Dichotomy: Seeing and Hearing
Portraits and interviews by Jeremy Scott Wangler

We must challenge ourselves to look and listen. Social issues like gun control divide us here in the United States. Every mass shooting or every proposed gun-control law reignites the issue.

For "Dichotomy," I am photographing and interviewing people with differing opinions, ideas and solutions about issues in society that often divide us. I introduce the series with my first set of subjects as they discuss gun ownership in the United States.

As I photographed and interviewed both subjects in my series, they made me think and question my own positions. Both of them made me think, "You know what? They're right and the other one is wrong." Both of them made me think, "This person isn't really making sense."

​Most importantly, both of them made me think.

Quentin “Que” Martin
Gun store manager
Gun rights advocate
Topeka, Kansas

"I don't know about you, but the most valuable thing that I own is my life. So, I think I'm going to do everything I can to protect it.”

Read about Quentin Martin

Que (pronounced like the letter Q) Martin was born and raised in Topeka in a gun-owning household. His father has always been an avid gun owner for the primary purpose of self-defense. Que’s uncles and cousins gave him an appreciation for hunting. “I got my first gun at the age of 10,” Que said. It was a Daisy BB gun. He got got his first firearm - a shutgun - when he was 12. “I got that through Sears Roebuck catalog. It was sent directly to my house. That was back in the days when there was no background checks.” Guns were just a normal part of life for Que, his family and friends. “Friends would go hunting before school and then go straight to school. And that's when you'd have your shotguns, riffles hanging in the truck and sitting in the school parking lot.”

Que graduated from Highland Park High School in Topeka in 1984 and then went to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University before serving in the Navy. Later in his life, he returned to Topeka and worked in corrections before becoming manager of a gun store in Topeka. He open carries a pistol at his side and is a strong defender of everyone’s right to do so. “You are your first line of defense to protect yourself as well as those around you. I don't know about you, but the most valuable thing that I own is my life. So, I think I'm going to do everything I can to protect it.” With grown children of his own, he’s passed those same values onto them. 

Que believes there are far more incidences of armed citizens stopping crime and saving lives than are reported by the media. He believes the media and politicians instead sensationalize gun violence and spread fear. Like most polarizing issues, there are data and anecdotes to back up both sides.

“Gun control laws are all about making somebody feel better,” he said. “They're not about stopping crime. They're not about ending violent crime. It's about making people feel better so they'll keep voting for the same fools that they keep putting into office.”

Linda Featherston
Kansas State representative
Gun law advocate
Overland Park, Kansas

"I could no longer sit by and watch another classroom of first-graders be led out of their school with their eyes covered to protect them from the horrors of another mass school shooting."

Read about Linda Featherston

Linda Featherston was born in Topeka, Kansas, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kansas State University. She has spent her entire career as a piano teacher giving private lessons. Now a resident of Overland Park, Kansas, a wife and a mother of two grown children, she observed the Sandy Hook school shooting and felt she had to do more to find ways to protect students and minimize gun violence. She became a vocal advocate for what she calls common sense or smart gun laws. She joined Moms Demand Action and became active with Be Smart, the organization’s gun safety program.

“I have no problem with anybody owning a gun,” she said. “As long as you are safely doing that. That is your constitutional right.” Linda admits she has never fired a gun before but thinks going to a gun range or shooting skeet could be enjoyable.

Driven by issues aside from gun violence , Linda ran for her district’s seat in the Kansas House of the Representatives and won it in 2020 and 2022. Since then, a series of incidents have made her more vocal in the legislature about gun laws. Three people she knew were involved in firearm-related situations - a piano student’s grade school went into code red, a family member died by suicide from a gun and another family member sheltered for her life while present when a gunman killed four individuals at an Oklahoma medical center. “It's stunning how that really gives you that moment of, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so close (to me).’” As a legislator, she hears additional stories from her constituents.
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As a member of the minority party in the Kansas legislature, Linda knows most of the bills and amendments she puts forward concerning gun control won’t have a chance of passing. But she says data and her own conversations with constituents leave her optimistic that Kansans share her “desires for more common sense gun laws.” She hopes her colleagues will listen.

View the Series:
​As you view these portraits and read these words,
​​I hope you truly look and listen. Most of all, I hope you think.