GUNS AND PARTISAN POLITICS

It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again

- Ashley Hlebinsky

Did you know you can own a firearm regardless of political affiliation? Of course, you did. So, if pretty much everyone, regardless of politics, can own and have owned firearms, why is “the gun” today considered only a tool of the Right?

Too bad that answer isn’t simple. However, there’s plenty of blame to go around. Some may reference the National Rifle Association — see Ackerman McQueen — for what was a successful campaign to unite its current membership base using identity politics. Through their “I am the NRA” campaign, they united people from all walks of life, economic status, races, genders, and sexual orientations through the common need for self-defense. In a sense, they framed a collective political identity for an individual right. That is, of course, as long as you weren’t a liberal snowflake. And on the flip side, recent Democratic politicians have a nasty habit of fighting for gun control, highlighting to many gun owners on the Right hypocrisy in the term “liberal gun owner.”