A cultured firearm
My planned project involves discovering what place gun culture has in Columbia, Mo. with a focus on gun owners who opt for highly customized, powerful rifles, outside of hunting and wilderness purposes. Namely the weapons that sports shooters use and what brings these people together to meticulously blast away at paper targets, then adjust or customize and continue shooting.
I would like to delve into two very different experiences of the people who make guns, a way of life. The first and best example is the AR-15, the most powerful military-grade rifle among shooting enthusiasts, which has thousands of parts and modifications that make each weapon unique to the shooter. These little sporting accessories cost $1,000 and more in price and most of those who choose to go with an automatic weapon, go all the way. This means extreme accessories that must be built into the weapon and often machined from scratch to match the order. There is a local business by the name of Hughes Gunsmithing that will be a really good location to see how this process of getting a perfectly unique weapon is done. Another location to find owners or just information about the AR-15 is Powder Horn Guns & Sporting
The second major niche market of gun stores and enthusiasts, is the black powder club. Black powder rifles come in numerous shapes and sizes, from smooth bore muskets to modern 50-caliber (sniper) competition rifles. From what I understand, black powder rifle shooters are analogous the pipe smokers of the tobacco community. There is a science to how these mountainmen choose the grain (size, fineness, origin) of their gunpowder and what shape projectile to use. I think the best source of experts and how to connect with this smaller, sub-culture will be through the Columbia Gun Show at the Boone County Fairgrounds Sept. 21-22.
This will be a multimedia piece, and a loud one too, because of how important the moving parts are and the interaction of the guns and their owners are to the focal point. Any type of interpersonal conversation will add some good transitional points as the piece moves toward the climax. I think an almost side-by-side walk through of the two types of “culture” surrounding recreational firearms will have a great self-examination effect on how the viewer thinks about their experience with guns and how they are usually portrayed in media. I really want to show a different side than how dangerous guns are, how amazing it seems when women want to shoot them or how a gun leads to gang violence.
The only problem I foresee is the possible denial of access to certain parts of the process in the smithing category. I will try to defuse this early on by scouting the shops sans photo gear and see about some good audio interviews or just cooperation. The next biggest concern I have about completing this project is simply the weather deteriorating. I am hopeful about this not being serious though, because the shooters, due to their out-of-doors nature, will shoot whenever they get free time and a few lead rockets together on the same day. The least of my worries is that I will have to travel to St. Louis to more familiar sporting goods stores to find experts on the assault rifle series, but considering how sporting many, many Columbians are I don’t think this problem will arise.
little Peaces 