HAMPTON ROADS, Va. — Cody Beckner, like many Americans, prefers to stay armed.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old from Hampton likes to carry one of his favorites, a 9 MM Canik handgun with a Holosun red-dot sight. He wears it on his hip when shopping, concealed when eating out. Most days, he keeps an AR-15 in his Ford SUV. Most nights, he keeps a gun next to his bed.<\/p>\n
Beckner, a leader of the Hampton Roads-based Virginia Kekoas militia, understands many people disagree with his take on the Second Amendment. He joined Kekoas in 2021 looking for a community that shared his gun rights and survivalist mindset \u2014 \u201cAlways be prepared,\u201d he says \u2014 and found it with the group\u2019s approximately 15 other members. Beckner is proud of his place in America\u2019s gun culture.<\/p>\n
The U.S. is the only country in the world with more civilian firearms than people. Some people buy guns for sport, such as target shooting and competition; to feed their families by hunting; or they carry guns for a sense of control, to control others through fear or to combat their own. A growing number of owners carry to show that they can: Their firearm is a political signpost.<\/p>\n
The America of the past 400 years has never existed without a culture of gun ownership.<\/p>\n
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The men who colonized and founded Jamestown did so carrying guns.<\/p>\n
The General Assembly of Virginia, the first elected governing body in a British North American colony, put its first laws on the books in 1619, including America\u2019s first gun law:<\/p>\n
\u201cThat no man do sell or give any Indians any piece, shot, or powder, or any other arms offensive or defensive, upon pain of being held a traitor to the colony and of being hanged as soon as the fact is proved, without all redemption.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n In the 1620s, farmers were legally bound to stay armed while working. After 1632, it became illegal for men to go to church without their weapons. Colonial and state governments eventually enacted over 600 militia laws, many mandating men to civilian-military service. That they were required to get and keep their military-grade weaponry is tied to what retired professor Robert Spitzer calls a \u201cfrontier ethos\u201d and the romanticizing of American history and self-reliance.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you think about the settling of the Western lands, especially in the 19th century, you think about gun ownership; although it turns out there were lots of laws restricting where you could carry guns and all sorts of other things, that\u2019s kind of the tradition,\u201d Spitzer said.<\/p>\n Spitzer is a distinguished professor emeritus at the State University of New York at Cortland and the author of six books on gun policy. He now lives in Williamsburg where he\u2019s an affiliated scholar at William & Mary. He said while traditionally \u201cgun culture\u201d has referred to gun owners who hunt or use arms for sport, politically motivated gun sales are relatively new; but, no matter what, American gun culture has always thrived. In his book \u201cThe Politics of Gun Control,\u201d he writes: \u201cRegardless of one\u2019s personal or political feelings about guns, however, the gun culture is an undeniable component of American history and the gun debate.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n On a recent Sunday afternoon, people of different ages and ethnicities queued for a gun show at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. Some men slung rifle bags over their shoulders. Couples stopped at a ticket kiosk before shooing the kids inside. U.S. Navy veteran Lawrence Sullivan was pushed through the lobby in his wheelchair.<\/p>\n Sullivan, 56, of Norfolk, equates gun culture with the hunt. He first shot a BB gun when he was 7. About a year later, his dad took him hunting for squirrel, rabbit and partridge. Later in life, they stalked deer together.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, mainly, it was just to get out in the woods,\u201d he said. He bought a 9 MM that day. He now settles for aiming at targets. As he spoke, Tyler Hilborne and Batuhan Vural walked by.<\/p>\n Hilborne, 32, and Vural, 26, both of Virginia Beach, said they own guns for target shooting. Hilborne said he thinks of gun culture as the social media images of guys posing with modified AR-15s and body armor, geeked on the power of weaponry.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the extreme end of it,\u201d Vural said. Hilborne said that he figured most gun owners, like himself, are casual hobbyists.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just the same with cars,\u201d Vural said. \u201cSome people go to car shows, things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n They agreed that shooting guns can be a bonding activity between friends.<\/p>\n \u201cBetter than just sitting at home,\u201d Hilborne said, \u201cwatching Netflix and drinking beer.\u201d<\/p>\n Not too far away, Ozell Weather stood in the convention center with one foot propped on an ammo canister chatting with his adult son, who holstered a pistol on his hip.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Weather, 57, of Virginia Beach, grew up hunting in upstate New York and still hunts. But he also carries for self-defense. He looked at the pistol on his son\u2019s hip.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was coming up,\u201d he said, \u201cthere was no need to carry.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2020, researchers from Boston, Columbia and Harvard universities released \u201cWhat is gun culture? Cultural Variations and Trends Across the United States.\u201d The research looked at behavior patterns and analyzed gun-related subcultures from 1998 to 2016. It defined gun culture with three categories: recreation, self-defense and symbolism around the Second Amendment. Virginia followed the national averages with a decline in recreational gun use, an increase in guns for self-defense and being viewed as politically emblematic.