Ashley Hlebinsky Fills in For Isaac

🎙️ Show Notes

Ashley Hlebinsky on Firearms History, Culture, and the Realities of the “Gun Community”

👥 Hosts:

Edgar Antillon
Guest: Ashley Hlebinsky – firearms historian, consultant, museum curator, researcher, and media contributor.

🧾 Episode Overview

In this episode, Edgar sits down with Ashley Hlebinsky, one of the most well-known firearms historians working today. Ashley discusses her work with museums, academia, and TV, and how her expertise intersects with current gun debates, law, and culture.

This conversation gets real about the gun industry, online discourse, and the complex relationship people have with firearms. Ashley and Edgar challenge conventional narratives, explore historical context, and talk about the uncomfortable truths most people avoid.

🏛️ Who is Ashley?

Ashley is a firearms historian and consultant with a long and impressive resume:

Former curator of the Cody Firearms Museum in Wyoming, where she led a major rebuild and modernization.
Founder/director of a research center at the University of Wyoming, and another in the UK.
Works with multiple institutions, including the LA Police Museum and the Mob Museum.
Building museums for major firearms companies and a machine gun museum in Canada.
Regular contributor to Discovery Channel, Nat Geo, and other networks.

Despite the résumé, she jokes that most people don’t know who she is because “nobody watches TV anymore.”

📜 Firearms History vs. Popular Narratives

Ashley explores how history is often misunderstood—and how it does not align with the romanticized version of America as an unregulated Wild West.

Some takeaways:

Concealed carry was often illegal in the 19th century because it was seen as suspicious.
Open carry was generally legal, but many towns required guns to be checked in.
Early gun laws often had racial motivations, especially in the antebellum South.
The idea that America has always been “pro-gun freedom” is historically inaccurate.

⚖️ Law, Bruen, and Historical Analogues

Ashley dives deep into the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision (2022) and its consequences:

Courts now look to history to evaluate firearm regulations.
The most important eras:
- Founding era
- Reconstruction / 14th Amendment
- Pre-/post-enactment
20th century laws (mag bans, assault weapon bans, etc.) are least influential historically.
Courts seek “historical analogues”—but often misuse history due to lack of firearms literacy in academia.

🌐 Internet Culture & Toxicity

Ashley and Edgar get real about online behavior in the gun world:

The gun community eats its own, often more viciously than its political opponents.
People online reject nuance, preferring outrage and purity tests.

Published on 2 weeks, 1 day ago

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