"Dang, I love my rifle but it's a bitch to aim"
Posted on 11/20/2023 10:31:43 AM PST by algore
I am a 100 percent believer in strong gun control,” Berkeley-based photographer Judy Dater told me in September shortly before the opening of The Gun Next Door, her latest exhibition at Oakland Photo Workshop.
“I don’t have a gun. I’ve never shot a gun. I believe we would all be safer if no one had a gun.
But I also see we have a huge problem with so many guns out there, and we really need to understand why so many people in this country feel they need to have one or two or several hundred.”
A pioneering feminist artist renowned since the 1970s for her psychologically expressive portraiture, Dater has been wrestling for years with the nation’s response to the post-Columbine explosion of gun violence. Thinking about guns, she found herself wondering, as she put it, “What kinds of people have guns? And why?”
Dater, now 82, thought she’d be able to answer those seemingly simple questions by doing what she has always done best: using her camera to understand people better. She started by inviting gun owners to her studio to sit for portraits while holding their firearms.
Eighteen large-format black-and-white images, representing about half of what Dater has shot—some portraits printed as large as 30 by 40 inches—show men and women, young and old, most gazing directly into the camera and holding their personal firearms. Dater’s subjects look calm and unapologetic; none fit neatly into any stereotypes the viewer may hold of gun enthusiasts. Among those photographed were a poet, a tech manager, a doctor, a surgical assistant, a civil rights activist, a merchant sailor, two veterans, a self-described pacifist, and more than one vegetarian.
Millions of Californians live with guns in their homes: 5.2 million, to be exact, or 17.6 percent of all adults in the state, according to a 2021 survey conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. CBS reported that an estimated 28.3 percent of adults in California had guns in their homes in 2021. And yet, despite widely reported gun ownership statistics, which are republicized in the wake of every horrifying mass shooting (for instance, that the United States has an estimated 120 guns for every 100 people and that almost 20 million new guns were purchased in 2021 alone), the reasons people want to own guns, like everything about the gun debate, are complex.
"Dang, I love my rifle but it's a bitch to aim"
Was Paul Pelosi asked to weight in?
Daddy and the nice looking white-haired lady need to learn about Rule #2.
“A pioneering feminist artist renowned since the 1970s for her psychologically expressive portraiture”
Please stop the gushing.
Looks like a Harrington & Richardson shotgun.
And you can believe those numbers because when people are called by perfect strangers who ask nosy questions about their personal protection they are completely honest.
(NO! I will NOT put a sarcasm tag on that.)
Psst, bad guys looking for an easy target...
Well, the world was a safer place BEFORE guns! Honest! Cross my heart!
https://www.medievalists.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/medieval.jpg
I used to have a great illustration from the 1400s of a man walking down a French street. Suddenly the windows across the street are thrown open and about six crossbow men unleash a barrage of “bolts” (arrows) at him.
He tries to draw his sword but is hit. Above him a window is flung open and a man with a lance is stabbing downward.
No guns involved.
Hysterical little bitch, isn’t she?
“If no one had a gun” then the tallest, fastest, strongest and most aggressive would have us at their mercy.
Definitely predatorial men over all women.
What a world.
Generally they would not even need the swords and clubs. Their hands are sufficient.
I was going to post a picture of the photographer, but I don’t know how fair-use it would be. She’s pretty normal-looking, even in the nudies.
You left out the most important part:
Because we can Read & Comprehend when you let the state dictate your safety.
The Nazis had a phrase which covered all abuses by the state: “Für Ihre Sicherheit.”
“Für Ihre Sicherheit.” = “It’s ‘for your Safety’.”
“It’s ‘for your Safety’,” when the Nazis made Jews wear the yellow star(s.)
“It’s ‘for your Safety’,” when the Nazis made Jews live in the ghettos.
“It’s ‘for your Safety’,” when the Nazis made Jews give up their guns.
“It’s ‘for your Safety’,” when the Nazis made Jews load up into the Box-Car Trains.
You have the gall to ask why: we need to have guns?
“Dang, I love my rifle but it’s a bitch to aim”
= = =
I suggest she has a shotgun.
I notice there are no pictures of Alec Baldwin.
GEEE, you mean when I was like 50 years younger I coulda been a predator?
Damn I missed my chance.
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