<\/p>\n Weathers started hunting at 8, and, following family tradition, taught his children to shoot at the same age. A few years ago, his son inspired him to adopt another philosophy: It\u2019s better to have and not need than need and not have. Father and son believe crime has worsened.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of those adapt and adjust situations in today\u2019s culture,\u201d Weather said. His son nodded.<\/p>\n A Gallup poll found that the number of adults who think having a gun makes their homes safer rose from 42% to 64% between 1993 and 2023. The National Rifle Association was founded in 1871 by two Civil War veterans who were appalled by the poor shooting skills of a typical military recruit. In 1873, they began matches to improve marksmanship skills. In the 1930s, its leadership lobbied for gun control legislation. It was not until the 1970s that the NRA morphed into the staunchly pro-Second Amendment agenda, according to the 2020 study.<\/p>\n Once a year, the Virginia Kekoas join other gun-rights advocates on Lobby Day at the state Capitol to demonstrate the right to open-carry guns. The militia derives its name from a Hawaiian word meaning \u201cwarrior;\u201d the group was once known as the Virginian Knights but changed it not wanting to be associated with the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Beckner doesn\u2019t mind the term \u201cmilitia,\u201d even though militias no longer exist as government-supported units. He believes the word fits because the Kekoas are ready to help the government if needed in an emergency.<\/p>\n In the last 10 to 15 years, researchers like Spitzer have observed an uptick in \u201cwhat the gun industry calls the political sale of guns\u201d with manufacturers marketing firearms as political products. Sales spiked after Barack Obama was elected in 2008 and 2012, out of fear that the Democrats would create new gun-buying restrictions. Donald Trump extolled himself as a gun person, and sales went relatively flat after he became president in 2016. According to Spitzer, the gun industry termed a phrase after the election: \u201cThe Trump Slump.\u201d<\/p>\n But, the professor added, the proliferation of guns increases the chances of them being used in crime.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Portsmouth Police Chief Stephen Jenkins has no problem with citizens exercising their Second Amendment rights. But firearms carry another appeal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a culture that glorifies the ownership and or use of guns,\u201d he said, \u201cand that is more so along the criminal aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n The most commonly prosecuted charge in Norfolk in 2020 was possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to a study by the Virginia Bar Association. Jenkins said Portsmouth has one of the highest rates of firearm theft per capita in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cMy problem surrounding guns is I have a hard time believing that our forefathers believed weapons of war should be on our everyday streets.\u201d<\/p>\n City police, Jenkins said, monitor social media and examine videos showing young people showing off, almost worshipping, their firearms. To exemplify just how common guns are in Portsmouth, he pointed to a recent incident. On May 28, Jenkins \u2014 while in uniform \u2014 was talking to a citizen in front of a Food Lion parking lot when a man in the lot began firing a gun into the air. Jenkins drew his sidearm and quelled the situation, he said. The person was arrested on numerous charges, many related to firearms, according to the Portsmouth clerk of courts.<\/p>\n Troy Ketchmore knows the dangers of guns within a culture of fear.<\/p>\n In 1995, he and two of his friends were carrying when he got into an argument with another man. Gunfire was exchanged, and the man was killed. Ketchmore was sentenced to prison for first-degree murder.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you see a kid packing,\u201d he said, \u201cthey are dripping with fear.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe gun is my security to come back home tonight,\u201d he said, thinking back on his youth. \u201cIt was a thing of, you\u2019d rather get caught with it than without it.\u201d<\/p>\n After serving 26 years, Ketchmore was paroled in 2021. Now 52, he helps run his family\u2019s nonprofit, Ketchmore Kids, which runs classes to help kids who have gotten in trouble sometimes related to guns. He visits the Newport News Juvenile Detention center every other week and tries to steer the kids away from the mentality he and his friends had when they were young.<\/p>\n Ketchmore\u2019s staff hears from kids who carry guns because they\u2019re afraid of being bullied or being robbed after school. They can get guns cheaply on the streets and, like people who carry for Second Amendment reasons, the kids like the sense of power, safety and control guns give them. But he tells them to remove themselves from a situation in which they feel they need a gun \u2014 distance themselves from \u201cbeefs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou feel like you need a gun? Why? Because you\u2019re right there. Don\u2019t let your ego make you feel like you have to walk down the street and take care of a beef with a gun. Just leave. I tell them to put themselves in a position to win.\u201d<\/p>\n A study published in the American Journal of Public Health investigated the link between gun possession and gun assault. It found that people with a gun were 4\u00bd times more times likely to be shot in an assault compared to those who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t understand that those singular situations that they make in the heat of anger,\u201d Jenkins said, \u201chave lasting ramifications for them and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n\u2018Some people go to car shows\u2019<\/h3>\n
\u2018Adapt and adjust\u2019<\/h3>\n
\u2018Dripping with fear\u2019<\/h3>\n