by Joseph P. Tartaro
While much of the mainstream media have targeted guns and gun owners in recent week and months, the news-politics section of GQ (once known as Gentleman’s Quarterly) September 2012 issue now on newsstands nationwide offers a refreshingly unbiased take on the gun issue. GQ correspondent Jeanne Marie Laskas’ is titled “Guns ’R Us: Buying Guns in America.” In it she documents her time spent behind the counter at Sprague’s Sports, a shooting sports retailer in Yuma, AZ. It’s a terrific read on the subject, particularly this summer.
Laskas spent a few shifts, working behind the counter to see for herself how we shop, sell, justify, and even come to love—guns. And she ends up buying a used Glock to be shipped back to an FFL in Pennsylvania.
“Nearly all the shoppers I met at Sprague’s came in asking for something for self-protection. They wanted guns for their nightstands, guns for their purses, guns for their pickups, guns for holsters on waistbands, ankles, and bras,” she writes. “ ‘The people I hang out with back east don’t talk about shooting bad guys as much as you folks do,’ ” she reports saying one day to a gathering of customers and clerks.
“ ‘You depend on the government to protect you,’ said a middle-aged woman dry-firing a Ruger. She was admiring the smooth trigger action and regretting her clunkier Glock. ‘You depend on the government. We depend on ourselves,’ ’ Laskas reports.
Besides reporting on the cultural and legal difference between eastern and western states, GQ’s correspondent got to shoot guns, help sell guns, and learn about the American gun culture in her illustrated report…and tells it like it really is.
Well done, Ms. Laskas.
Read Laskas’ complete report here: http://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/201209/gun-shopping-gq-september-2012
Tim Tebow cover by: “Mark Seliger / GQ”
Cam Newton’s cover by: “Peggy Sirota / GQ”
