Anti-Gun Artist Mouths Off And Shows His Own Ignorance

I understand a lot of people don’t like guns. I know a lot of people want to ban at least certain types of firearms. And I acknowledge their arguments, and I know where most of them are coming from.

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But it doesn’t make those arguments any less stupid.

Then, you have to consider how little most people understand about guns or gun owners.

I mean, when you have people trying to use art as activism – something that people have done for eons, most likely – and they don’t even understand the subject, you get a weird situation. They do things like this:

Words are weird. Sometimes they sound the same, but have two completely different meanings. Other times they’re even spelled the same, but are defined separately. When talking about a recent project involving photography and firearms, local artist Keith D’Angelo focuses on the irony of the word “shoot.”

“It’s really interesting the similarities between photography and firearms, down to the word ‘shoot,’” he said. “You shoot a camera and you shoot a gun, but they have completely different intentions. When you shoot a gun, especially a high-powered rifle, it’s to end life. When you shoot a picture, you want to keep that moment in time forever.”

D’Angelo, who moved from Denver to Trout Lake in June, has used art to combat gun violence since 2016, as he pieces together photography equipment to create strikingly realistic-looking “guns.”

Oh my sweet and fluffy Lord. Please help me, save me from do-gooders who don’t even know what the hell they’re saying.

First, let’s ignore the whole “high-powered rifle” thing for a moment. I mean, D’Angelo probably believes an AR-15 is a high-powered rifle, which it’s not. Not really.

Instead, let’s focus on what he thinks of the reason we all pull the trigger.

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He says that “it’s to end a life.”

That’s funny because the only lives I’ve ever ended after pulling the trigger were white-tail deer. I thought hunting wasn’t the problem for anti-gunners, yet the vast majority of lives taken with firearms each year are game animals of all different varieties. Everything from bison down to squirrels is harvested each year.

But that’s not what happens when most people shoot.

No, when most people shoot, they’re slaying paper targets or clay disks flying through the air. They’re knocking down steel plates or hitting containers that react when the bullet hits.

More to the point, that’s what they intend to do. Avid shooters aren’t trying to take a life. They’re shooting for the pure joy of it. They’re shooting because bad people do bad things and they would rather they not be a victim. They’re shooting because it’s their God-given right as free human beings.

I don’t care about this guy’s art. He’s free to make whatever kind of art he wants.

But he’s not free to misrepresent the facts about guns and the people who shoot them to advance his career without being called out. D’Angelo doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about or who he’s talking about, and he needs someone to educate him on that.

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