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.
asserted
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.
asserted
we → sit → dogs
Invariably, our new neighbor Jimmy would drive by and stop for a beer.
asserted
neighbor → drive → beer
One evening in March, the three of us looked up to see a bat flying out of the old attic.
asserted
bat → look → attic
We stopped counting at 100.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
critters → clear → house
By mid-summer, we still had not succeeded in humanely relocating what was clearly a firmly established colony.
asserted
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.
asserted
they → make → moths
We lost no bats, but we did gain a gun.
asserted
we → lose → gun
Our second came the next fall.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
someone → set → road
An abandoned farmhouse sat at the other end, and a group of single male squatters moved in.
asserted
group → abandon → squatters
Foot traffic grew between the two, and we suspected meth was changing hands.
asserted
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”.
asserted
fellow → look → phone
That weekend we took a trip to Walmart and added a 20-gauge Remington youth model to our collection.
asserted
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.
asserted
husband → die → each
He says the two childhood BB guns don’t really count, but I think they do.
asserted
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.”
asserted
You → tell → them
I don’t disagree.
asserted
I → disagree → ?
But the preventable deaths that come with unsecured firearms don’t have to be.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
I → bring → communities
Progressives won’t gain traction in rural areas by showing up at election time and asking people to change their politics.
asserted
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.
asserted
things → have → lives
When working shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow volunteers one day, it’s harder to turn around and demonize them the next.
asserted
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.
asserted
folks → wave → program
Promoting gun safety put that concept to an unusually difficult test.
asserted
Promoting → promote → test
Guns, after all, are one of the subjects widely considered unbridgeable in rural politics.
asserted
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.
asserted
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.
asserted
firearms → know → 2023
But decades of polarization have made it near impossible to agree on even the simplest measures.
asserted
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.
asserted
owners → caricature → weapons
But keeping guns away from children seemed like the one place where we might meet.
uncertain
we → keep → place
The Gun Aware Project (Gap) was founded by Karen and Nick Fischer after a local high school murder-suicide in 2023.
asserted
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.
asserted
volunteers → organize → Works
One of the first distributions took place in Giles county, on the West Virginia border.
asserted
One → take → border
…and 45 more, not listed.
The Aporia
