Guns An Age-Old Part Of Family Culture In Appalachia
By Andre Teague/Bristol Herald Courier
Todd Sutherland of Gunslingers in Kingsport shows a selection of revolvers and semi-automatic handguns that are popular for home-defense and concealed-carry use.
Amy Hunter
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By Amy Hunter
Reporter / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: November 30, 2008
The first thing Karla Schmutzler did after shooting her first deer was text message her friend, Todd Sutherland, who was in his Kingsport gun store with a customer at the time.
“I got hooked. Big time,” Schmutzler said. “You know, all the guys would go hunting, and it never really occurred to me to ask to go along. Because, you know, it’s a guy thing.”
But then she went with them.
In Appalachia, guns are an age-old part of family culture. “Down here, we’re mostly pro-gun. It’s part of who we are,” said Sutherland, who owns the Gunslingers store on East Stone Drive in Kingsport.
“There is nothing more fun than going to the range on a Saturday morning and plinking away with your kids,” he said. “It’s good clean fun.”
Bill Miller, a local National Rifle Association board member and gun club president, estimates that 85 percent of folks in Appalachia are in some way involved in a firearms sport. And, he said, Schmutzler represents the fastest-growing demographic: women.
By the handfuls, women are joining one of the oldest, richest and most cohesive communities in the region. “Women are saying, ‘We’re gonna take care of ourselves,’ ” Miller said.
In recent months, the thriving community of gun enthusiasts has been rattled by the election of President-elect Barack Obama and what it might mean for their favorite pastimes. Gun enthusiasts across the nation are stocking up on ammunition and guns, citing concerns about higher taxes and fearing future bans on some of their favorite weapons.
On the second full weekend after the election, more than 4,000 people attended a gun show at the Meadowview Conference Resort & Convention Center in Kingsport.
“We had an extremely large crowd compared to normal,” said Jeremy Pearson, manager of the RK gun show held Nov. 15-16. “It was the best one we’ve had here this year.”
And on Tuesday of that week, a group of old friends sat together in the clubhouse at the Kettlefoot Rod and Gun Club, sipping Styrofoam cups of coffee and exhaling laughter in toasty puffs of air. At the mention of Obama, one said: “Don’t even get me started.”
Perhaps most frustrating to local enthusiasts isn’t the upcoming threat, but that the frenzy is a mere symptom of the deep-seated frustration gun lovers have felt for decades of what they call a lack of understanding and prejudice from anti-gun camps.
“All through history, people have been afraid of what they don’t understand,” Sutherland said. “Taking guns away from us, all you effectively do is disarm honest people, because the criminal isn’t going to turn in his gun.”
At the Kettlefoot club, friends Wayne Wills and Terry Lovins, both lifelong members, talked about their club and the role it plays in their lives. Wills carried a manila envelope holding printouts of his favorite Thomas Jefferson quotes on the Second Amendment. He also brought National Security Council statistics that ranked hunting as one of the safest sports around.
“See, you’re more likely to get injured playing basketball,” he said.
Kettlefoot is the area’s largest gun club, stretching over 400 acres of wooded, mountain land in Washington County, Va. The club has about 800 members, 100 of whom have been there more than 20 years. The club boasts facilities for practically every avenue of the sport – a virtual playland for archers, hunters and competitive shooters, to name a few. Once a month, the club hosts a shooting event where families gather over warm meals and friendly competition.
“You come out here and you say, ‘I’m gonna shoot skeet today.’ And there’s four or five guys out there with you. One of them is a businessman, like me – we both run body shops,” Wills said. “And the other guy is a brain surgeon.
“Shooters are just people,” Wills said. “They’re just people with their hobby.”
At Sutherland’s Kingsport store, the owner is trying to keep up with increased business that has nearly tripled in recent weeks. He’s enjoying the profits, he said, but not the reason behind them.
“It’s good now, but it could hurt later,” he said.
“We’ve got regular guys who come in here often, and they don’t buy something every time,” Sutherland said. “It’s a community. They like coming here because they’re part of something. And everybody likes to feel a part of something. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Schmutzler and her husband took a hunting trip to Texas to celebrate their wedding anniversary this year. Not only does she enjoy the sport with her husband, but it’s a family affair. Between them, they have eight children – girls and boys – and all of them hunt, she said. All but one of their kids have grown up and moved away.
