I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area in a liberal gun-free bubble. And when I went to college at UC-Berkely, that bubble got a little stronger. And when I became a sociology professor, that bubble became stronger still. And that bubble followed me for most of my adult life until I came to North Carolina in 2005…koined the faculty here at Wake Forest University. And that bubble insulating me from guns started to break down under the weight of North Carolina’s robust gun culture.
That’s the journey Wake Forest sociology professor — and actual gun guy — David Yamane says brought him to where he is today. He’s the academic who takes his undergrad students to the range every year and then has them write about the experience. He’s also the author of Gun Curious (you can read SNW’s interview with the perfesser about his book here). He also write on the subject regularly in a Substack blog called Light Over Heat.
A self-described liberal, his work in always interesting and well-communicated. It never fails to be fascinating to hear perspectives on firearm ownership and gun rights from those on the other side of the political spectrum (although, given the accelerating leftward lurch of the dominant political culture, along with his problematically right-coded and reasonable attitudes about guns, he’s sure to be classified as an irredeemable far right cultist about 15 minutes from now).
Anyway, his recent TEDx talk on moving beyond the perpetually binary debate on guns in America is embedded above. Give it a listen.
I watched this talk. He is the “reasonable” face of a liberal gun owner. Don’t ever trust a liberal gun owner. They don’t support any civil right. In the Bill of Rights.
White liberals have always worked to disarm black people. And later everyone else.
The white liberal is the devil. Yes that’s correct I said that.
‘Bridging the divide’ is yet another ‘gun control’ group. They are just re-framing it in softer language with their concept of ‘oh yes, i’m all for gun rights and the 2A but gun safety…’
Now where have we heard of this before, this concept of ‘oh yes, i’m all for gun rights and the 2A but gun safety..,” – that’s right, we have heard it from Everytown among other anti-gun orgs, we heard it from the ‘policies’ of the unconstitutional ‘white house office of gun violence prevention’, we’ve heard it from anti-gun democrat politcians – you may know it more commonly known as their claims of ‘common sense gun safety’ as they wanted to impose even more regulations and restrictions on, ban more, remove more, impose more tyranny, and calls for removing, the Second Amendment, and sure enough, when we look at the so called ‘policies’ of ‘bridging the divide’ we find the same theme just dressed up differently in softer phrasing and wording. For example, look at their ‘policy’ for ‘Dealer Regulation and Gun Trafficking’ – there are some lies, and its focused on even more regulation and introducing more ‘slippery slopes’ and exploitable language – but whats really telling is its almost word for word, with some slight re-framing of language, of an, Everytown ‘policy’. Plus their so called ‘policies’ use a familiar ‘structure’, one we have seen hundreds of times from the biased and false anti-gun ‘studies: Start with a hypothesis, introduce cherry picked data, leave out confounding variables and other relevant data that counters the hypothesis, and tailor the study to support only the beginning hypothesis – their ‘policies’ follow the same basic methodology.
He claims ‘stake holders’ involved, 23 of them, from the spectrum of anti-gun to pro-2A/gun. This stakeholders claim is a ‘lie’. This is a constitutional right, the only ‘stake holders’ in a constitutional right are those who have and exercise the constitutional right which means all Americans who have and exercise the 2A and not some self-appointed-group who says basically ‘we represent you’ and a ‘separate group’ does not get to claim some sort of ‘moral high ground’ in deciding ‘policy’ for a constitutional right from which even government is suppose to be restricted from infringing.
I’m not sure if Yamane got drawn in by the ’emotion’ or for some other reason – but ‘bridging the divide’, the group he is part of, is yet another ‘gun control’ org using deception to introduce control over a constitutional right they have no right to affect or infringe.
There is no ‘bridge to divide’. Its either a constitutional right that says ‘…shall not be infringed’ or its not a ‘constitutional right’, for the law abiding. The only thing to address is the ‘illegal’ and you do not do that by doing things that only affects the lawful.
I’m a ‘stake holder’ in this right, you as a law abiding gun owner are too. No one included me in this group ‘bridging the divide’. I was not asked to be one of their ‘stake holders’, were you, were the millions of law abiding pro-gun/2A people, asked to be and included as a part of this ‘stake holders’ group to make ‘policy’? Its a self appointed group trying to ‘control’ the constitutional right via ‘policy’, its a group trying to introduce infringement for a constitutional right that specifically says ‘…shall not be infringed’ and they are following and using the standard anti-gun pattern and even the same deceptive pattern. These people do not represent me, nor you, we do not get a say so in what they do, we have no representation – they self appointed their selves to decide what your constitutional right should be. Your constitutional right belongs to you individually, it does not belong to this group yet they claim self-appointed jurisdiction with ‘policy’ over your constitutional right that is an inherent part of you, as inherent as a body organ, and that’s like claiming jurisdiction over if you can move your hands or not. They have no right to such, they are a gun-control and constitutional-right-control group period.
