They Hate Us For Our Guns

We're inured to this sort of thing;

Don't make fun of ...

it's inane, & always good for a laugh & the feeling of moral, intellectual & hair-do superiority w/o which we couldn't stumble through our existence. But imagine how cretins like Gun Owner Mike above appear to (may the sweet baby Jeebus have mercy on their heathen souls) Un-Americans.

Most of the weapons I saw in cold-war conflict zones originated in the US, China, or Russia – so I decided to go back to the source. When I looked into the statistics in the US, it was astonishing: about 30,000 people are killed each year by guns. It's like a civil war. My idea was to look behind the groups that are normally portrayed as the problem: gang members and criminals.

Instead, I wanted to photograph the largely white, middle-class Americans who buy and sell weapons in vast quantities. First I went to a three-day National Rifle Association event in Texas. It was astonishing: a convention centre filled with families, salesmen and thousands of weapons. I started taking pictures, discreetly, but people were suspicious and hostile. So the following day I set up a portrait booth, with a large backdrop and studio lights, and people started queuing up to be photographed.

Then the sheep went for it. Like children, but w/ real guns.