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Op Ed on the "Emptiness" of Gun Culture

Two separate people with two different goals.

The photographer basically enjoys showing people surrounded by whatever they love to collect, carefully staged.

The author is projecting their personal opinions on guns into the images, without understanding the topic at all, while claiming to have some deeper insight into the topic.

I think the photog does a great job; I'd love to see more of his work. The writer remains uninteresting.
Don't fool yourself, plenty of photogs(to include many shitstains on FB/Instagram/etc. claiming to be "photographers") fancy themselves more "enlightened" than the everyday folks knocking out a regular gig.

Years ago I was on a photo forum and and one of the other members whose sole income was derived from events/weddings asked about guns. He had always lived in the city proper and was moving out to what he called the burbs(just a smaller city maybe a twenty minute drive with traffic from his former address) and was concerned about safety. Because as everybody knows only the uneducated savages live outside the city proper. Anyhow he was asking about home protection, since he doesn't believe in carrying, but he didn't want a weapon of war and he wasn't confident he would be accurate enough with a pistol. I said that left pretty much just shotguns. He said that in the case if he ever had to use it he didn't want to be worried about having to do spackling afterwards, which should be the least of his concerns.

I told him he had only one other option, to get a super soaker and fill it with his menstrual blood and hose down the would be thief/attacker.

It was the first time I ever got a warning from an admin for being "hostile" to another member. [rofl2]
 
Don't fool yourself, plenty of photogs(to include many shitstains on FB/Instagram/etc. claiming to be "photographers") fancy themselves more "enlightened" than the everyday folks knocking out a regular gig.

Years ago I was on a photo forum and and one of the other members whose sole income was derived from events/weddings asked about guns. He had always lived in the city proper and was moving out to what he called the burbs(just a smaller city maybe a twenty minute drive with traffic from his former address) and was concerned about safety. Because as everybody knows only the uneducated savages live outside the city proper. Anyhow he was asking about home protection, since he doesn't believe in carrying, but he didn't want a weapon of war and he wasn't confident he would be accurate enough with a pistol. I said that left pretty much just shotguns. He said that in the case if he ever had to use it he didn't want to be worried about having to do spackling afterwards, which should be the least of his concerns.

I told him he had only one other option, to get a super soaker and fill it with his menstrual blood and hose down the would be thief/attacker.

It was the first time I ever got a warning from an admin for being "hostile" to another member. [rofl2]
I'm off no illusions that he's on our side. I'm just saying the work doesn't seem (to me) to imply any bias.
 
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@Malodave

/rant. Now where's my f***ing coffee?
That coffee would be an almond milk mocha latte with pumpkin flavor?
I don't care if we are careening towards autumn...

 
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I can't imagine carrying less about what an Italian photographer cares about guns in the US. Maybe she should take pictures of the political leadership of her own country. After all, that seems to change on a weekly basis.
 
So the author shits on gun owners by saying "instead of spending $20k plus on guns imagine what that money could have been spent on I travel or investment".....f***ing really? Your lefty metro sexual soft lotioned hands crowd spends 70k on a new tesla that'll be worth half that the day you drive it off the lot.....but a 20k gun collection oh boy......the horror! 🙄

At least my guns will be worth at least what I Paid for them and probably more in 10 years.

These lefties suck.
 
So the author shits on gun owners by saying "instead of spending $20k plus on guns imagine what that money could have been spent on I travel or investment".....f***ing really? Your lefty metro sexual soft lotioned hands crowd spends 70k on a new tesla that'll be worth half that the day you drive it off the lot.....but a 20k gun collection oh boy......the horror! 🙄

At least my guns will be worth at least what I Paid for them and probably more in 10 years.

These lefties suck.
Man you need to smoke a bone

Its ok this dude cant hurt you
 
This guy's take is that gun owners buy every gun for protection, so having collections this large makes no sense and that we must be paranoid to have to surround ourselves with guns for the "just in case' reason. In thinking this way, he completely misses the fact that guns can serve dual purpose: Protection and pass time. They can be a hobby. They can be a collection. They can be a creative outlet through the customizing/crafting end. And there, it is not unusual to continually buy, upgrade, modify, and swap items in a collection. All in all, it's is probably on par (or possibly cheaper) than other pass times like golf.

