Keeping and bearing arms - PAFOA in Philadelphia Inquirer

[WhiteFeather]

PAFOA mentioned in article



http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/22852939.html

Keeping and bearing arms
Posted on Thu, Jul. 3, 2008
A book of photographs presents Americans with guns - the citizenry packing heat at home.

A lot can be learned by paging through photographer Kyle Cassidy's Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes.
Gun owners are married or single. Some have children. Many have pets, usually cats.

They have clean, almost sparse homes, or messy ones with unmade beds. The men are just as likely to wear camouflage - three - as they are to put on skirts or kilts - four. A few chose suits, one donned a Renaissance Faire costume, one wore his chef's whites.

In short, gun owners can pretty much look like anyone.

It's inaccurate to say the gun issue is hot right now, as it always seems to be. The difference is only in the intensity, and the fires are burning now.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that Americans have a constitutional right to have guns in their homes for self-defense, a decision that drew applause from the pro-gun people. Since taking office in January, Mayor Nutter has pushed gun-control laws that some say will fight crime in a city that averaged more than a murder a day in 2007. Others say they harm the law-abiding.

The passionate on either side might enjoy Cassidy's book if only to see if it reinforces their stereotypes.

Cassidy, 42, traveled 15,000 miles across the United States to shoot this collection. The West Philadelphia resident said he previously bought into the idea that a gun owner was "a guy in a dirty baseball cap with a pickup truck with a Bush/Cheney sticker on the back."

"Ultimately, so much of it surprised me," he said. "It made me realize we put so many stereotypes on people based on how they look or what their favorite movies are or what they wear. I realize I'm doing it all the time. We're all doing it all the time."

Since the book was released last summer, it has garnered international attention. For some, it reinforces the stereotype of the gun-happy American. An Australian newspaper noted that guns were a "U.S. obsession": "A home arsenal is all part of living the American dream."

Even a largely evenhanded article in a London paper ended with: "Meanwhile, the security moms are still buying more handguns, waiting for an attack on middle America by snipers from Al-Qaeda."

But in the United States, discussion has been more fair.

"It's part of the fabric of America, this debate," Cassidy said. "This book can be used by people on both sides. I'm pleased if that happens."

To meet gun owners, Cassidy had to become one. When he first went to a South Philadelphia shooting range and proposed his project, the reaction was not positive. "I think a lot of people suspect you're going to judge them, especially in Philadelphia, where there's so much gun violence," he said.

So he began target shooting, eventually buying a handgun. He found he liked it - and the people he met.

After six months, he had his first subjects, and from there it was a domino effect, with one subject contacting a friend or posting a picture on a blog.

Cassidy kept himself neutral: Most of the text in the book is the subjects' answers to the question "Why do you own a gun?" The answers, he found, created four general categories - hunters, sportsmen who enjoy forms of target shooting, self-defenders, and constitutionalists. They range from "I just think it's a good thing to have" to "As the founding fathers said, sometimes the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots. If that day comes, I will be ready. . . ."

The subjects chose their clothes and generally the background for the photo. When one subject offered a meticulously arranged gun display, Cassidy agreed that was the best place to shoot, indicating that the way the man had laid out the weapons "said more than I could ever say about him."

Sometimes, Cassidy chose the location for the photo, looking for interesting elements like an old church organ in one house or a room filled with hunting trophies.

Since the book hit the streets, none of the more than 100 people photographed has complained about a photo, Cassidy said. Many, like West Philadelphia residents Donno Layton and Judi Gilbert, are thrilled.

"I think everyone is portrayed completely evenhandedly," said Layton, 36, a tattoo artist. "There are people in there I'd love to meet and people in there I'm like, 'What is wrong with that guy?' "

He and his wife are featured on the book's cover with their son, 5-year-old Uzi - named after a character in the movie The Royal Tenenbaums, although the link to the gun of the same name isn't an unwelcome coincidence. The pair are dressed to the nines, in a suit and long black gown. Uzi is wearing Superman pajamas.

Layton said some pro-gun Web sites had postings indicating his photo portrayed gun owners poorly, like "We don't need the Addams Family representing gun owners."

But those people may be guilty of the same stereotyping Cassidy found himself fighting. The couple are careful with their guns, keeping them in a locked bedroom cabinet. Uzi can repeat what he should do if he finds a gun: "Don't touch it. Go find an adult," he said. (Brother Sledge, 4 months, hasn't learned that yet.)

Children who grow up with guns learn to respect them, said Layton, raised on a farm with a father who hunted.

"We all knew where the guns were and we all knew not to mess with them because we'd handled them and seen things killed with them. We knew the life-and-death power of them," he said.

Gilbert, 41, grew up in Arkansas and remembers her father teaching her to shoot a shotgun. She's also a midwife and a labor and delivery nurse who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. If someone finds it odd that a nurse owns a gun, that's their problem, she said.

