The author, who owns six guns in her rural Virginia home, is a liberal working to find common ground with conservative gun owners on issues related to firearms safety. She reports that she has given away gun locks for the past two years through her organization's community outreach program, aimed at reducing preventable deaths associated with unsecured guns. The author notes that the majority of her own guns were acquired in response to specific security needs on her property, such as deterring bats and addressing concerns about squatters on a nearby trailer. Through her efforts, she has partnered with liberal volunteers to distribute gun locks to conservative gun owners in an effort to promote firearms safety across party lines.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-03,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
I have six guns in my house.
asserted
I → have → house
It was the winter of 1990, and my husband and I had just moved from an urban block in north-west Philadelphia to 100-year-old farmhouse in Appalachian Virginia, where my family goes back seven generations.
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family → move → Virginia
That spring, we started sitting out back every night with the two outdoor dogs and 13 feral barn cats we had adopted since moving in.
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we → sit → dogs
Invariably, our new neighbor Jimmy would drive by and stop for a beer.
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neighbor → drive → beer
One evening in March, the three of us looked up to see a bat flying out of the old attic.
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bat → look → attic
We stopped counting at 100.
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We → count → 100
Since our only access to the attic was through a 2ft hole in the closet ceiling, we installed a door in the hallway with a drop-down ladder.
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we → instal → ladder
After clearing out countless piles of hidden guano, we began to worry about histoplasmosis – not to mention rabies – as the vexatious critters clawed at the edges of the new entrance, trying to squeeze their way into the house.
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critters → clear → house
By mid-summer, we still had not succeeded in humanely relocating what was clearly a firmly established colony.
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what → succeed → summer
In exasperation, we turned to our newfound repository of rural knowledge – Jimmy – who brought over his old shotgun and suggested we shoot in the air to scare them away.
uncertain
we → turn → them
The bats made an immediate 180 and proceeded to chase after the shot, as if they were tracking down moths and mosquitoes.
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they → make → moths
We lost no bats, but we did gain a gun.
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we → lose → gun
Our second came the next fall.
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second → come → ?
As with many rural homesteads, when the Department of Transportation straightened out the road decades earlier, they located it 20ft from our front porch.
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they → straighten → porch
My husband was out of town a good bit that summer, and someone set up a ratty old trailer at one end of our two-mile, gravel road.
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someone → set → road
An abandoned farmhouse sat at the other end, and a group of single male squatters moved in.
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group → abandon → squatters
Foot traffic grew between the two, and we suspected meth was changing hands.
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meth → grow → hands
While I was alone one night, a particularly rough-looking fellow from the trailer stumbled up the front steps to “borrow the phone”.
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fellow → look → phone
That weekend we took a trip to Walmart and added a 20-gauge Remington youth model to our collection.
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we → take → collection
When my mom died 10 years later, I inherited her old BB gun and Remington 22; my husband also inherited one of each.
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husband → die → each
He says the two childhood BB guns don’t really count, but I think they do.
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they → say → ?
When I told a second amendment-supporting friend about our collection, she said: “You need to lock them up or get rid of them.”
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You → tell → them
I don’t disagree.
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I → disagree → ?
But the preventable deaths that come with unsecured firearms don’t have to be.
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that → come → firearms
That is why, for the past two years, I’ve been working with liberal volunteers to find common ground with conservative gun owners, beginning with something remarkably simple: giving away gun locks.
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I → work → locks
As national director of Community Works, a program of the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative, I bring together volunteers across political differences to address practical needs in their home communities.
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I → bring → communities
Progressives won’t gain traction in rural areas by showing up at election time and asking people to change their politics.
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Progressives → gain → politics
We have to earn trust year-round by acting locally alongside our conservative neighbors to make things better for everyone: cleaning up rivers, repairing homes, distributing food – even saving lives.
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things → have → lives
When working shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow volunteers one day, it’s harder to turn around and demonize them the next.
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it → work → them
National depictions of Democrats as godless baby-killers or Republicans as gun-waving racists just don’t hold up when those same folks are standing next to you handing out diapers and school supplies, or packing food for students in the free-lunch program.
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folks → wave → program
Promoting gun safety put that concept to an unusually difficult test.
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Promoting → promote → test
Guns, after all, are one of the subjects widely considered unbridgeable in rural politics.
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Guns → consider → politics
I was aware of that when I asked volunteers to hand out free gun locks in some of Virginia’s most conservative counties.
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I → ask → counties
I also knew the stakes: firearms are the leading cause of death among American children and teenagers, killing 2,581 children under 18 in 2023 alone.
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firearms → know → 2023
But decades of polarization have made it near impossible to agree on even the simplest measures.
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it → make → measures
Liberals caricature gun owners as uneducated rednecks or reckless young men stockpiling AR-15s; gun owners see liberals as bleeding hearts determined to confiscate their weapons.
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owners → caricature → weapons
But keeping guns away from children seemed like the one place where we might meet.
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we → keep → place
The Gun Aware Project (Gap) was founded by Karen and Nick Fischer after a local high school murder-suicide in 2023.
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Project → found → 2023
Gap organizes free gun-lock distributions during fall back-to-school events in public schools, and volunteers from Community Works were eager to help.
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volunteers → organize → Works
One of the first distributions took place in Giles county, on the West Virginia border.
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One → take → border
…and 45 more, not listed.