“We go with our teenage son, and we laugh at all the weird stuff the animals do,” she said. “Half the fun is just calling the animals and seeing them. It’s not just about shooting.”
Yet across the board, the overriding sentiment is not that a hobby is under attack, but what the hobby means to the people who love it. The Second Amendment is part of American heritage and freedom, many said. When folks attack guns, they attack a way of life.
“Every freedom we have today was won by someone who knew how to use a firearm,” Sutherland said. “The Second Amendment is the one that stands when all the others fail.”
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Posted by ( Eddie107 ) on December 10, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Such as your little dance did nothing to convince me that a bunch of kids kicking back on a log shooting ground hogs is having a spiritual moment in the honor of life and creation. But Touché anyway.
You have come a long way in your composition of your arguments, you dont get a lot of people who challenge you do you?
I personally do not think that just because there is someone lucky enough to have been born a human, it doesn’t give them the right to be a deficit to humanity. I feel sorry for those in Africa who die of starvation, but I dont feel sorry for people who breed when there is no food, or sustainable land. Trying to save everyone is only contaminating the world.
I dont think a bullet to the head is by any means right as population control, human or not.
I liked what you said about “Any group that does not police its own will fall under condemnation by outsiders”
I was born and raised here, so I am very familiar with the average “hunter” in this area. Apparently, you think that I am going to be convinced that each time a “hunter” puts down an animal, they take their hats off, and they shed a tear for the sacrifices that were made to feed hungry mouths.
The ones who go to the woods looking for the biggest healthiest animal, which everyone knows makes for the least edible meat, are very much a rarity.
They never jump up an down and find great happiness in the termination of a beautiful life. Their pictures are only mournfully put in the paper, to bless the poor creature that had to be sacrificed for the sake of hungry mouths.
The heads that are used to decorate the halls are never taken from a real creature, but are in fact just very realistic replicas that have been created by artisans who have such a deep love for the creatures that they imitate, that they have become almost godlike in their abilities. Not some sick treasure, or trophy.
So I give in to your evidence that the bullets that rip through flesh are only doing so because they care so deeply about the life that they are stopping. I feel so much more god-like myself now that I understand your view of nature and how our harvest is not only necessary, but if it weren’t for humans there would be no life at all in the whole galaxy. I cant wait to find other planets someday that we can bring our special gift of ending life to. Because that is what we were designed to do, I think that is what you said. Gosh, I am getting misty.
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Posted by ( dlyn454 ) on December 10, 2008 at 11:57 am
Yes there are people in Africa doing horrible things to each other—-and to animals. But you do not then condemn Africans as a bunch of ignorant vile crude people. You condemn those who commit the offences. Shameful behavior is not a monopoly of any region or race or culture. We rise above it, not by condemning the region, but by condemning the activity and showing people a better way. And by giving them a REASON to behave better. In many cases those who behave viscously towards their fellow man have been told that they are just another animal and that it is natural for them to behave as such. ( I speak mainly of individuals in the American and European world in this—-Africa has other issues). Deprived of any reason to behave better than an animal,—-they do not.
I agree with you that we aught to be our own worst critics. Any group that does not police its own will fall under condemnation by outsiders—-who often do not understand the group and will misapply corrections. If you read my earlier posts you will note that I despise what I called ‘slob hunters’.
And you are correct that there is a higher morality in doing what is right because you want to rather than just because you are ordered to, or fear punishment—-or hope for reward.
I have a great respect for life, as all good hunters do. There is a saying, that all good hunters cry when they have killed an elephant. A large part of my respect for wildlife is that they are a creation of my Father. As such I can no more destroy them thoughtlessly than I could destroy some great work of art my grandfather had painted. HOWEVER, the same Heavenly Father also created a bigger picture. A world order in which there is Plant and Herbivore and Carnivore, and a Cycle of Life. And made me a Carnivore.—more correctly an Omnivore. With a role in this great play. When I play my part, I honor Him as well. When I play my role artfully I have pleasure and pride in a good performance. Not as you imagine in the killing, but in doing well what is part of my nature——and that is true of those hunters who are Evolutionists and Atheists—the pleasure is in fulfilling their natural instinct that they believe they evolved with. NOT in enjoying making something die.
