Authentic

What do Austin Weiss, Colion Noir, Natalie Foster, Dom Raso, and Billy Johnson have in common?

The first two things are obvious: they are all commentators for NRA News and they all love guns.

The third thing is that they are all authentic. They are who they are. Just as Colion Noir is urban and hip so Natalie Foster is girly and fashionable. This authenticity was brought home to me yesterday while listening to the newest contributor Austin Weiss.

Austin is a car guy who with his beard (and tats) would have looked at home on the Boston Red Sox. His cars blend new technology with old style chrome. His guns are the same blending the old and the new. In the video below, Austin mentions how his over-and-under shotgun has carbon fiber stocks instead of nice walnut. He notes the false dichotomy that the O/U with wood stocks says hunting while his with the carbon fiber stocks are “killing machines”. He calls this terrible and a misconception.

Say what you will about the NRA and the “lairds of Fairfax”, somewhere amidst all those stodgy old white guys is someone who gets it and is working hard to reach out to Gun Culture v.2.0. And you know that this has to piss off the Ladds, Sarahs, and Joshes of the gun prohibitionist industry.