Think Progress blogger Kira Lerner is angry that NRA attendees at the 2016 annual meetings were friendly. Lerner titled her diatribe “I Got Gunsplained At The NRA Convention.” She considers polite salutations and answers to questions she asked to be “gunsplaining.”
Let's begin.
“What’s your edc?”
Sitting alone in my Louisville hotel room, working in my pajamas, I pulled up a new internet tab to consult Urban Dictionary. I consider myself proficient in internet speak — I taught many of my friends what Netflix and chill really means — but this one was new to me.
Turns out that Phil, one of gentlemen who swiped right on my Tinder account reading “Here for the NRA, gun emoji, party emoji,” wanted to know my “everyday carry.”
“Actually not an owner myself!” I responded. “Are you going to the NRA convention?”
That’s when Phil turned into my first encounter with a gunsplainer.
“Well I would highly advise you to invest in your personal safety, just my $.02,” he replied.
Lerner is the one to ask Phil a question but he's the “gunsplainer.” She should have prefaced it by warning him any response he gives will be interpreted as a hostile act. Lerner wasn't there for any actual information. She just wanted the appearance of attending as a way to give weight to her anti-gun bigotry.
Lerner cites Cosmopolitan's “gunsplainer,” which I've addressed previously here:
In the convention’s exhibit hall, I had men try to peddle pink assault rifles by explaining to me that I would be safer if I were armed. A male representative from “Packin’ Neat,” a company that sells devices to “turn any purse into a concealed carry purse,” told me I could stick one of their contraptions into my own bag so that I would always be prepared for the worst.
Actually, many concealment bag booth proprietors were women, too, (along with a number of firearm manufacturers, please ignore how many firearm designers are women or how many manufacturers have women onthe board!) but it helps Lerner play up her sex-as-a-victim dance card by narrowing this for her narrative.
Throughout the “seven acres of guns and gear,” there were hundreds more companies using female stereotypes and sexist images to attempt to appeal to women and to convince them that they’d be safer if they were armed.
Considering that Lerner thought Phil's short and polite answer above constitutes “gunsplaining,” I'm eager to hear how camo-clad women or images of sponsor-laden competitive shooters like Julie Golob are “sexist.” Yes, many women who support 2A are attractive, downright hot. Insecurity by way of how this affects you or your narrative isn't substitute for a remedial definition of “sexism.”
The NRA has a huge financial incentive to convince women they need to be armed, and they’re willing to go to almost any length to do that. They have incorrectly claimed that women can protect themselves against domestic violence if they are armed, when in fact, women are more likely to be subjected to violence in their homes if they have guns.
Well which is it? The left tells women that they're going to all get raped every other day because of our “rape culture” everywhere while simultaneously lecturing us about staying unarmed and defenseless. Furthermore, Lerner's “women are likely to be subjected” claptrap is lazy reporting by a lazy reporter who failed to a) substantiate her claim and b) note that she's phoning in a debunked study by Arthur Kellerman who was busted for fabricating this data (which I also covered heavily in my book, replete with citations, available here).
The NRA isn’t the only group that thinks it knows what’s best for women living in a world filled with dangers. Women are constantly told how they should change their behavior to protect themselves.
The NRA is made up of a lot of women. I sat in a room with a thousand of them during the women's luncheon. There are women on the board of directors, two things which Phone It In Lerner failed to note as she was too busy carrying on with her Cosmo brand of “journalism.” Women are directing and telling the market what they want (which is why Glock and other manufacturers have created pistols and with slimmer grips for smaller female hands, why concealment hand bags are a hot sub-industry, and women-only hunts have to be booked far in advance because they're so popular).
The real “gunsplaining” comes from anti-gun advocates who don't know as much about guns or gun law as I and other NRA women and moms do.
Lerner needs to have someone “gunsplain” things to her. Maybe if she dropped her uninformed prejudice long enough she'd learn something.
