Ask a liberal gun owner anything

[Ivy Mike]

I shall answer your questions as honestly as possible.

A little info about me:
I am a 31 year old heterosexual man. I am married and have been with my wife for nearly 7 years though we have only been legally married for 3. I have known her since I was 14 years old. I have two children with another on the way. The eldest is my 13 year old stepdaughter and the youngest is my 2 year old son. I am a registered Democrat for purposes of voting in a primary. I don't always agree with the Democrat party line.
I and my wife are atheists although both of us were raised with religion in the house. I was brought up in an evangelical christian household. My wife was raised as a catholic.
We own a home. She is a stay at home mom right now although she was a paralegal before our son was born.
I am a union member. IATSE Local 720.
I am a gun owner and shooter. Most of my collection consists of guns I inherited when my paternal grandfather died. The rest I purchased. I own a mix of WWII rifles, .22lr weapons. Handguns in varying calibers. I like guns and I enjoy shooting. I am not a big fan of gun control as we usually see it.

OK. Shoot.

 

[dakota.potts]

It's funny, I am often a centrist - pro-marriage equality, pro-choice, etc., but I don't see it as being a Democrat, even though I agree with many party lines, because I agree (and disagree) too much with either side.

How do you feel registering Democrat when you know that the majority of Democrats currently in office (and for the foreseeable future) want to restrict gun ownership, or even take it away all together?

Do you have a hard time fitting in with gun groups or do you ever find yourself ostracized because of your political leanings? Often times anything left of far-right is looked down upon in the less well-kept groups

Are there any democratic congress members right now who you feel are truly protecting the second amendment?

PS: Cool that you're a member of IATSE! I was going to go to school for stage tech for a while and would have ended up becoming a member myself. Funny how that works.

 

[Ivy Mike]

It's funny, I am often a centrist - pro-marriage equality, pro-choice, etc., but I don't see it as being a Democrat, even though I agree with many party lines, because I agree (and disagree) too much with either side.

How do you feel registering Democrat when you know that the majority of Democrats currently in office (and for the foreseeable future) want to restrict gun ownership, or even take it away all together?

Do you have a hard time fitting in with gun groups or do you ever find yourself ostracized because of your political leanings? Often times anything left of far-right is looked down upon in the less well-kept groups

Are there any democratic congress members right now who you feel are truly protecting the second amendment?

PS: Cool that you're a member of IATSE! I was going to go to school for stage tech for a while and would have ended up becoming a member myself. Funny how that works.

I register as a Democrat because NV law requires that I do so if I wish to participate in the caucus of my party. Essentially, I don't get to vote in a primary if I don't register. I don't see myself as a Democrat but I generally side with them in many cases. Truth be told, I tend to find myself much more liberal than some Democrats.

I don't vote single issues very often and to my mind, gun control is not something that I should be overly concerned with simply because it has been such a loser for Dems. Without some research I couldn't say that a majority of Democrats actually would support the disarming of Americans. Basically, I call or write when it looks like something big could happen and I side with the pro-gun side. Most of the time, I leave it alone because I see it as a non-issue.

I do have a hard time fitting in with gun groups. Many of them tend to be extremely right wing but that isn't the biggest obstacle I find. Many of them tend to hold social views I find distasteful. Views on abortion and religion tend to pepper their opinions much more.

Harry Reid and yes I know that will draw the ire of many here. Harry Reid has rare position of being a powerful Democrat senator who does a lot of good for his state while still managing to not stomp the gun rights of his constituents into dust.

IATSE has been good to me. If technical theatre is something you are interested in, it is a very good gig to get into. You also get a real chance to get into live production and TV/Movies. Camera ops is another in-demand field.
I myself do convention work. I am an IT guy but fell back into union work and now deploy networks for the conventions and expos that come through the building I work in. We are the second largest convention space in Las Vegas. SHOT show was just at my property.

 

[chris in va]

I think there's a bigdifference between a Democrat and a progressive when it comes to various rights. Most of the latter would be perfectly happy having the 2A disappear, but they haven't read their history books.

 

[Ivy Mike]

I think there's a bigdifference between a Democrat and a progressive when it comes to various rights. Most of the latter would be perfectly happy having the 2A disappear, but they haven't read their history books.

at the risk of asking questions in my own "ask me anything" thread, I'm curious what you mean by progressives and history books.

 

[taliv]

we don't really do "lib vs con" type politics here. you guys have been around long enough to know that. the conversation always goes the same way.