But no, that does not fit his the narrative of his argument. We're all dead inside, standing in front of collections of our interests. Funny though, this same artist has a similar photo set of kids standing in front of their toys. Are they empty inside as well? Are they foolish for spending all that money on something that doesn't even hold value and has no meaning? Of course not. Because: Not gunz.
 
I finally realized what upset me the most about all these pictures of folks with their gun collections. Out of all those guns, I did not see one identifiable M1 Garand. These people are obviously not real Americans. The closest is the lady in front of the barn with a Springfield M1A, but still no cigar.

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My issue with these gun owners is their breach of Opsec by showing the world their collection.
What good can come from showing the world a picture of your collection, your name, a picture of your house, and a list of how many firearms you own?
Oh, and I don't know when they established the values, but I think most are lite.
 
My issue with these gun owners is their breach of Opsec by showing the world their collection.
What good can come from showing the world a picture of your collection, your name, a picture of your house, and a list of how many firearms you own?
Oh, and I don't know when they established the values, but I think most are lite.
Mine is who has time to do any of that lol laying guns out takes some effort
 
Mine is who has time to do any of that lol laying guns out takes some effort
The photographer. That's the point. He stages the shoot while the person goes about their life until it's time for makeup. That's how art shoots work.

I can't imagine carrying less about what an Italian photographer cares about guns in the US. Maybe she should take pictures of the political leadership of her own country. After all, that seems to change on a weekly basis.
Again, two different people. The photographer seems to have limited opinion; the writer is a judgemental twat.

For everyone questioning the prices, it's the author making an uneducated guess e.g. "600 for a handgun, 1500 for an 'assault rifle,' 800 for 'hunting rifle,'" then multiply by what they can see in the photo.
 
Two separate people with two different goals.

The photographer basically enjoys showing people surrounded by whatever they love to collect, carefully staged.

The author is projecting their personal opinions on guns into the images, without understanding the topic at all, while claiming to have some deeper insight into the topic.

I think the photog does a great job; I'd love to see more of his work. The writer remains uninteresting.
I did not realize that. Thought the photographer's book became about the emptiness of gun culture.
After re-reading the article, i see the book is the art of the photographer, and up for interpretation, but the writer of the article is the real cuck.

After a quick read it is easy to confuse this, because the article writer infuses so much anti gun bias, the reader is led to believe the photographer, and the book, follow suit.
 
I did not realize that. Thought the photographer's book became about the emptiness of gun culture.
After re-reading the article, i see the book is the art of the photographer, and up for interpretation, but the writer of the article is the real cuck.

After a quick read it is easy to confuse this, because the article writer infuses so much anti gun bias, the reader is led to believe the photographer, and the book, follow suit.
TBH, I think the photographer has a bit of "I don't get it" going on in his book about gun owners, but it doesn't seem to be anti, from what I've seen. At worst, kind of voyeuristic - which isn't all that surprising for an artist from Europe with a documentarian style
 
TBH, I think the photographer has a bit of "I don't get it" going on in his book about gun owners, but it doesn't seem to be anti, from what I've seen. At worst, kind of voyeuristic - which isn't all that surprising for an artist from Europe with a documentarian style

Voyeuristic for sure, a peak into every-day people’s lives.
The dismissive aspect can be found in almost all walks of life. I think we all may not fully understand some people’s hobbies and passions. For instance, I don’t get comic book collectors, or those that have an obsession with building high-end PC’s. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m dismissive of their hobbies, I just don’t share their passion. The thing with gun enthusiasts is that they transcend all cultures and demographics. Rich, poor, whites, minorities, academics, those in the trades, the list goes on.

I feel like this is what the photographer was after. A pastor behind his church. A black man by his pool and sports car. The assumedly wealthy LA fella with his hidden gun room, a 16 year old girl, a mixed race family. The only common denominator between them all, is firearms.
 
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