My relationship with guns is complicated. As the son of a police officer, I grew up around firearms, but never owned one myself. Guns embody a paradox-comfort for some, fear for others-much like belief systems and civic structures, such as law and religion. Built to uphold order, these systems can both uplift and oppress, especially when their words are stripped from context. In this work, I explore these tensions through disassembly. Deconstructed, a gun can lose its power, yet in an armorer's hands like my dad's, disassembly is an act of care. The two halves of the work juxtapose a disassembled firearm with a Bible and U.S. Constitution-jarring objects, but central to my history and the American story. This painting is my attempt to reconcile these dualities-to sit with contradiction and find meaning within it. In bringing these elements together, I seek not to resolve the tension, but to acknowledge it, making space for a more nuanced understanding of the forces that shape our lives.