Commentary: Want to understand gun owners? Watch their videos
It was an ordinary day in 2011 when I found myself watching a YouTube video of a gun owner making a semiautomatic rifle discharge bullets rapidly, as if it were an automatic weapon.
My gun-owning husband watches firearms videos like this one, however, I had never seen one. Intrigued, I sat down on the couch to absorb the imagery.
Hooking his thumb through the belt loop of his pants, the YouTuber demonstrated how pushing the gun forward, rather than pulling the trigger, allowed the gun's recoil to "keep the gun going."
In other words, he was bump firing his rifle.
I'm a criminal justice researcher. At
