{"id":93081,"date":"2023-05-22T19:03:14","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T00:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=93081"},"modified":"2023-05-22T19:03:14","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T00:03:14","slug":"93081","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=93081","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Show Don\u2019t Tell \u2013 Preaching the Gospel of Gun Owner Normality<\/a><\/p>\n

My life is so much better when I don\u2019t have to engage the gun issue in America; I don\u2019t know why I continue doing this to myself. Some days I think it is just the sunk costs of having spent 12 years of my life trying to bring light to an issue that seems more overheated every day. On other days, I am inspired by people I meet to press on trying to tell the story of American gun culture accurately and fairly. Last weekend I had such a day.<\/p>\n

Since classes ended this spring, I have been in Northern California helping my newly-widowed mother and celebrating a landmark birthday for my oldest sister. I haven\u2019t had too many free days in my schedule, but as luck has it, one of them coincided with a very interesting shooting event presented by a new organization, Open Source Shooting Sports (OS3).<\/p>\n

\n
The group\u2019s abbreviation, OS3, is a play on computer \u201coperating systems.\u201d This and the \u201copen source\u201d idea that comes from computer programming is reflective of its founder, Trish (Resplendor) Sargentini. An automation engineer in the biotech industry, she is just a bit nerdy.<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

I will have more to say about the APA x Mother\u2019s Day event on my\u00a0Gun Curious blog<\/a>\u00a0later. Today I want to focus on what I learned at the event about representing responsible gun owners and gun ownership.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

As we were chatting near the end of the event, one of the attendees commented, \u201cThere\u2019s a stigma that you have to overcome.\u201d She was referring in particular to the stigma she felt as an African American woman and Democrat who enjoys shooting. \u201cThere\u2019s so much that\u2019s put onto shooting,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe\u2019re shooting targets. We\u2019re not shooting people.\u201d<\/p>\n

A special guest attendee at the event was Chris Cheng, winner of Season 4 of The History Channel\u2019s show \u201cTop Shot.\u201d I\u2019ve written about\u00a0the importance of Top Shot<\/a>\u00a0to my development, about\u00a0the importance of Chris Cheng to gun culture<\/a>, and my previous experience\u00a0having a beer and empanadas with him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So I was excited to see him again and took the opportunity to follow up on the stigma issue raised by the other attendee. How does Chris Cheng \u2014 San Francisco resident, Silicon Valley professional, LGBT and diversity advocate \u2014 manage the stigma of being a high-profile shooter in those communities?<\/p>\n

His response was succinct and scalable.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Chris Cheng\u2019s bottom line:<\/p>\n

\u201cShow don\u2019t tell.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As someone who tells for a living, this approach really struck me.<\/p>\n

It immediately took me back to my days studying the Catholic Church and a phrase often (and apparently incorrectly) attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:<\/p>\n

\u201cPreach the Gospel always! When necessary, use words.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chris Cheng is a role model in the gun culture not just for his shooting skills, but for his embodying the ethic of responsible gun ownership. Not telling people why guns are normal but showing people that normal people use guns.<\/p>\n

Especially for a new shooter coming to the range, Chris Cheng\u2019s demeanor is much more welcoming than many of the crusty old shooters, gun store clerks, and range officers I encountered in my early days as a shooter. (And still do, though they don\u2019t bother me as much anymore.)<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Trish Sargentini has many of these same qualities. Her enthusiasm for destigmatizing guns and gun ownership by highlighting the fact that \u201cshooting is fun\u201d is infectious.<\/p>\n

It was a great reminder to me as I slog through the ugly politics of guns in America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Show Don\u2019t Tell \u2013 Preaching the Gospel of Gun Owner Normality My life is so much better when I don\u2019t have to engage the gun issue in America; I don\u2019t know why I continue doing this to myself. Some days I think it is just the sunk costs of having spent 12 years of my … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gun-schtuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93082,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93081\/revisions\/93082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}