"I'm not a one-dimensional character," she said. ". . . I look at my life as it's my job to defend my family, defend my home, defend my children. I'm not a wilted flower. I can protect myself."

And, she adds, "What's wrong with the Addams Family?"

Layton, like others in the book, jokes that he needs an assault rifle like his AK-47 "for civil defense, rioting, zombies in the street. . . ." But bottom line, he and the others are serious: Protecting oneself and one's family is paramount.

Daniel Pehrson, 26, bought his first gun for target shooting but began carrying one for personal protection. Recently, he was glad he did.

The Spring Garden resident was walking near Front Street and Girard Avenue when three teenagers surrounded him. One pulled a stun gun, zapped it a few times, and said, "Hey, check this out."

"I drew my gun and they ran like hell," Pehrson said, noting that the small pistol barely left the side of his leg. "It was a difficult and an easy choice. . . . The last thing on earth I want to do is think about hurting someone."

What if, he wonders, it had been his girlfriend walking alone unarmed when the men circled? What if he'd been listening to his iPod and someone decided the $250 device was worth more than his life?

Pehrson runs a nonprofit organization - the Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association - that aims to provide information about the state's nearly 500 pages of gun laws. In Cassidy's book, Pehrson looks barely out of his teens, a pile of pizza boxes in a corner.

"I'm a 26-year-old computer programmer. I'm a gun owner. My lawyers are gun owners. My friend who owns a bar is a gun owner. . . . People get the perception that gun owners are far away and they don't know them and they are bad people."

Pehrson wants the world to know that legal gun owners aren't the bad guys, but they're the ones targeted by gun-control laws. Take the idea of limiting buyers to one gun a month, he said.

"At first glance, you think, 'Who needs to buy more than one gun a month?' I make this analogy: How many grams of heroin are we allowed to buy a month? The answer is zero, but that doesn't regulate the trade. It just pushes things to the black market," he said.

Kenyatta Donley, 33, a marketing manager for a health insurance company, believes attempts by the city to pass gun legislation are "disingenuous at best" because the state must decide.

"Better gun laws are probably needed, but they need to make sense," Donley said.

Donley lives in Upper Darby but grew up in West Philadelphia. One reason he agreed to be photographed was to dispel myths about African American gun owners.

"When people think of gun owners, particularly black gun owners, they think of the guys on the news who just shot someone," he said. "It's kind of silly or crazy that only the bad people have guns. People who go to work every day and mind their business should be able to protect themselves if they need to."

In the book, Donley is shown in his dining room with dark orange walls, the table set with place mats and flowers. Donley notes in the text how he doesn't wear sports jerseys, puts on sneakers only for gym visits, and has murky knowledge of modern rap. He enjoys cigars, wine tasting and travel, he says.

"There's another side of gun ownership besides what you see in the news," Donley said.

After months of traveling and photographing, Cassidy thought he'd have some sort of epiphany about gun ownership: Good? Or bad? But a few months ago, he realized that wasn't going to happen.

"There are some reasons for owning guns I have no problems with and some reasons for having guns I do have moral problems with," Cassidy said. "It was like Dorothy in Oz, realizing you could always go home. I had the answer the entire time."

[danp]

I think overall it was a great article and I found Natalie (the woman who wrote it an interviewed me) to be a nice woman. I've told her to keep me in her contacts if she ever needs more information.

What say you PAFOA?

[sutehk]

Just my $.02, I believe the article was fairly and realistically written. The writer portrayed Cassidy's eventual answer and his purpose for the book without interjecting any other opinions, and carried his thoughts without interpretation seemingly. The only one who can truly verify that last statement is Cassidy.

[LittleRedToyota]

seemed like a good, objective article to me.

p.s. i still get a kick out of all those pizza boxes in the corner...especially how they are stacked so neatly

[P89]

You do kinda look like a teenager Dan.

But Seriously, I think it's well written and unbiased.
I'm sure Kyle has gotten some serious flack for the book but I also think it was expected. People need to understand that we come in all shapes, sizes & colors. The fact that the international community understands that "We the people" are well armed reinforces my belief that this country will never be successfully invaded by anybody from anywhere.

[VMJade]

sounds like good stuff from this end! Perhaps we could invite her to a group shoot sometime?

[Hokkmike]

Good article. Thanks.

[ihunt49]

Very good article.

[Qtrborecrazy]

And I thought the boxes in the corner were Winchester ammo. Good article.

Qtrborecrazy

[knighthawk06699]

The article was great, liked it alot. I love seeing is gun onwers getting a good light. We are good people that want to be able to use a certain tool, to defend our selves!!! It is a fight that we have been working on for years and it seems finally that people are realizing we are right. People have become sick and tired of more gun laws when the ones we do have are not enforced. The tide is swaying our way, now it is time to step it up and make us look as good as possible.