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Happy New Year!

12/31/2013

2013 was quite the fun year, where my travels took me coast to coast and lots of places in between. I met a lot of great people and made many new friends. Gun people are some of the best people out there.

In the weeks since my coming out, I've received a tremendous amount of support from the gun community. It's an exciting opportunity to break stereotypes while promoting the Second Amendment, as well as gay rights. The overwhelming support has been positive and neutral, the latter of which I'm actually most excited about. Many gun owners replied with "so what, who cares?" This to me is an indication that being gay is becoming less and less of a controversial thing, which is great in many ways.

When I think of what "winning" looks like for both the gay and gun communities, it's when people meet a gun owner or a gay person and it's just accepted as normal. This doesn't mean that people will agree with gun owners and gay people, but we will reach a place where we can peacefully co-exist.

I'm not a big New Year's resolution kind of guy, but in 2014 I want to continue having a lot of fun talking with everyone about gun rights, gay rights, and other interesting topics. I know I still have a lot to learn in this big world of ours, and I look forward to learning and experiencing new things.

With a new Bass Pro Shops opening up in San Jose, California in late 2014, I'm excited to have a new home store. I hope to get out on a few hunts to help populate the store with local wildlife, and help conservation efforts so that we maintain a vibrant wildlife population here in California.

With a TV show in the works and my book coming out in July 2014, there will be no shortage of fun things going on.

Thank you for your continued support, and Happy New Year!!

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I'm Gay for Guns

12/17/2013

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Hi Friends,

I publicly disclosed this morning on RecoilWeb.com that I’m gay. While it’s something my friends and family have known for years, I believe now that I have become a television personality and public figure, it is important to be honest and upfront about who Chris Cheng is.

Thankfully, tolerance and acceptance are contagious. Being gay is no longer something to hide. NBA star Jason Collins and British Olympian Tom Daley received overwhelming public support when they went public with their sexuality. We have outspoken straight allies from NFL football players such as Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo who have positively impacted public opinion. Celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris and Ellen DeGeneres are role models who have shown you can be happy, successful and openly gay, defined by your talents. Likewise, I will be defined by my skills and accomplishments, not my sexuality.

That said, I realize my situation is different. One reason why I chose to come out publicly is that I’m a gay guy in a gun world. Hunters, sport shooting enthusiasts, and collectors are too often stereotyped as part of efforts to politicize guns as we witnessed last week on the anniversary of the horrific Newtown tragedy. Take it from someone who in a single package is not only gay, but Chinese, Japanese, California-born, a college graduate, a tech geek who worked on cool Google projects, a gun enthusiast and a passionate 2nd Amendment advocate. Our community is as diverse as anyone’s.

A special thanks to the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, who are supportive of my decision as they recognize the diverse perspective I bring to the conversation about the safe and responsible use of firearms. And a big shout out to my fellow “Top Shot” Champions Iain Harrison and Dustin Ellermann, who have been great friends throughout this journey. Finally, I can’t thank enough my loving family, friends, and Nate, my boyfriend of four and a half years, for making this decision a no-brainer.

Entering this new chapter of my life, I am currently working with a producer developing a cool new idea for a unique reality TV program featuring the diversity of the gun community. Come July, my book “Shoot to Win,” on leadership and marksmanship will be published. And who knows what other fun things are on the horizon.

Thanks to all for your support and kind words. See you at the range!

Chris Cheng

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Reflections on Newtown

12/14/2013

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As we reflect on the first anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, we should first and foremost remember and honor the lives of the twenty innocent children and six innocent adults who were lost. With the holidays in full swing, many families will re-experience pieces of the grief where a loved one won’t be present. America should grieve with the victims’ families, and remember that this is a collective problem for our society to solve.

Today is a special day for me, as it is my birthday. However, it is also the Sandy Hook anniversary. On a day that should be celebratory, it is but one of reflection where my thoughts oscillate between intellectual and pragmatic. What have I learned over the past year, and what can I do to positively impact our world?

I think about my five year career at Google in technical support, and my current career as a professional marksman for Bass Pro Shops. I used to help fix Gmail, but now I travel the country competing in shooting competitions, attending conventions and trade shows, and speaking about our Second Amendment rights. Simply put, they are worlds apart, but in both jobs I have always kept a “people first” mentality and focus.

After the Aurora and Newtown shootings, I took notice of the deep, visceral nature of our national gun debate. For many Americans, guns are a key part of their core identity, as much as one’s job, title, nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion is to others. Guns represent strength, security, and safety, so imagine what happens to the gun owner’s psyche when talk of gun control ramps up.

To elucidate, many law abiding gun owners feel unjustly singled out, and threatened by gun control legislation. “Why should I be punished for something a crazy person did?” is a common thought that runs through the gun owner’s mind, as well as “my locked-up guns aren’t a danger to the general public.” The problem with gun control legislation is that like a fishing drag net, it often co-mingles the good and the bad. For every bad person impacted by gun control, there is a disproportionate number of law abiding citizens who are negatively affected. This disproportionality is a core problem that is often reflected in gun control proposals.