And fulfilling that role—-whether Evolved or God Instilled, is why hunters are the first and foremost conservationists in the world. It is why we taxed ourselves and donate hundreds of millions to preserve and protect wild places and wild things. It is why WE call for regulations on our behavior and codes of conduct beyond the letter of the law. Yes it IS self interest. Enlightened Self Interest. The Knowledge that WE will be lesser beings if we ‘ruin the play’ If we lose the natural order by destroying the wildlife and wild places.
And if people begin to think that meat comes from the supermarket, and forget that an animal died so that you might be nourished, they lose something of their humanity and their appreciation of life. Many of us believe that distance from the cycle of life is part of the cause of many problems in our society. That is why people kept trying to get you to say if you were a Vegan. Its fine to be a Vegan—-it at least shows consistency.
I use insults as well Jesus used insults. (whitewashed tombs, generation of serpents, hypocrites…) But I felt your diatribes were more inclined to end conversation that initiate it. And I doubt if your technique converted anyone.
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Posted by ( Eddie107 ) on December 10, 2008 at 10:50 am
I think the big difference between us is, I look for a reason why it is wrong to kill for amusement, and you look for reasons why it is right. I think the answer lies in the definition of humanity.
I dont know of many people who would consider hunting for humans to be cool sport, but the reality of it is, it is happening right now. And the ones who do it would be very angry and upset with anyone thinking they have the right to say it is wrong.
There are places in Africa right now where they are having problems because the local armies are invading tribal areas and are eating the victims.
As you can see, we are not that far away from our feathered, and furry cousins. No matter how horrific you think them to be. Read the news, see the things that we do to each other every day. Not all of us do these terrible things, but it is the same in the animal kingdom.
As for the source of your morals, I think that being your own worst critic is always the highest level of standards you can reach for.
If the God in Heaven is who “you” think he is, how do you think he will look at you if you only do good because he wants you to? He knows when you try to go outside the lines on technicalities. Plus he created life. How do you think he would think about someone murdering one of his children for the shear excitement of watching it die?
I personally believe that being the best human being I can possibly be, just for my own personal reasons, is better than doing it because I am afraid of a higher being. I think a higher being would look much more kindly on that position. Unless you think he is stupid, he knows a kiss-@$$ when he sees one.
And yes we are creatures, but we suffer from a greater understanding. We have to look at the world around us every day and see what we have done.
We are now undergoing the greatest mass extinction the world has ever known. Every minute another creature leaves this world forever.
What will the world be like for the generations to come? Should we just look out for our own interests, and shoot whatever we feel like? how is it that a person can claim to have respect for life, and yet will destroy it just for the fun of it? That my dancing friend is where the true measure of a person may be found.
If you treasure your own life, you should not be so eager to separate others from their own.
I am sorry for any insults, but sometimes you have to do that to make the stakes high enough to get peoples attention. I obviously worked well in this case, but I am afraid you will never know what a treasure life really is.
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Posted by ( dlyn454 ) on December 09, 2008 at 7:58 pm
OK. An actual question without all the rant and insult, so I will answer. Of course I would not like it. But neither would I eat my own children as most carnivores do from time to time. Nor abandon my mate and offspring as soon as mating season was over. Or drive them away and forget them as soon as they are grown. And I do not kill my prey by disemboweling them and eating them while they are still alive. Nor walk off and abandon a wounded comrade. And I would be rather upset if my children killed their siblings so that they might have more worms to eat as many birds do. I do not do these things because I am NOT the same as an animal. And there is where your philosophy falls apart. If I am just like them then I may kill without remorse or condemnation as any other predator. You say we are just like them, and then hold us to a different standard. If we are to be held to a higher standard than any other creature on earth, then you acknowledge that we are a different order of being than any other. We have morals, which you hold us to, while denying any logical source of those morals.
