I moved from Paris to Houston in 1991 and remained based out of Texas for about four years before I settled in New York City. Being French, I had no previous experience with firearms, which is common in my country unless you come from a family of hunters. There, if no one in your family has a profession requiring firearms, people do not usually possess them. My only recollection of interacting with any kind of firearm as a child was at a fair in my hometown. I was about eight years old with enough guts to convince my father to let me try a game requiring me to shoot a BB gun at a pipe spinning on a wheel. The prize was very appealing to me, and much to my delight, my successful shot made me the proud owner of the treasured trophy: a real live duck that became a friend in the coming years.

In 1991, in Texas, it surprised me to see how common it was for very young kids to go with their parents to the shooting range or out to hunt. Both parents and their children have told me that these activities provide ways to strengthen family bonds and for some, are also a means to feed their family. While getting to know gun-owning families during the making of this project, I realized how important hunting is for many people, especially in rural communities.

Throughout the following years, while working and traveling extensively across the country, I realized that guns were popular all over the United States. I also noted that they had purposes beyond hunting and target practice, like protection or collecting. Surprisingly to me, people felt free to talk openly about their guns in everyday conversation. For them, apart from providing confidence and fun, guns conveyed discipline and respect. They did not signify danger, but rather represented safety.

To better grasp why there are so many guns and gun-enthusiasts in America, it was important for me to understand the historical relationship between people and guns in this country. In the early days, firearms were necessary, a commodity object in most homes. By the middle of the nineteenth century, thanks to the Industrial Revolution and thanks to two visionary American entrepreneurs named Oliver Winchester and Samuel Colt, guns were slowly transformed into objects of desire. A popular saying from that time was, “God created men, and Sam Colt made them equal!” The gun industry and the culture that surrounded it grew alongside the growth of the American economy and became subsequently intertwined in its history and traditions.

Guns exist all over the world. However, the number of firearms per capita varies extensively between countries. This is a controversial subject in the United States, as that number to date is believed to be the highest in the world, at over three hundred million. Many people also fear that mass shootings have become more frequent because of the easy access to guns.

Firearms are objects of desire for some and an object of hate for others—a polarizing passion point in American society. We, likely feel divided on the subject of guns because of the way they are presented to us. When we watch the news, guns are villainized via contexts like wars, homicides, robberies, and terrorist attacks, yet they are so frequently glamorized in movies. Children around the world have played with toy guns for generations, and today many of them also enjoy playing video games that mimic using firearms. Without doubt, guns are part of our daily life no matter if we like them or not!

The driving purpose of this work has been to understand why guns are alluring to so many Americans. My objective has been to stay as neutral as possible, exploring this very important aspect of American society with a focus on documenting the current relationship between children and teenagers towards guns. Throughout the project, I spent a great deal of time with people whose lives heavily involved guns by way of trade or recreational use. Not knowing much myself, I learned more about firearms than I ever thought I would in my lifetime.

During the three years I spent taking the portraits in this series, safety was always the main topic of conversation during the photo sessions, especially with gun-owning families. They insisted on safety rules and stressed the importance on locking firearms up when you have children in your household. This seems to be common sense, but unfortunately, it isn’t to everyone. In fact, the manager of one of the most prominent shooting ranges in the country, where I set up my temporary photo studio, told me that, “A lot of people buy expensive guns but don’t spend any money on taking shooting lessons. It doesn’t make sense, especially when you know the same people will spend the same amount of money on golf equipment and also on taking golf lessons. Not only should you know how to use your firearms and how to act in case of self-defense, but learning how to keep them in a safe place at home is definitely a must.”

While preparing this project, I was surprised to learn that in the United States alone seven to eight children or teenagers are unintentionally injured or killed by firearms every day. These terrifying numbers have recently awakened some parents to action, especially those who have lost a child in gun-related circumstances. They have initiated campaigns promoting gun safety such as the ASK campaign (Asking Saves Kids), which urges all parents to inquire about unlocked guns in the homes where their children go to play—a straight forward initiative that will save lives.

The children and teenagers that I photographed with real firearms in this project were familiar with guns. All of them, even the very young, knew how to handle them correctly thanks to parental instructions including fundamental safety rules. Most of the families brought their own guns, others preferred to rent them from the gun range, some simply borrowed them from the gun expert who was hired to ensure safety during the photo sessions.

I let all the children express themselves in front of my camera, and also gave them the opportunity to do the same in writing by presenting them with this simple question: What do you like about guns?

In these photographs, the children and teenagers are handling both real and toy guns, which highlights the blurry lines between what is real and what is make-believe. It was specifically interesting to see how children with real guns acted differently in front of my camera compared to those with imitations. For example, children with toy guns, without experience with real firearms, almost always held the gun with the finger on the trigger, while those with real or BB guns never did. Apart from behavior, I was curious to discover how children from gun-enthusiast families and those from families against guns would answer my question: What do you like about guns? No matter their age or gender, each child had a clear opinion.

I believe that everyone agrees that real guns aren’t toys, but in this series of photographs we can see great similarities between real firearms and gun imitations. In my opinion, that fact alone should be a reason enough to never let children handle real firearms without adult supervision, even if they have been trained.

We must remember that the majority of deaths and injuries among children by firearms occur when they find an unsecured gun while playing or decide to show one off to their peers. One opinion that is not up for debate in this book: gun safety is a must. For me, this project has been an enriching journey. I have met wonderful people with different values and have learned more about American culture through this lens. My intention for this project was never to convince people to become anti-gun, nor was it to attract people to become gun enthusiasts. I simply wanted to document gun culture in the country where I have been living for most parts of my life, and to give children an opportunity to talk about how they felt.

As adults, or parents, or members of society, we all have a responsibility to protect children. They are the greatest resources for the future. Engaging in traditions and passing on history gives them an important reference to where they come from. The innocence of youth may include or exclude guns. For some, protection means life with guns, while for others, protection means life without guns. Who is to decide?