David Yamane

There Are No Substantively Pro-Gun Liberals?

I was supposed to attend the Liberal Gun Club’s annual National Meeting in Las Vegas last weekend, but had to cancel because of my book writing deadline. That hurt.

The wound is being reopened now that photos from the event are making their way onto social media.

Insult to injury is that I skipped the opportunity to hang out with liberal gun owners to work on a book that an editor at a major trade publisher rejected for this reason:

“I don’t actually think that there is a substantively pro-gun or gun-curious yet still avowedly liberal audience anymore, so I’m not totally sure how or to whom one would successfully market this book.”

Maybe I should have donated my conference fee to that editor so he could get out of his orafice and see what’s happening in the world.

Oh, yeah, I also published an article based on nationally representative survey data that shows 20% of all gun owners self-identify as liberals, and by all accounts, the number of liberal gun owners is growing.

Fucking unicorns.

10 comments

  1. That’s funny but not funny. Maybe you should ask

    Had a brunch conversation with a pretty good friend the other day where he and my wife both cast me as a “conservative” because of my position on RKBA. I asked how many “conservatives” are for a universal public health care system, strong funding of public education from K-16, Roe v Wade as a model for abortion laws, voting rights, progressive taxation, a public jobs program, reform of criminal justice along the lines of Radley Balco’s books, and a carbon tax. Still waiting for their reply.

    Yeah. I advocate for a citizen’s RKBA. Perforce I should be wearing a MAGA hat?
    Maybe you should ask Greg Camp ( @GregCampNC ) to write a guest piece here. He is slightly to the left of Karl Marx.

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  2. We are seeing more and more liberal gun owners in our client base at Gunsite. Many of them are very novice gun owners to the point that we have added a “Day Zero” class preceding the 250 Pistol and the 223 Carbine Class for same. It helps them open the box, learn about equipment, shoot on a firing line, etc. prior to their first day at Gunsite. It is really taking off. Many of these are not our typical student. Many of the liberals are doing private classes as they don’t want their friends and neighbors to know, or they specifically request not to be on the class roster or in any photos. We even had the CEO and friends of an extremely liberal organization attend a private pistol class. An article in Wired magazine was positive for us and sends business our way. So, yes there are more liberals. And we look at it as an opportunity.
    Ken
    Sheriff Ken Campbell (Ret.)
    Chief Executive Officer
    Gunsite Academy, Inc.
    2900 West Gunsite Road
    Paulden, AZ 86334
    (928)-636-4565
    http://www.gunsite.com http://www.gunsite.com/
    “Work hard, do your best, and keep your word. Never get too big for your
    britches. Trust in God, have no fear, and never forget a friend.” Harry Truman

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  3. Almost every one of my friends is a liberal, and I can think of only one who is pro-gun (struggling author, grew up in rural NY State). I have about four or five friends in Calif. or the South who are likely all conservative, and all are pro-gun.

    My close liberal friend owns one stainless .22LR Smith & Wesson revolver (maybe a Model 63?) he inherited from his father. I’m certain he doesn’t go to the range. He lives far from me.

    BLEEPing Unicorns, indeed.

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  4. I’m a liberal, and have many left-of-center friends, some way farther left than me (including ‘Berners’), who own guns and dislike gun control.

    Of course, for the editor in question, ‘liberal’ = far left ‘progressive.’ That is but a small segment of the population, and increasingly insular & clueless about the rest of America. Their blinkered mindset is the same as the one pilloried in the famous ‘map of the world’ New Yorker cover, or the tongue-in-cheek comment by Joyce Carol Oates in 1972: “I can’t understand how Nixon was reelected; no one I know voted for him.”

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  5. I once identified as a liberal – then many liberals moved way left, most often indicated by their views on firearms and the 2A. While I was never a democrat – never had a party affiliation – my liberal stance mostly reflected democrat positions decades ago. Then they went crazy on guns, among other things – and have only continued to move in that direction. I no longer identify as a liberal for that reason. For the most part, my feet are firmly where they always have been, but the world has moved around me. But I am glad to hear not all have lost their minds.

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  6. DAAAYAM, David. That heat rose out of you, Big Time.

    On a serious note, I personally, believe that we all must let off steam from time to time lest we die a little from pent-up frustration. So if you wanna let off more steam, have at it. I got you. And I’m sure many more of us do, too.

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  7. It all depends on how you define a “Liberal”. I know certain folks who make opposition to firearms one of the prerequisites for them to consider you a “Liberal” (by which they really mean Progressive).

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