Don’t Tread On Me

Driving along the country roads of Eastern Virginia, trees line the road and whir past car windows faster than eyes can process.

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.

“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.

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.