Elizabeth Bruenig

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

when we got married i did ask matt if he thought it would be wise to have a gun in the house. he said no. i asked him what he would do if someone broke in. he said he would inform them this is a private residence and give them directions to the nearest 7/11 — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@atlanteansummer @Maarblek virtually all politics has some element of psychosexual neurosis, though. it's not like it's unique to right-populism — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@TsukareU lol — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

ha, no. i've been around guns, i've seen them used (at one point dad wasted a 'possum in our driveway; i remember watching the blood gush in a rhythmic arc from its half-obliterated throat and belly until it died) but i've never fired one. dad always said the kick would kill me. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@Pepperedstars no i've never fired a gun — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@LaraHReid i'm just saying that's how it's perceived — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@1990_ck_29f this whole setup is genius. zero risk — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

if the cultural context is decently sober, if there's a strong expectation of safety and respect and the goal of ownership isn't brandishing some rambo looking submachine gun at your local jack in the box to own the snowflakes, i think that's better than what we have now. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

so a long way of saying, i guess, that i believe in reasonable limits on private firearm ownership and also think there are professions and ways of life where owning a gun or guns makes some sense. more than the guns themselves, it's the culture around them i find concerning. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

i think that's the cultural zone where you see a huge amount of firearms commerce, interest in really high octane weapons (because the point is to push boundaries), and a kind of cathexis that's become the focal point of an emergent right-populism — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

they're about rejecting a certain kind of liberal scolding, registering discontent with a culture that seems to be inching toward more concern with health and safety and less with absolute liberty, and signaling rebellion against the political order, liberal or not. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

the other gun culture, which i've seen rise throughout my lifetime, is explicitly countercultural: these guns are far in excess of what you'd need to hunt or manage vermin or even defend the homestead. they're made, and bought, to be *seen* — thus the constant pics of them. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

the universe of pink guns, lady grips, semi-sexy stacked-and-racked aspirational stuff — would not have made much sense to these guys. it would have been as strange to them as developing a fetishistic culture around farming equipment (that's sort of a thing too, now, lol.) — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

to illustrate how distinct that world was from the current dispensation: i was the only girl out of all my cousins, and have no sisters, just a brother. whether i would go out and shoot stuff with my dad, uncles, brother and cousins wasn't even a question: of course not. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

so by the time i was born, my dad, eldest of 3 brothers, had inherited all kinds of guns, and had been using them since he was a kid. there was nothing countercultural about it; this was entirely ordinary. it was endemic, traditional. nothing to do with making a point. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

my grandfather, a Korea vet, had a shotgun, too — for vermin, rabid animals. this man was born in childress, TX and worked through the dust bowl with his parents as a tenant farmer, so that kind of thing was occasionally necessary, and very mundane. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

his position was that a long gun was best for common use: this guy hunted anything from bears to quail, and he was good at it. but he told my dad handguns were just for killing people, and he didn't have any interest in doing that. in extremis, a rifle would do, anyhow. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

my great grandfather had rifles. a lot of them were beautiful — carved, polished. he took good care of them and used them for sport shooting, hunting. they looked pretty handsome as part of a certain kind of older western decor. but he was a WWII vet, and he didn't keep handguns. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

going out to the country and shooting guns at stuff was just part of what my family did during warm-weather holidays. again, candidly: there are sort of two distinct gun cultures where i'm from, though one of them is rapidly fading. i'll try to sketch out the differences. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

candidly, it's shifted somewhat over the years. as a kid, there were always guns in our house. dad kept a 16ga loaded under his bed in plain sight and answered the door with it after dark. there was usually a handgun of some kind in the glovebox of our car. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@LukeBaileyMC shotties* — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

the thing about the fringe political figures doin zooms with the whole arsenal in the bg is like: who're you planning on fighting my man? i get a shotty for home defense or whatever, but who's breaking into your house, 45 navy seals? what's the plan here — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

RT @CaitlinPacific: When talking about "children" and "teachers," remember to stand in front of as many guns as possible. Just load 'em up… — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

not these pics...more paddington less menacing siberian vibes — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

RT @AlexYablon: Sledding with my kid next to this https://t.co/46Hfpfe9Av — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@lastpositivist https://t.co/lFcBcCDG7D — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

RT @helenprejean: .@ebruenig: “As long as one brick of Terre Haute’s death house remains stacked upon another, it will invite further execu… — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@WB_Baskerville Ahhhh yes women, known for the destruction they cause...just peep homicide rates by sex and the belligerents of literally any armed conflict — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@HelmickeyMouse frankly, kyle, that's on you. have the courage of your convictions man. kick in those courthouse doors and scream objection...doesn't even have to be your case — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@GenderEXTRACTI1 so you're not concerned that could plausibly be a risk of this method of, let's say, gun storage — PolitiTweet.org