Conservative country singer Parker McCollum has come out as a gun rights activist amid heated discussion on gun control legislation.
During an interview with the NRA earlier this year, McCollum expressed his opinions on gun rights and freedom.
“Tell us about your first hunting experience. How old were you and who was it with?” Host Lisa Supernaugh asked.
“My first-ever hunting experience was bird hunting with my dad. I don’t even remember how old I was. I think I had to be eight. We went bird hunting and I got to shoot my little single-shot .410, which was pretty cool,” McCollum responded.
Supernaugh then followed up on the country star’s answer, asking: “When you go hunting, do you go out with your band? Other artists? Or is there someone else that is your hunting buddy?”
“ I hunt with my cousins a lot. Hunt with my dad a lot. My dad is probably by biggest hunting buddy. Hunter Redman, one of my best friends. Koe Wetzel, one of my best friends. Jake Murphy, one of my best friends. Hunt with them all the time. I feel like we all kind of have that same passion for it,” McCollum responded.
Elsewhere in the interview, McCollum shared his favorite firearm with Supernaugh, which apparently is the “lever-action .30-30.”
“My favorite firearm is my lever-action .30-30. My grandad had one his entire life and the one I bought is my favorite gun I’ve ever had,” he said.
Discussions on gun control legislation were reignited following a string of mass shootings last week. After the Colorado Springs massacre in November, President Joe Biden said that “America has been torn apart by gun violence.”
“We must address the public health epidemic of gun violence in all of its forms. Earlier this year, I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly three decades, in addition to taking other historic actions. But we must do more. We need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America’s streets,” Biden said.
Biden later reiterated his support for stricter gun laws while speaking to reporters last Thanksgiving, saying: “The idea [that] we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick. It’s just sick. It has no, no socially redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.”
