I won’t debate the research here. My point: at the same time The Trace is giving maximum publicity to an anti-gun rights artist named Kari Wehrs. Ms. Whers photographs owners with tintype technology (images “printed” on metal). She then asks the owners to use the pictures for target practice, and sells the resulting images. Here’s her [alleged] motivation:
What inspired this project?
I think the topic was already on my mind. When you move to Arizona, gun culture pops into your mind as a reference — there’s almost this Wild West mentality, and the state’s gun laws are some of the least restrictive in the county.
But one of the biggest events to inspire me was when a close relative told me that she’d been carrying a gun for the past few years. She says she does it for self-protection, like when she goes out alone at night. She’s someone who has never had an incident where she would need a gun, and definitely doesn’t live in a city with crazy amounts of crime.
Learning about my relative’s gun made me feel really upset at first, but then that shock and anger turned into curiosity. That was the push, and I just started.
Curious that The Trace doesn’t address the obvious implications of asking gun owners to commit virtual suicide. Not so strange that some of the shooters aimed away from their own image.
Let’s talk more about the part where you ask your subjects to shoot their own portraits. What’s the idea behind that? It’s certainly provocative.
Asking people to shoot their likeness potentially asks them to think about guns in a different way, or more importantly, asks any viewer of this project to think about guns in a different way. You just used the word provocative, which is something that I kept saying to myself. How do I provoke — but still leave my work open enough? As an artist, that’s been a big concern for me. I don’t want to automatically feel like I’m shutting out half of the potential viewers. We get enough of that already.
Ms. Wehrs goes on to admit that “this project started out of my own fear” and . . . wait for it . . . she’s never shot a gun. “But that will now likely change,” Ms. Whers asserts, “I’m considering taking a class.”
The sooner the better. Meanwhile, like many such anti-gun rights media outlets, the article’s context — posted within an anti-gun = anti-suicide pitch — proves that The Trace is blinded by its own agenda. Surprised?