The conservative movement was engineered in its current state to meet the needs of western resource owners, who wanted to maximize their return on resource extraction and socially conservative folks who were hesitant about the scope of social change.

That, and the excesses of the environmental movement created this weird environment we have today. The gun culture people I grew up with were deeply concerned about waterfowl and loss of wildlife habitat, as they felt a duty to be stewards to it. Now, that’s devolved into this sort of gun porn.