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.
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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Reader Reactions
Sorry folks, I’m not going to let you shut me up just because you enjoy your crimes. What criminal ever does want to admit that he or she is hurting others for nothing?
It is funny that none of you even want to discuss that fact that there are victims to your entertainment.
I have stated several times that hunting for food is not the issue. It is people who kill for the sake of killing that I have a problem with. I am flooded with them all around me and I know that they are far from being an abnormality.
And Mister One More Voice,. I have an incredible suspicion that you have another name here like dlyn454, aka Billy.
As far as my choice of living areas go, I have just as much right to be here and to be surrounded by the wildlife I love just as much as any other human being the whole world. I have just as much right to fight to keep the animals alive as you have to kill it, if not more so, and I plan to exercise that right.
You think that everyone is in love with the whole idea of hunting, well you need to get out of this area a little bit more. You are the vast minority. Your concept is being accepted in a smaller and smaller circle everyday and It will inevitably land right here someday. Then you my fake friend will find the tables turned and you will see everyone around you turning their rage upon you.
Perhaps being the cause of death for something beautiful is in your nature, but it certainly is not in mine, even though I have spent my entire life wandering the forests of north America. For the last time, killing for the sake of killing is wrong.
JH—As I think you know, that is born out by empirical evidence. Anti gun researchers set out to prove what a bunch of criminal low lifes gun owners and hunters were, and discovered just the opposite. They became converts upon discovering them to be more law abiding and less violent and less prone to criminal activity than the general population. Jung was right. Those who are not comfortable with nature are of course psychotic. And the predator prey relationship is an essential core part of nature in general, and our nature in particular. To deny it is denial of reality. which IS psychosis.
The answer to this lengthy debate is quite simple. We humans are nothing more than intelligent animals, and due to our intelligence, we deny the fact that we are indeed animals. This fact has caused mass psychosis in our species that I believe stems from repressed instinct. Have you ever seen a lion in captivity? It is not enough just to be fed when you are a predator. I have observed that when people who are neither psychopaths or uneducated, embrace their primal nature, they take less Prozac. 
For Eddie107; Earlier you requested for someone to give you a valid reason for hunting so here it is in Black & White. While I’m sure you won’t get it or you won’t want to get it this is the pure cold hard simple truth as to why Hunting must be done; be it for food or sport or as someone stated FUN. While this may not appeal to you and others with opinions like you it is a part of living in this and other areas. If you cannot accept the traditions you have so beat to death on this Blog then MOVE…how simple…and if you can not afford to move don’t expect the rest of us to conform to only meet the minority. Also, in reaction to a prior comment made by you several BLOGS ago; all of us that hunt are not stupid with a toothless sister with 6 fatherless children barefoot on the front porch and in-bred as you so unnecessarily wrote. Everyone gets on these pages and never stick to the subject they only use it to show the intelligence or lack there-of. I’m not saying that I’m smarter than you or anyone else that has an opinion on here; but hey stop the personal attacks. Now READ the reasons for Hunting. Thank you and Have a nice day.
I hunt for food. the sport part is when you get a big buck, elk, or antelope but it is still used for food.
other types of sport only hunts like a wolf or cat hunt for instance are only used to keep these animal populations under control and are very strict with only a few tags issued and you have to report the kill immediately and the area’s are closed to hunting when the quota’s are met to insure the animals are not over hunted.
So the three for food would be
#1 Cheap meat
#2 preservation of the species ( too many deer in one place will spread disease amongst the species).
#3 hunting dollars ( from tags, and taxes) go to land management and preservation.
the three for sport are
#1 preservation of the species (too many big cats in one area have adverse affects on everything from cattle, poodles and other game animals)
#2 Hunting for sport costs more so more money is donated to land management and preservation.
#3 And although not the best good reason we as humans haven’t been the best stewards to the land and animals and now we have to take unfortunate measures to keep things in balance.
Thank you Billy for making this so much fun. I am not surprised that you call me a psycho, yet its funny because there is and never has been a drop of blood on my hands. Can you say the same? How many creatures of the world have died by your hand, If I can I will take a fly outside and release it.
You say that I dont represent all anti hunters? I don’t ever remember saying that I do. All I am doing is discussing my knowledge of where I see unnecessary pain and suffering of innocent creatures.
I suppose you feel like you are speaking for all of the Hunters now? A little more of that God complex maybe-??
What do people think of a person who stays the hand of a child beater, or of a wife beater, or of a Michael Vic? A few decades ago that person would have been viewed as a villain for intruding on personal lives. But we know better now don’t we.
Its obvious that you are now afraid of me because you will no longer interact without making a big mess. You think that every one will gang up on me and you can all dominate me together if you throw up flags and yell and scream about how crazy I am. 
How silly.
They aren’t coming Billy. That is because truth is always concrete. There is blood, there is suffering and pain, and there is death. It is as it always has been, but we have decided that we are now “above” the other creatures of the world and we no longer have anything in common. Our only interaction with the natural world is to screw it up. Without our contamination, the natural world would be just fine. Back to your God complex, you have no control over the flourishing of nature, but sadly, you can add to its sickness.
If your intention to discredit me with insults and fancy dancing continues Billy, I wont continue to be so nice. So please pretend to be a dignified human being and think a little bit before you post.
Thank you Menth for a refreshing post. Eddie is obviously a severely disturbed individual who is making many anti-hunting people cringe with shame. Please be aware that he does not represent all anti-hunters any more than the slob hunter represents all hunters. I was once somewhat anti-hunting in my youth , in part because of exposure to slob hunters, then became an avid hunter, and now have come to that point shared by many elders where I often just enjoy the time afield. Again, thank you Menth, And rest assured the wildlife populations of this nation are in excellent shape and America is the model for the world in combining a populous industrial country and abundant wildlife. And this is financed and managed by the sport hunter.