Liberals love that sort of stuff, being able to control others with their ‘policy’ and what they say.
correction for: “There is no ‘bridge to divide’.”
should have been …
There is no ‘divide to bridge’.
[VA]Democrats Want To Delete The [VA] Supreme Court After It Ruled Against Them! [note: The illegal and unconstitutional redistrict tyranny move by the VA democrats, their plans to want to do away with the present VA supreme court and appoint judges that will rule in their favor, has outed the left wing and their democrat politicians to be the fascist Nazi’s they are, the fascist Nazi’s, among other things, that we always knew they were. Hitler too wanted to do the same thing, control the courts and the populace (voters in VA case) to support the Nazi ideology. Its a play right out of the Hitler Nazi playbook.]
“Virginia Democrats are under fire after reports surfaced that some lawmakers discussed changing the Virginia Supreme Court following a major redistricting defeat. In this video, we break down the constitutional implications, the dangers of political retaliation against the judiciary, and why every American — especially supporters of the Second Amendment — should be paying attention.
This isn’t just about Virginia. This is about the future of constitutional government, judicial independence, and whether the rule of law still matters in America.”
ht* tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrzIrI7itHQ
BREAKING NEWS! VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS LEAK PLANS TO ELIMINATE SUPREME COURT!
After VA Democrats lose their redistricting effort in the VA Supreme Court, they are discussing some crazy ideas. Mark Smith, Four Boxes Diner, discusses.
ht* tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6womT7f6En8
The dem Nazi plan in play: Dems’ Virginia Court-Packing Plan Is A Test Run Of What They’ll Do To SCOTUS After Retaking Power.
ht* tps://thefederalist.com/2026/05/11/dems-virginia-court-packing-plan-is-a-test-run-of-what-theyll-do-to-scotus-after-retaking-power/
The VA Nazi dems got caught when their Nazi’esque plan was exposed and now….: Virginia Dems Reject Insane Idea to Nuke State Supreme Court to Push Gerrymandered Map. [note: The dem party spent over $70 million dollars to push this Nazi’esque plan. Harkem Jeffeires the dem congressman was also complicit and conspiring in this illegal and unconstitutional redistricting attempt.]
“It was pie-in-the-sky then, and it’s now officially been shot down by Virginia Democrats. The New York Times reported some outrageous claims about how Democrats could implement and pass their now-rejected gerrymandered congressional map in the Old Dominion that gave them a 10-1 advantage. The Virginia Supreme Court rejected it, citing serious violations of the state constitution’s electoral procedures. Democrats were furious, stomping their feet and threatening to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. They have no case: it was a state Supreme Court ruling on a matter related to the state constitution. There is no federal issue here.
…
So, this plan B was devised: reduce the retirement age of the Virginia Supreme Court, which would invalidate the independent redistricting amendment, thereby allowing them to draw any map they want. Holy hell, they’ve gone off the rails. Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who took a hit here, likely wants to move past this circus, which cost her party $70 million. Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D) dismissed these rumors yesterday. It’s not happening, folks. In fact, even if they attempted this caper, we’re out of time.
‘Politics & Poll Tracker 📡
@PollTracker2024
Virginia Scope: Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D) rules out proposal forcing the retirement of Virginia Supreme Court justices in order to get a different ruling in the redistricting case.
Surovell said the idea would be too extreme.’
…”
ht*tps://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2026/05/12/virginia-dems-reject-insane-idea-to-nuke-state-supreme-court-to-push-gerrymandered-map-n2675894
What Was the Theology Behind the ‘Shot Heard Round the World?’
ht* tps://pjmedia.com/david-barrow/2026/05/11/what-was-the-theology-behind-the-shot-heard-round-the-world-n4952738
Backfire: Family Demands Answers in Police Shooting, Gets Them in Bodycam Footage.
”
…
The answer is: your relative was a gun wielding thug who died while attempting to kill a police officer.
…”
ht* tps://twitchy.com/brettt/2026/05/11/backfire-bodycams-continue-to-prove-to-be-valuable-assets-for-police-officers-n2428094
The violent and traitorous left wing: Arcadia Mayor Resigns After China Agent Plea.
”
…
ABC News
@ABC
NEW: Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, California, has been charged with acting as an illegal foreign agent for China, the Justice Department announced on Monday.
Wang agreed to plead guilty, the Justice Department said.
…”
ht* tps://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2026/05/11/arcadia-mayor-resigns-after-china-agent-plea-n4952755
The Supreme Court Just Gave Republicans Another Major Win on Redistricting.
ht* tps://townhall.com/tipsheet/josephchalfant/2026/05/11/the-supreme-court-just-gave-republicans-another-major-win-on-redistricting-n2675907