Author Larry Correia sat down with Mark Smith for the conversation below about the state of the gun rights fight, and it’s one of the more encouraging discussions I’ve heard in a while. The interview is theirs; the notes and opinions here are mine. I’m Lance Rankin, owner of Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas, and I’ve watched this fight from behind an FFL counter for years.
The case for optimism
Correia’s core point is that gun owners are winning, and the long view proves it. Thirty years ago, during the Clinton assault weapons ban era, only a handful of states had shall-issue concealed carry and exactly one had constitutional carry. Today half the states have constitutional carry, Texas among them, and after the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision every state has to issue carry permits on objective standards. Add over 400 million privately owned firearms and a recent run of court victories bigger than anything in the previous fifteen years, and the trend line is hard to argue with. I see the same thing at street level: the people buying their first gun in my shop look like everybody, because they are everybody.
Why culture matters more than politics
The part of the interview worth chewing on is the culture argument. Correia leans on Andrew Breitbart’s old line that politics is downstream from culture. If movies, novels, and media only ever portray gun owners as villains or rubes, no amount of litigation will hold the line forever. His answer is for creators to make good, entertaining work where guns and gun owners are simply normal, and to entertain first rather than preach. He’s practiced what he preaches; his novels are technically accurate about firearms and found a huge audience that felt ignored by mainstream entertainment.
He also draws a historical parallel I hadn’t considered: the backlash after Brown v. Board of Education, when segregationists fought the ruling for years before losing for good. The wave of defiant state laws we’ve seen since Bruen looks a lot like that pattern, and if he’s right, the pushback is a sign the other side knows it’s losing.
His reading list
For folks on the fence, or trying to persuade someone who is, Correia recommends Massad Ayoob’s Deadly Force, Kathy Jackson’s The Cornered Cat for women considering concealed carry, and John Lott’s More Guns, Less Crime for the data-minded. His own In Defense of the Second Amendment is a readable, conversational take. I’d second the Ayoob recommendation in particular; every armed citizen should understand the legal side of self-defense before they need to.
The Rust tragedy and safety
The conversation also touches on the Alec Baldwin shooting on the set of Rust. Set protocols were reportedly violated, and Correia’s observation is that ingrained safety habits, the kind experienced gun owners carry everywhere, are exactly what was missing. Whatever the courts decided about blame, the lesson for the rest of us is old and permanent: the four rules apply to everyone, every time, no exceptions. A young woman died because they weren’t followed.
Where I land
Correia’s optimism is earned, but it isn’t a reason to coast. Court wins came from decades of funded litigation, and culture shifts because millions of ordinary owners are good ambassadors: taking new shooters to the range, storing guns responsibly, and being the calm, competent face of gun ownership their neighbors meet. If you’re one of those new owners, start with my best first gun in Texas guide or come by the shop, and if you’re carrying, know the law in my Texas constitutional carry write-up. The culture war is won one range trip at a time.
Lance Rankin is the owner and Chief Gunsmith of Western Sport, a family-run Type 07 FFL and Class 3/SOT dealer in Roanoke, Texas, serving shooters since 2007. Born and raised in Texas with over 50 years of experience handling firearms, Lance purchased Western Sport in 2017 and turned his lifelong passion into his profession. He specializes in AR-15 and AR-10 platform rifles, manufactures Western Sport’s own AR-15 line under the Rankin Industries brand, and runs the shop’s in-house Cerakote coating operation. When he’s not behind the counter or the workbench, you’ll find him on his ranch deep into the night, hunting coyotes with an AR-15 and thermal optics. Lance holds an MBA and personally shoots and tests the products Western Sport sells.
