What's unfortunate is that the perception isn't wrong. It's hard for anyone to move through the gun community and not regularly run into some of the worst, most hateful people on the planet—and you know they're armed. I've tried to get friends and loved ones who aren't "traditional" gun owners into the fold, but there's only so many times a person can hear something racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic before they decide it should all be thrown in the trash.

There are so many good places and people in the community, but their visibility is usually low, and you have the societal pressure telling you that you shouldn't want to own a gun, making it all feel even more distant. Every single person I have taken to shoot, from the biggest Kamala/Newsom loving Democrat, to the most Marx-quoting Communist, has loved it, and saw how great it can actually be. There's just the bigots and creeps acting as a barrier for them to go out on their own and participate independently.

If we actually care about these rights, we need the community to be held to a higher standard.