I have two missions in life:

Last edited Tue Feb 8, 2022, 08:37 PM - Edit history (2)

To make images that reflect things that affect me. https://andyshanks.smugmug.com/ (pay note to Activism on that page) and to educate everyone I can about the pervasive influence and social damage that guns do to society. That includes the influence of money from the gun industry and the brainwashing of gun fetishists by that industry.

Ignorance is bliss and I was quite blissful until December 14, 2012. I held a Federal Firearms License so I could collect antique guns from the WW I era and buy/sell over the internet without a background check on each one. I grew up in a rural culture where guns are ubiquitous and no more noticeable than the flatware next to your dinner plate. Then on that date 20 first grade children were killed with a military grade weapon after a person who had no business being close to such a weapon fired 500 rounds in five minutes, most of them into the bodies of babies weighing less than 50 pounds.

That changes a man. Or it should. Apparently it doesn't if that man loves guns.

I started looking into guns in America and what I found shook me.

There are more guns in America than people. 120 guns for every 100 people.

Since 1970 when the National Rifle Association, once a bastion of gun safety education and reasonable gun regulation, was taken over in a coup by the gun makers the country has become more and more inundated with guns and and any sense of responsibility for gun ownership eroded. Working in the quiet and secrecy of legislator's offices with campaign funding the gun industry has effectively turned the will of American voters on its head.

Only 9% of voters favor loosening gun laws yet state after state approve Stand Your Ground laws and "Constitutional Carry" (it's not) laws that allow anyone to carry a loaded gun in public without a permit, background check or training. Most recently in Texas the "Constitutional Carry" law passed against the will of 82% of polled voters.

Gun deaths in America were at a low of 4/100,000 when Bill Clinton signed the Assault Weapons Ban. It is now at 13/100,000 and edging up to the all time high of 14/100,000.

Every recognized violence prevention organization beginning with Amnesty International, The UN and most local law enforcement recognize the availability of guns as the NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF HOMICIDE AND INJURY.

I am convinced that if America knows what I do things will change.

So I and people like me are the worst nightmare of of the Gun Culture. And yes, we will take the guns away. Not today, not tomorrow. But we will. It took 50 years of working in darkness and secrecy for an industry that thrives on death and injury to bring us to where we are and I will work to the end of my days to reverse it. And my numbers are growing.

Educate yourself. Knowledge is power.