul Goss and his partner, Christy Forman, sit behind a table littered with historical weapons, battlefield brochures and business cards inside the commercial exhibits building at the Prince William County Fairgrounds, talking to firearm enthusiasts. Goss speaks quietly, with a thick southern accent, when he talks about his family’s history. His great-great-great grandfather was a Confederate soldier in the regiment that shot Stonewall Jackson, but he only stumbled upon the connection after doing some research.

Often playing Stonewall Jackson in living history reenactments, Goss shows affection for the controversial monuments that stand throughout the South. Many monuments in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Alabama and Louisiana have been vandalized, defaced and destroyed by protesters who argue they honor slavery.

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“Leave the monuments alone,” Goss said. “They’re not hurting anyone.”

According to the Civil War Trust, J.E.B Stuart, a friend of Robert E. Lee, was a Confederate States Army General during the Civil War. Stuart successfully led his regiment in the First Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia on July 21, 1861.

A sad expression crosses Goss’ his face as he describes his role in a Virginia school’s name change from J.E.B Stuart High School to Justice High School. Because he showed up to talk to students wearing a full Confederate uniform, they called him a Nazi.

“Stuart’s only sin was that he fought for the South,” Goss said. “You have to look at history in context, not cherry pick to support an argument.”

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Goss, a proud gun owner and member of the NRA, and Foreman are dissatisfied with media coverage of the gun debate. Although he thinks the March for Our Lives is senseless, he does not oppose raising the minimum age to purchase a gun.

“If they put more historians on the news, there would be a more rational discussion,” Forman said.

“You can’t discuss anything with anyone,” Goss said. “I’ve tried to.”

The post Historian Studies Civil War, Confederate Battles appeared first on Gun March 2018.

The V.G.C.A is a non-profit organization that serves approximately 350 members with interests ranging from muskets to machine guns. The organization promotes gun collecting as a hobby and the education of guns and gun safety. The organization sponsors monthly presentations, two educational gun shows per year, and youth shooting programs.

Men, women and children were engulfed in a sea of Army green and the smell of dust upon walking through the doors of the commercial exhibits building. A small Vietnam-era Jeep outfitted with a machine gun was parked just inside the doors. The building was brought alive by vendors from organizations like the Remington Society and the Manassas Battlefield Trust. Inside, several vendors expressed that they did not trust the news media, and photos and videos were not allowed. A gun once used at Gettysburg sits in a display case not far from German military World War I helmets and medals Rows of handguns and AR-15s are for sale next to antique weaponry and bags of bullets going for $20.

“You should try to get every perspective, and I bet you didn’t see that downtown yesterday,” NRA member and Confederate historian, dressed in full Confederate uniform, Paul Goss said.

After being granted a charter by the state of New York, Union veterans Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate formed the NRA in 1871, with a mission to “promote and encourage shooting on a scientific basis,” according to Church.

According to their website, in the early 1900s, the NRA took interest in promoting shooting sports among youth, and established rifle clubs at all major colleges and universities in the nation. Today, more than 1 million kids participate in NRA shooting events with groups and programs including 4-H, the Boy Scouts of America, the American Legion and others. The NRA says it is committed to training, education and marksmanship, especially when it comes to youth, hunting and law enforcement.

“A lot of people are scared to death of guns,” vendor Mike Aslop said. “Once you take them out and teach them to shoot, they’re amazed.”

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Outside of the commercial exhibits building stood a white trailer with a kitchen stove serving cheap southern comfort food. Hotdogs and hamburgers cost $3 each, while fresh lemonade and ice tea cost $2. Men sat outside, enjoying the crisp spring weather, with cigars and cigarettes hanging from their mouths and rifles in their hands.  Beyond the gates sat a young firearm enthusiast campaigning for donations, supporting a youth shooting camp.

Inside, rows upon rows of cases lined with weapons were packed into neat aisles, accompanying streams of firearm enthusiasts. A grizzled man with a Stonewall Jackson-esque face stood over a case of historic weapons, encouraging education.

“I have a model 1853 infield rifle, single shot,” Goss said. “It’s an assault weapon because you can attach a bayonet to it. That is the definition of assault weapon.”

Goss and his young partner Christy Forman, two of the vendors at the event, sat behind a table and talked with guests about Confederate and Civil War history. They came prepared with living history photographs, battleground brochures and business cards.

“If they put more historians on the news, there would be a more rational discussion,” Forman said.

Unsurprisingly, event organizer and published author Rick Nahas seemed to have a strong distrust in the media. His four books all share the subject: guns.

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“Guns just get attention because it’s, I don’t know, glamorous,” Nahas said. “It’s an easy way to kill people. It gives you distance, separation. You can’t do that with a knife. You can’t do that with your fist.”

In February, President Trump stated that he is open to improving the background check system used to screen those attempting to purchase a gun. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, one percent of federally licensed firearms dealers are responsible for selling almost 60 percent of guns found at crime scenes and traced to dealers. On the day of the gun show, Virginia State Troopers arrested a 24-year-old man who falsified and failed an NCIS (National Instant Background Check System) check.

“He broke the law three times. He’s in jail now,” Nahas said.

Nahas spoke slowly and deliberately underneath his bushy white mustache. He talked extensively about the cause of gun violence, which he believes is the American culture. Connection was evident at the gun show. People made eye contact and spoke real words with each other, and the lack of technology was a startling change from the fast-paced, connected world of Washington D.C.

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“Humans aren’t talking to one another anymore,” Nahas said. “Look at these guys, you see anybody on a cell phone in here? Right now.”

No matter the side, Republican or Democrat, pro-gun or anti-gun, liberal or conservative, many people believe their opposition to be spouting “dumb BS.”

“There’s not a debate really,” Aslop said. “If both sides could sit down and talk, that would be great.”

The post Virginia Gun Collectors Association Gun Show Draws Crowd on March Weekend appeared first on Gun March 2018.