Kamala Harris has been trying to appear less like a gun-grabber in her quest to become president. The media has aided her as best it can, though Harris’s general refusal to really discuss the issue in detail has likely made their job easier.

However, one question I have pondered is whether it’s working.

We’ve had a full-court press by the media to push the idea that Donald Trump is a horror only a slight step down from Satan, Cthulu, and Mariah Carey singing “All I Want for Christmas is You,” but not much has actually been directed toward the gun crowd.

Is it working?

Well, this report from a gun show in Pennsylvania might give us some clues as to the answer to that question.

Deep in rural Pennsylvania, the Solanco Fairgrounds that host the fair, are reachable via the PA272 from Lancaster, a road often blocked by the horse carts of local Amish, a strictly religious local group that rejects most forms of modernisation, causing traffic jams.

On the parking lot, large pick-ups stand in a row, and fair-goers flock through the narrow doorway that gives access to the venue.

The Quarryville gun show is organised by Eagle Shows, which is responsible for over fifty fairs yearly in some sixteen cities in Pennsylvania alone. 

…

Old Don sells old hunting rifles. He frequents the gun shows. He also sells scopes, small hunting knives and an old manual for Remington rifles.

“I was in a US army base in West Germany in 1984 – best time in my life,” he says.

But he’s sceptical about the future of America, he says. He doesn’t want to say which candidate in the US presidential election – Kamala Harris or Donald Trump – he favours. But he is clearly critical about Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“We are a country of immigrants. Why stop the immigrants? If you ask any of the people here to go back to their roots, they’ll discover they come from somewhere else. Except for the native Americans. They are the real Americans. We should give the land back to them.” 

But his remarks strike a dissonant in the staunchly pro-Trump atmosphere that is prevalent at the weapon fair. The walls brand “Trump-Vance 2024” posters, referring to Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, and his running mate “JD” Vance.

There’s not a single mention of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris or her running mate Tim Walz to be found at the Quarryville gun fair.

So you’ve got one guy who might be backing Kamala, but won’t admit it, but literally everyone else there seems to be backing Trump.

Interesting.

It’s not surprising, mind you, but interesting.

See, while Harris has been trying to present herself as a moderate on gun issues, it was just the last presidential election cycle that she was calling for mandatory buybacks of all so-called assault weapons.

These are also people who understand that the GOSAFER Act, which is being pushed as just an assault weapon ban, will likely have ramifications on their hunting rifles, defensive rifles, handguns, shotguns, and pretty much any semi-automatic firearm. They don’t want that happening, so why would they vote for Kamala Harris?

Yeah, she’s done the whole, “But I’m a gun owner” schtick, but that’s not enough to eliminate her entire history of supporting gun control.

And keep in mind that this is in Pennsylvania, which is a key battleground state. Harris decided not to pick that state’s governor as her running mate despite the potential advantages it might have given her there. Instead, she picked Tim Walz, who won’t be able to deliver Minnesota, but only because there wasn’t a shot in hell of it not going for Harris.

I’m not sure Josh Shapiro would have changed things for these folks, though.

The truth is that her efforts at reaching out to gun owners have been laughable at best, and that would be true even if folks were inclined to actually believe her.

They’re not, which makes it even worse.