As for your contention that hunting will eventually be universally condemned, I am afraid that approval of hunting has increased in recent years. I suspect this is because when deer were semi-mythical creatures seen only in Disney films people had a different perception than when they were living in the suburbs and causing car wrecks. I agree this is a selfish attitude. But by your standards we are only creatures and aught to care only for our own interests as other creatures do.
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Posted by ( Eddie107 ) on December 09, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Billy I dont care if your Mom was the first lady in space, I dont care if you can heal polio with the touch of your hand. You have never actually engaged in a conversation, I have attempted to over and over but you just keep up your little song and dance number and have never answered one of my questions.
Even though I think you should go back and read yourself, here is the main question.
“How would you feel if someone you love was “hunted” by someone? I cannot find any other way to show you how wrong killing for fun is. They are creatures just like us, the only crime they committed was they did not eat of the tree of knowledge.
They live, they love, they think, they dream, they make freinds, they take care of their young, and they protect them with all their might. Their capacity for love blows away the human ability and has for a long time. Humans have forgotten how to love in comparison.
I care for these creatures, and I could not live with myself no more than you could live with yourself if someone decided that they wanted to kill your daughter for fun, and you did nothing about it.
Furthermore you are a liar, you say you hate when life is wasted in ignorance, and then you send me a recipe for ground hog. I may be a waste of your time, but if anyone reads this and decides that they wont kill anything, just because it used to be fun. Then a life was saved. The other way to look at this is, those who do not respect life, and take it for recreation, are the biggest wastes of life.
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Posted by ( dlyn454 ) on December 09, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I suppose I am the ‘Billy’ you keep talking about. Billy was the name of my Uncle, a Marine WW2 Vet who spent the rest of his life teaching Science. I am honored to be called by his name, but unworthy. You seem obsessed with some question you imagine you have asked me, but I am at a loss to discern what the question is. I have not heard any question, just the psychotic rant of a spoiled child standing on the table and screaming for attention while the adults were trying to have a conversation. I foolishly attempted to engage you in a discussion because I hate to see any life wasted in ignorance and bigotry. Clearly however, you are incapable of rational discourse, so you are a waste of my time. And if you don’t learn to behave yourself we are going to tell your mommy you have been playing on her computer again.
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Posted by ( Eddie107 ) on December 09, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Lets turn the subject around from why an innocent creature must die in a cruel savage manner, to people are getting their feelings hurt because they are being called “hillbillies”
It seems the more vicious activity considering the posts is to call anyone a racist name. I think that if we were to stop blowing animals brains out and just call them names, I would be cool with that.
For some bazaar reason there are people here that assume that I am not from here. I was born and raised here and I feel it is my home. I have roots here that reach beyond the revolutionary war, and many of them were hunters and trappers. Several of them also held slaves and murdered indians. Just because it is a “tradition” does not mean that I think that their behavior was at all acceptable, but it was a reality that we have to shamefully live with and try to do better as we move along.
There are many people who came from here and did well with their lives in spite of the ignorance that is very well known to the rest of the world. My doctor growing up invented the disposable syringe. “So What!“
It isn’t any minor secret that the people of this area are repressed more than any other part of America. And it is now a proven fact that children of poverty stricken families have brain damage that is likened to the degree of a stroke in comparison to middle class children.
That has nothing to do with morals. But to dismiss the reality that other creatures do in fact live, love and deserve more dignity that to die by the hand of some morally bankrupt individual who does not mourn for his victim at all, is wrong.
_I am still expecting an answer Billy, Just because you dont like the question doesn’t mean that other lives do not count and that you are some kind of god that can just walk through and murder whatever you like and still be considered a good person. I know who and what you are, and I wouldn’t pee on you if you were on fire.
Your double standards on everything are so transparent, anything that a human does is quite all-right just as long as it doesn’t interfere with your fun.
Do you actually think that when I am gone everyone in the world will see life and death the way you do? guess what, it is in fact, turning the other way. there are more and more people who are standing up against the morbid “sport” of killing creatures for fun. And I have no plans of stopping my stand against this horrible activity. Count on seeing me and others here from now on. When a hunter is killed in the forest, I will be one of the growing numbers who will be clapping and cheering because they got what they deserved.
