TribTalk I was born and raised in Texas to parents who were high school sweethearts at a rural Texas high school. I went to Texas public schools. I had a horse as a kid. I attended UT Austin. My drink was Dr Pepper. I spend holidays on a ranch. I am a Texan through and through, and I can tell you that the gun-slinging image of Texans who don’t leave home without a gun attached at the hip is a caricature, likely fantasized and projected onto us by non-Texans. It trivializes the experience of a confident and hard-working people.
When I was growing up, guns were for hunting and for killing rattlesnakes. I remember eating venison tamales at my grandmother’s dinner table as part of the bounty from a friend or relative’s hunt. Guns are part of our strong connection to the land and nature, and as such, have always been used for food, sport and protection — not protection from other Texans, but from wild animals.
All types of wild animals…