Nashville-based Rated Red delves into the guns and gun culture of the Lone Star State in a diverse (and free) series posted online Wednesday.
Described as “the voice of Heartland Millennials” Rated Red was founded in late 2015 by Richard Ryan (the FullMag channel on YouTube guy) and covers a variety of news, politics, military and outdoor topics. In RR’s first documentary, Guns Up Texas, Abby Casey and Jeff Winkler take a 3,000-mile road trip through the Lone Star State “to talk with gun-lovers and gun-haters alike.”
In Part 1, “Black Power and the White-Gloved” Winkler spends time with the Huey P. Newton Gun Club during an armed rally in South Dallas while Casey visits the Frisco Gun Club, the suburban “Guntry Club” and participates in their “Tactical Tuesday.”
In Part 2, “Campus Carry” Winkler attends the dildo-filled #CocksNotGlocks protest on the UT campus in Austin during the first day of fall classes while Casey visits the past with a survivor of the infamous 1966 Tower Shooting, where civilians with deer rifles helped pin the shooter down.
Part 3, “Hip-Hop and Guns” sees Winkler hits the backyard range with a liberal healthcare worker in rural Marfa and walks the streets of Houston with an urban gun owner who has a very decent gun collection in his condo closet (even his grandmother is strapped).
The finale, Part 4, “The Family that Shoots Together” is our favorite and has Winkler learning the art of hand-crafted guns in Fort Worth from a 74-year-old part-time gunsmith while Casey wanders West Texas with a farming family for whom guns are a part of everyday life.
All videos are below and are a great way to spend your lunch break. Overall they are pretty even though be warned, there are a few wince-worthy moments where, for instance, semi-auto firearms in Texas are described as “assault weapons” and guns are shot without eyepro, but hey, nothing is perfect.
Also, the same 1-minute intro is repeated in each video, so don’t get confused, and the CocksNotGlocks episode may be NSFW if your work frowns on images of big plastic phallus.
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