Many gun owners fear that a key part of their identity, and their natural born rights, are being infringed by the government, and their detractors fear that unless we restrict the Second Amendment, we are doomed to see another mass shooting.

To address a question that is often asked in this debate: Why would anyone need an AR-15 or 30-round magazines? There are many valid and legal reasons, one of which is self-defense. My introduction to the self-defense argument goes back to 1992, where images of Korean storekeepers protecting lives and livelihoods with AR-15s are seared into memory. Buildings were burning, looting was rampant, and local police were unable to handle the mayhem and chaos that erupted for three days. However, this did not take place in Seoul, but rather in Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots.

In the gun documentary Assaulted: Civil Rights Under Fire, Korean American attorney David Kim recalls that “civilization as we knew it broke down pretty quickly.” Distraught Korean Americans called upon the L.A.P.D. to protect their stores and homes from the approaching rioters and gangs. However, the police were woefully unprepared and overwhelmed, and so the L.A.P.D. essentially told the Korean Americans that they were on their own. When the police tell you that they cannot protect you and your loved ones during a major riot, that’s a pretty good reason to have AR-15s and 30-round magazines.

While civilization breaking down is rare, it does happen. And if history is any indication, it will happen again.

So how do we balance the fact that guns are used to both protect and take lives, both guilty and innocent?

That is the challenge our country faces, and it is my hope that we reach an understanding that there are two sides of the coin. I believe a stronger focus on mental health is essential to solving this problem. Behind each crime is a person making a decision to use a firearm for evil, and the causes of this decision-making process must be addressed if we want to address the root of the problem.

Guns have a prominent, and permanent place in American culture, and are a contrast of freedom and oppression, life and death, security and mayhem. It is up to us to figure out how to preserve our firearm freedoms, while preventing madmen from doing harm.

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Chris Cheng interview: "Black Man with a Gun" Podcast

12/12/2013

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I had a really great interview with Kenn Blanchard who hosts the "Black Man with a Gun" podcast out of Maryland. Kenn has been promoting our Second Amendment rights since 1991, and we chatted about so many interesting topics today that I'm confident there is something for everyone.

Some of the topics we covered:

Diversity in the gun community. How do we promote more diversity and highlight minority success stories?
Koreatown, the LA Riots, and AR-15s
A 28th Amendment to update the 2nd Amendment?
Why the FN Five-Seven pistol is my current favorite gun
Challenges we face in the gun community
How gun people, are GREAT people!
Shooting is a stronger family tradition amongst white families, but not so much amongst Black, Hispanic, and Asian communities. Why is this the case?
Gun ownership is oftentimes a core part of who someone is, and how they self-identify. Similar to gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, job title, etc.

My portion starts up around the 17:35 minute mark. The podcast is at the bottom of http://blackmanwithagun.com/352-tis-season-top-shots-chris-cheng.

Enjoy!

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The holidays are in full swing

12/4/2013

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November was a busy month for me, where I was a celebrity guest at the two new Bass Pro Shops stores in Little Rock, Arkansas and Colorado Springs, Colorado. Both stores are really amazing and if you are in the area you gotta go check them out.

I signed autographs and took pictures with fans for two hours at each location, and it was fun to be surrounded by other celebrities in the industry.

Bass Pro Shops Founder Johnny Morris (middle), with Chris and Rob Keck, Director of Conservation for Bass Pro Shops. Photo taken at Bass Pro Shops in Little Rock, Arkansas by Richard Gibson.

At the Colorado Springs location, Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson and his wife Korie were in attendance and I chatted with them about their new wine label coming out, life in the spotlight, and golf. It was great meeting them both, and they are really good people that are as nice as they are on TV. From what I've heard, sometimes people are nice on TV but then turn out to be real jerks in person. I'm glad that's not the case with the Duck Commander!

I spent a week and a half at my parents' place in Southern California for Thanksgiving where I ate a lot of good food, and logged a lot of hours on the couch watching a lot of TV. Modern Family reruns, Inglourious Basterds, and JackAss 3D were some of the many things I watched.

I broke my finger and so had a splint on for all of November. I blogged about my experience at The Firearm Blog in case you want to see pictures and video. The pins are coming out tomorrow and I'm mostly glad that I will be able to exercise again soon.

December is going to be a fairly mellow month where I've only got an interview or two, and I'm talking about guns to a prominent Silicon Valley tech crowd who are working on technological solutions to gun violence.

My family is coming to San Francisco as we do for every Christmas and so I'll have some more quality family time here in about two weeks.

I'm also starting to plan for 2014 and I'm thinking of competing less, and going hunting more and taking more self-defense courses. I'll share my plans as soon as I make them.

I hope everyone is ready for the holidays!

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Happy New Year!

I'm Gay for Guns

Reflections on Newtown

Chris Cheng interview: "Black Man with a Gun" Podcast

The holidays are in full swing

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