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Posted by ( dlyn454 ) on December 08, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Amen. My son, the Colorado Rocket Scientist, is married to a girl from the slums of New York, My daughter is doing research for her PhD in the Artic. My other daughter is a Texas housewife married to a welder.. None is better or worse for their region or their profession or their years of education. What I take pride in is their character. (and yes they are all hunters).
When I think of hillbillies, I think of a man named Johnny Hicks. He was an inventor of all sorts of novelties and magic gadgets, most especially The Atomic Light Bulb. And when I was a young boy he invented a new kind of pump. He told us how it would revolutionize medicine and we all smiled behind his back. He was just an old backwoods hick. Imagine, he thinks he can revolutionize medicine. But now I work in medicine I know his pump is in use everywhere. You probably wont ever hear of him anywhere else, but if you had any medical treatment in the last 30 years, you owe a Hillbilly named Johnny Hicks. So much of modern medicine could not be done without his pump. My point is, every region and culture in America is full of people of honor, and talent and skill and genius who make great contributions, and often go un-noticed. And every region and culture has its share of embarrassments. I don’t think people who insult by region are any different than those who insult by race.
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Posted by ( Menth ) on December 08, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Like I said before, I respect everyones point of view. I’m not saying they are wrong or right. But I would like to add my opinion on the new posts added.
But that doesn’t matter to me. Its neat how my husband and I do things so diffrent just b/c of where we were born.
My husband is from Piscataway, New Jersy, born and raised there. {he worked in nyc} I am from here in the Tri-cities. No matter where you are from there is a nickname,or whatever, for your race/culture. The U.S. has all kinds of diffrent races/cultures in it. We are suppose to be treated equal. Although thats what its suppose to be,our nation still in ways is racist. The past settlers here in this counry,{for some, our ancestors} were racist. I think it is stupid!!! If you call someone who is a native from here a hillbilly, you are racist. I’m proud of where I’m from! I know thats what people would call us years ago, just like Northerns are yankees. I get mad when someone calls my husband that,{if they mean it in a bad way} No one likes be called names b/c of where they were born. And like I said the name calling still goes on. My in laws flew in last winter and we all went to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. My brother-in -law’s girlfriend seen the hillbilly golf place and made the comment,“ ha, look they are making fun of themselves” Oh it made me so mad. But I didn’t say anything. {I was being the better person} Even though we might be the stereotype “stupid hillbillys” Its so not true!!! We have very smart people that are from here! But like I said the thing thats stupid is name calling. My grandparents were racist in my eyes. Lord knows my grandpa pro. rolled over in his grave when I married someone from up north.
Getting to my point… He’s never hunted, I did when I was younger. But thats b/c since I am from the south my family did when I was a kid. It’s something that has always been popular here. He knows nothing about it. It doesn’t bother him that people here hunt either, it’s what we have grown up with seeing others do/ or doing ourself. If guns were banned, you would be taking part of some people’s family culture!! If you are not from here, and never been around hunting, or maybe you have, I could see why it wouldn’t matter if there was a future ban. If you choose to hunt thats your chose. If you kill endangered animals,which is against the law, yes thats wrong. I don’t think it should matter to anyone what others do when it comes to this. Or why for that matter. Unless there is illegal hunting going on. I’m sure if something you enjoyed doing that you grew up doing was banned you would be upset. and yes you can say “well i don’t kill for fun” Hunters I’m sure could give you a good explanation to why they think its “fun”. Maybe they take thier children b/c their grandparents use to take them. And it reminds them of the good ol’ days. Which could be considered fun.
It may seem like I am taking up for people who hunt, well I am, only because I think everyone should be able to do what they are custom to. {as long as it isn’t illigal} I feel this way with any sort of customs, from whatever race or culture. We all should be treated equal.
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Posted by ( Eddie107 ) on December 06, 2008 at 7:10 pm
My name is Billy,
I like to kill things,
and I dont answer questions that I dont like
cause,.... I dont like them.
and anyone who says the world is round is stupid,
cause everyone knows the world is flat.
Dont ever bother trying to get me to look at anything
from a different point of view,
cause if I do my head will explode.
Dont ever say anything about killing for fun
cause I will use anything from scientist using rats
to termites to justify my amusements.
For some reason, I think my rap career is never going to take off. :(
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