Flatiron Sights Shooting Club's members don't exactly fit the clichéd image of the conservative gun enthusiast that might pop into the mind of many liberals.
No, the Flatiron Sights members are liberal-minded Front Range residents who find joy in a hobby usually associated with people of a more conservative persuasion. Among their ranks are a medical field employee and engineer and a GIS technician.
"No one is really going, 'So, what's your position on abortion?'" group founder Fernando Rebora said during an interview on Super Bowl Sunday at the Shoot Indoors firing range in Broomfield.
"It's just that we tend to side more liberal," he said. "We would be more likely to support a Democratic candidate for office rather than a conservative. It's however a person defines themselves. I'm more conservative on guns."
Rebora said that the group believes to some extent that focusing on the party affiliation is less important than examining each issue on its own merits, which explains why liberals who enjoy guns are a real thing.
"Thinking a political party has dominion over an issue is a trap that can allow people to not examine an issue in a way that is objective and fair," he said.
Flatirons Sights
According to the Pew Research Center, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are twice as likely to say they own a gun when compared to Democrats and those who lean Democratic.
Flatiron Sights has existed for only a few months and the club has about 10 core members. Rebora calls it a group in "the loosest sense," but members see it as a way to make the world of hobby shooting open and welcoming.
Rebora and Boulder resident Nico Dattels both say they own AR-15-style rifles. Westminster resident Evan Gutzait does not but said he has shot one and it was fun. All three own more than one gun and liken it to a golfer having a set of clubs.
None belong to the NRA — an organization not exactly known for its liberal inclinations.
Gutzait said on Feb. 4 that the club is a way to depoliticize the issue, and an opportunity for liberals to shoot their guns and not have to deal with ribbing from the more conservative folks that dominate the gun world.
"In more traditional gun clubs and shooting clubs, the general population tends to be more conservative," he said. "As soon as you come out as liberal, they are making jokes — you know, 'snowflake.' The goal here is to make friends and not get into politics."
Before and after Florida shooting
Three members of the club spoke with the Camera and Times-Call before and after the massacre at a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14.
The shooting left 17 students and faculty members dead and sparked a renewed call to ban certain types of firearms — AR-15-style weapons specifically. It