Menth, good post. But please read the rest of my post anyway.
Forget about it Billy, I am not going to rip your post apart, I wouldn’t find any reason to feel satisfaction for responding to such a week response. I asked for a dignified true to heart answer but you couldn’t possibly go there. Thus I will go there for you.
The reason you love the hunt, is you love to play God. You walk through the forest and feel the superiority of all you survey. Very unlike the alternate world you walk through every day where people sometimes leave you for road-kill.
But you feel great satisfaction as you go by each creature and get to feel like you are such a good and giving person because you will allow them to live one more day, it is by your gracious hand that their life can continue. But someone in the forest will pay for the deadly mistake they will make that day.
Should it be a groundhog who thought he or she with a burrow full of children, would like to have a bite to eat and enjoy the sun. When She pokes her furry face up from the ground where she felt safety, she will find that she has been sentenced to death and the hatred in the form of a bullet will rip through her body.
But it is the bigger kills that really make you feel alive. To crush a bug wouldn’t even register, but the bigger the kill the higher the excitement.
when you see that big 10 point with the 30 inch spread your heart goes into overdrive. It is the most beautiful thing you can ever remember seeing and you have to murder it to show to your buddies. The admiration of your friends flies through your mind, the picture in the paper, the corpse hanging on the wall as you sip your blue ribbon by the fireplace and tell the story of your heroics to everyone who will listen.
You draw a bead on the offending perpetrator, and you let loose all your hopes that you will be dragging the body from the woods that day. But the first shot kill is pretty unusual isn’t it Billy. You may have to track it with your super skills through the bush where the blood is gushing from its body, and follow until it just cant go on anymore. With a little luck you wont have to shoot it again, once or twice, it would be a shame to have to sit and wait for it to die so you can have its head in tact.
But that big one rarely ever comes does it. It isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. A couple of decades ago, only a small handful of deer ever made it past their first year, and a real buck was non existent. Maybe if enough people become insecure about themselves we will see them all wiped out again.
The woods will be full of people who are not quite able to handle society, so they sit in the cold and the rain in the forest playing God. Its almost enough to make you feel sorry for them, but who feels sorry for their victims?
I understand that everyone has their own outlook on everything that goes on in this world. There are those who agree and those who oppose. But we live in “the land of the free” we have the right to have our own opinion. I respect everyone for their point of veiw, and I’m not going to say it is right or wrong.
On the topic of hunting. I was born and raised here in the tri-cities. When I was growing up almost everyone in my family went hunting and fishing. (as a sport and for food) We raised our own pigs to slaughter, ate eggs from our chickens. Now that I am older I don’t personaly do any of this anymore, but it’s not because I think its wrong. I don’t like to hunt, but I love deer jerky. 
I understand why it bothers people to think of others killing animals for a sport, {people do sports because it is fun for them}.
My opinion, I’m glad people hunt deer. although it may not be the case for all animals. I would hate to see how over populated we would be without the hunters. There are a few areas around here where you have to be really watch out when you are driving cause deer will run right out in front of you. I’ve been in a car when it has hit a deer and seen others hit deer and man it is never just a dent in your hood. Then the sad part is that the deer will lay there and suffer from whatever injuries it recieved from the hit. I’ve seen that before too, it’s very sad.
I don’t know the facts but, i’m sure the population of the animals are well taken care of. As long as you kill what you are suppose to then thats your own prefrence and more power to you!
Give a man enough rope.
As suspected from your first post. Hatred of others is often rooted in self loathing.
Seek help. From any institution or religion or profession you respect.
What a mess, this is it Billy, The story is off the front page, there is no one else looking at this story. Its just you and me.
I think you know your serial killer analogy wasn’t even worth noticing.
“I observe them mostly to be the city bred psychotics Jung warned of, not the country hunters you despise”
City Bred psychotics-?? Really Billy? That wasnt as good as that “Indian” thing that one guy came up with, but It did almost make my soda go up my nose.
This is my last entry unless you manage to actually participate in this an find to find a way to justify your actions instead of just trying to turn the spotlight light on me. I can see you typing eagerly away at your litle keyboard, this is like some kind of contest for you isn’t it? Maybe like the contest where you go into the forest and see who you can win in a battle for someone else’s life. It’s exciting isn’t it?
I don’t know if you noticed, but I asked you 11 direct questions that I really feel would have been very pertinent to this subject. How many did you give up? I dont see any.
Now just to get you off of the turn table, I am going to tell you all about the horrible person that is me. And afterwards, I expect you to never say “what about you” after that.
I am purely carnivore. But my appetite is driven only by hatred of all that is good and beautiful in the world. It is because our creator has made me hideous and wretched. So anything that finds happiness I cannot stand and it brings me great satisfaction in tasting the blood of anything that can feel gladness for the sun or is beautiful and has love for its children. I live to hear the whimpers of their last dying breaths and to see the life that they hold on to so dearly, wrenched from their horrific bodies.
But unlike you I dont take the life from afar and pretend that it isn’t me that has stopped a beating heart. No I like to be right there as close as I can. I want to feel their breath and let the blood run all over my skin. The more fear that I can inflict upon my victims the more I like it. The greater I am and the more vengeance I have on our creator. I laugh at him and I can’t wait to spit in his face when I die.
Now tell me Billy, What is you reasoning for taking lives? My lust for blood has a reason, what is yours? Is it because you are like me? If not, I would still give an ear to hear why. But it may not be mine. 
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