On the same afternoon tens of thousands of teens took to the streets to protest gun violence, 16-year-old Livie Lamy was walking across a snow-covered field toward a bullet-riddled target at the Marlborough Fish and Game Association.
“You didn’t miss any at all, did you?” asked her father, Kevin Lamy.
“I hit the ground once,” said Livie Lamy.
She’s grown up around guns. Her dad doesn’t hunt, but he does enjoy target practice. A few years ago, she convinced him to let her start coming along to the range.
“It’s really fun for us to go shooting together,” said Livie Lamy. “It’s nice to hang out with him and everything.”
And, she says, it’s a rush to fire a gun. Her dad likes to test his accuracy with different models. On this day, Livie Lamy pulls the trigger of an AR-15.
It’s the same type of gun used to kill 17 students at Parkland High School in Florida, a shooting that prompted Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods to stop selling assault-style rifles. Lamy says guns aren’t the problem.
“If people notice that you have something and need mental help, they should say something,” she said, “but banning all guns, I don’t think that’s the answer, because a bad guy will always get a gun.”
That’s where she sees this debate going, restricting access not just to some, but all guns. At Algonquin High in Northborough, where she’s a sophomore, Lamy says in the aftermath of the Parkland shootings some kids see no reason for guns.
“When they hear I like guns they automatically think that, like, I’m almost a killer,” she said.
Lamy comes from a family that isn’t exactly shy about their politics. The back of her dad’s car is covered in bumper stickers mocking liberals. When kids at her school joined others across the country in a walkout to honor the victims of the Parkland shootings, Lamy viewed it as a school-sanctioned political protest. So, she brought her own signs.
“There was one that said all different caliber numbers and its said, ‘all faster than dialing 911’,” said Lamy.
What she sees as an attempt to defend the second amendment has provoked other kids to call her names. But she also says she has friends of all political stripes. And some of the things the young activists want, like stricter background checks, make sense to her Dad.
“If I buy a gun, I usually have to wait quite a while before they check my background. I have no problem with that,” said Kevin Lamy. “There are some states, from what you see on the news, where it’s very easy to buy a firearm. I think it’s too easy in some states.”
He’s proud of his daughter for taking a stand against the prevailing political winds — and for becoming a pretty good shot.
Guns, he points out, are everywhere. He thinks, knowing how to use them could help her save her own life or someone else’s.
