Following the shocking murder of 20 children and seven adults at Sandy Hook last week, the debate surrounding gun control laws in the U.S has been reignited.
Aaron and Brittny, Pennsylvania. Aaron says: ‘I got a gun because we live in kind of a rough neighbourhood and I take the subway home from work. I figured that since the bad guys had guns, I should have one, too.’ Brittny says: ‘After practising and getting better, target shooting became a fun hobby we could share.’ The arsenal: a Kel-Tec rifle, two Glock pistols and a Ruger pistol.
This week President Obama has promised to bring in reforms while the powerful gun lobbyists the National Rifle Association says the answer is for armed security officers in schools.
Liberty and Michael, Florida. Michael says: ‘As an American I believe it is my natural right to own a firearm, guaranteed in the Constitution. Basically, we own firearms for utilitarian reasons, no better word than that. I shoot every Friday, but we’re also using them for defence. Occasionally things go bad down here. This house was totally destroyed by Hurricane Andrew and then damaged by Katrina and Wilma. The guns came out for that. I sat out in the front yard, me and the neighbours collectively, and made sure nothing happened. If something had happened the guns were there.’ The arsenal: three rifles, including an AK-47, and an Uzi 9mm sub-machine gun.
In this series of eye-opening pictures, gun-owning Americans pose with their deadly arsenal of weaponry and explain why they feel the need to bear arms.
Avery, Miles, Gregg and Theresa, Arizona. Theresa says: ‘Years ago I saw a burglar on television who said that his greatest fear was a homeowner with a gun and that if they just pointed a gun at him, he’d surrender. He went on to say that if he knew a house had a gun in it, he wouldn’t rob it. I wouldn’t want to be in a situation where I needed a gun to protect my family and didn’t have one. Plus, we like to go target shooting.’ Greg says: ‘If having a gun would have meant saving your own child you would sell your soul or trade everything you have to do that.’ The arsenal: four rifles, two fitted with silencers.
The Sandy Hook massacre was the second-deadliest US shooting of all-time after the Virginia Tech college attack in 2007.
Adam Lanza, 20, shot his mother before driving to the school and carrying out the atrocity.
Kevin, Kentucky. He says: ‘As a Jewish American I am cognisant of the fact that six million of my people were turned into air pollution in the Thirties and Forties. As a civil rights advocate, I know words are not going to be enough when people are kicking down your door to pull you out of your house because you’re Jewish, or black or gay. You can’t be pro civil rights without being pro gun. It’s hypocritical to deny someone the most basic of all human rights, which is the right to defend yourself.’ The arsenal: 11 pistols and rifles by makers such as Heckler & Koch and Glock, including one rifle called the Bulldog Terminator.
The right to bear arms is enshrined in the Second Amendment of the American constitution and gun control laws have been fiercely opposed.
This article is from:
After the school massacre that horrified the world, meet the U.S homeowners armed to the teeth – and ready to kill
